The Second Barbary War (1815) or the U.S.–Algerian War was fought between the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

and the North African Barbary Coast states of

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece *Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in t ...

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

, and Algiers. The war ended when the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and ...

ratified Commodore

Stephen Decatur Stephen Decatur Jr. (; January 5, 1779 – March 22, 1820) was an American naval officer and commodore. He was born on the eastern shore of Maryland in Worcester County. His father, Stephen Decatur Sr., was a commodore in the Unit ...

’s Algerian treaty on 5 December 1815. However, Dey Omar Agha of Algeria repudiated the US treaty, refused to accept the terms of peace that had been ratified by the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...

, and threatened the lives of all Christian inhabitants of Algiers. William Shaler was the US commissioner in Algiers who had negotiated alongside Decatur, but he fled aboard British vessels during the

Bombardment of Algiers (1816) The Bombardment of Algiers was an attempt on 27 August 1816 by Britain and the Netherlands to end the slavery practices of Omar Agha, the Dey of Algiers. An Anglo- Dutch fleet under the command of Admiral Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth ...

. He negotiated a new treaty in 1816 which was not ratified by the Senate until 11 February 1822, because of an oversight. After the end of the war, the United States and European nations stopped paying tribute to the pirate states; this marked the beginning of the end of piracy in that region, which had been rampant in the days of Ottoman domination during the 16th–18th centuries. The western nations built ever more sophisticated and expensive ships which the Barbary pirates could not match in numbers or technology.

Background

The First Barbary War (1801–05) had led to an uneasy truce between the US and the Barbary states, but American attention turned to Britain and the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It ...

. The Barbary pirates returned to their practice of attacking American merchant vessels in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

and ransoming their crews to the United States government. At the same time, the major European powers were still involved in the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, which did not fully end until 1815. At the conclusion of the War of 1812, however, the United States returned to the problem of Barbary piracy. On 3 March 1815, Congress authorized deployment of naval power against Algiers, and the squadron under the command of Commodore

set sail on 20 May. It consisted of (flagship), , ''Macedonia'', , , , , ''Flambeau'', , and .

War

Following the War of 1812, Algiers sided with the British (although the British Atlantic blockade had limited US trade in the Mediterranean region). President Madison requested Congress declare war on Algiers, which was declared on 23 February 1815. On 20 May 1815, a 10-ship squadron left New York (to be followed by a larger fleet under command of

William Bainbridge William Bainbridge (May 7, 1774July 27, 1833) was a Commodore in the United States Navy. During his long career in the young American Navy he served under six presidents beginning with John Adams and is notable for his many victories at sea. He ...

). Shortly after departing Gibraltar en route to Algiers, Decatur's squadron encountered the Algerian flagship ''Meshouda'' and captured it in the Battle off Cape Gata, and they captured the Algerian

brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the latter part ...

'' Estedio'' in the Battle off Cape Palos. On 29 June, the squadron had reached Algiers and had initiated negotiations with the Bey. The United States made persistent demands for compensation, mingled with threats of destruction, and the Dey capitulated. He signed a treaty aboard the ''Guerriere'' in the Bay of Algiers on 3 July 1815, in which Decatur agreed to return the captured ''Meshuda'' and ''Estedio.'' The Algerians returned all American captives, estimated to be about 10, in exchange for about 500 subjects of the Dey. Algeria also paid $10,000 for seized shipping. The treaty guaranteed no further tributes by the United States and granted the United States full shipping rights in the Mediterranean Sea.

Aftermath

Despite having successfully negotiated for their freedom, all 10 US captives perished when the ship returning them to the US, "Epervier," sank. Although the conflict was brief and small-scale, it showed US resolve and was a victory for free trade. In early 1816, Britain undertook a diplomatic mission, backed by a small squadron of

ships of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colu ...

, to Tunis, Tripoli, and Algiers to convince the Deys to stop their piracy and free European Christian slaves. The

Deys of Tunis The Dey of Tunis ( ar, داي تونس) was the military commander of the janissaries in the regency of Tunis. In the seventeenth century the holders of the position exercised varying degrees of power, often near-absolute. Until 1591 the Dey was ap ...

and Tripoli agreed without any resistance, but the Dey of Algiers was less cooperative, and the negotiations were stormy. The leader of the diplomatic mission, Admiral

Edward Pellew Admiral Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, GCB (19 April 1757 – 23 January 1833) was a British naval officer. He fought during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars. His younger brother ...

, believed that he had negotiated a treaty to stop the slavery of Christians and returned to England. However, just after the treaty was signed, Algerian troops massacred 200 Corsican, Sicilian and Sardinian fishermen who had been under British protection thanks to the negotiations. This caused outrage in Britain and the rest of Europe, and Pellew's negotiations were seen as a failure. As a result, Pellew was ordered to sea again to complete the job and punish the Algerians. He gathered a squadron of five ships of the line, reinforced by a number of frigates, later reinforced by a flotilla of six Dutch ships. On 27 August 1816, following a round of failed negotiations, the fleet delivered a punishing nine-hour bombardment of Algiers. The attack immobilized many of the Dey's corsairs and shore batteries, forcing him to accept a peace offer of the same terms that he had rejected the day before. Pellew warned that if the terms were not accepted, he would continue the action. The Dey accepted the terms, but Pellew had been bluffing since his fleet had already spent all its ammunition. A treaty was signed on 24 September 1816. The British Consul and 1,083 other Christian slaves were freed, and the U.S. ransom money repaid.Fremont-Barnes, pp 84-85. After the First Barbary War, the European nations had been engaged in warfare with one another and the U.S. with the British. However, in the years immediately following the Second Barbary War, there was no general European war, which allowed the Europeans to build up their resources and challenge Barbary power in the Mediterranean without distraction. Algiers and Tunis were seized and colonized by France in 1830 and 1881, respectively.

References

Sources

* Adams, Henry. ''History of the United States of America During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson''. Originally published 1891; Library of America edition 1986. *Lambert, Fran
''The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World''
New York: Hill and Wang, 2005 *London, Joshua
''Victory in Tripoli: How America's War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation''
New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005 * Oren, Michael B. ''Power, Faith, and Fantasy: The United States in the Middle East, 1776 to 2006''. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2007.

External links

Barbary Warfare

The Barbary Wars at the Clements Library
An online exhibit on the Barbary Wars with images and transcriptions of primary documents from the period.
Victory in Tripoli: Lessons for the War on TerrorismTripoli: The United States’ First War on TerrorVictory In Tripoli
{{Authority control Conflicts in 1815 19th century in Algeria 1815 in Africa Wars involving the United States Wars involving Algeria

Background

War

Aftermath

See also

Further reading

References

Sources

External links