Our Navy and the Barbary Corsairs

During the time of the American Revolution, while allied with France, American merchant ships were protected from the Barbary corsairs, pirates sanctioned by the Muslim governments of Northern Africa. After the Treaty of Paris officially ended hostilities with England, the treaty with France expired, leaving American ships unprotected.The corsairs not only captures ships and their cargoes, but they also frequently made slaves of their crews. The first couple chapters of "Our Navy and the Barbary Corsairs" cover this as one of the primary reasons for the United States going to war.The various beys (rulers) of the Ottoman Empire's provinces would offer to sell captured sailors back to their respective countries of origin. They would also offer countries a "tribute" system, whereby the ships would be allowed to travel unmolested.In 1795, the United States was paying 1/6 of its national budget as tribute and by 1798, the government had decided it was cheaper to build and arm its own Navy to protect merchant ships."Our Navy and the Barbary Corsairs" focuses primarily on the events of the first Barbary War, from 1801 to 1805. Two later chapters cover the second Barbary War which took place in 1815.This IS a public domain work. Most editions you will find are unedited OCR versions that contain frequent errors, no formatting (like bold or italicized text) and large gaps where one page ends and the next begins. This version has been restored. Brought to you by www.poorrichardsprintshop.com Read more