Barbary Wars

(noun)

Two conflicts fought at different times over the same reasons between the United States and the Barbary States of North Africa in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. 

Related Terms

Examples of Barbary Wars in the following topics:

  • The Barbary Wars

    • The Barbary Wars were two wars fought between the United States and the Northwest African Barbary States in the early nineteenth century.
    • The Barbary Wars were two wars fought at different times between the United States and the Barbary States of North Africa in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
    • The First Barbary War (1801–1805), also known as the Tripolitan War or the Barbary Coast War, was the first of the two wars fought between the United States and the Northwest African Berber Muslim states, known collectively as the Barbary States.
    • After the First Barbary War, the United States found its attention diverted to its deteriorating relationship with Great Britain over trade with France, which culminated in the War of 1812.
    • The Second Barbary War, also known as the Algerine or Algerian War, occurred in 1815 under President Madison's administration.

  • Conclusion: Early Trials

    • Despite his efforts to decrease the military, Jefferson responded to the capture of American ships and sailors by pirates off the coast of North Africa by leading the United States into war against the Muslim Barbary States in 1801, the first conflict fought by Americans overseas.
    • Both the administrations of Jefferson and Madison undertook actions against the Barbary States at different times.
    • Jefferson led the First Barbary War, from 1801 to 1805, against pirates' cities in what are today Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria.
    • Madison directed forces for the Second Barbary War in 1815.
    • Under Madison's presidency, the War of 1812, often called the "Second War of American Independence," culminated from unresolved issues between the United States and Great Britain.

  • The Adams Presidency

    • He had witnessed the Barbary Wars against the Islamic pirates of North Africa and the Greek War of Independence waged against the Ottoman Turks.
    • Although he sympathized with the Greeks and held a deep mistrust of the defeated Muslims, he was reluctant to support America's involvement in continuing wars far from home.

  • The Jefferson Presidency

    • Nonetheless, Jefferson responded to the capture of American ships and sailors by pirates off the coast of North Africa by leading the United States into war against the Muslim Barbary States in 1801, the first conflict fought by Americans overseas.
    • In his foreign policy, Jefferson was torn between his impulse toward expansion and the need to avoid war with France, Britain, and Spain.
    • In addition, Jefferson sought unsuccessfully to incorporate Spanish Florida (including the Gulf Coast west to Louisiana) into the Union and engaged in a punitive war with the Barbary States of North Africa.
    • The global war between Great Britain and Napoleon's France was hurting American commerce.

  • Diplomacy

    • The Articles allowed the Continental Congress to direct the American Revolutionary War and conduct domestic and international diplomacy.
    • Even when not yet ratified, the Articles provided domestic and international legitimacy for the Continental Congress to direct the American Revolutionary War, conduct diplomacy with Europe, and deal with territorial issues and Indian relations.
    • Unfortunately, after the war ended in 1783, the weakness of the Confederation government frustrated the ability of the government to conduct foreign policy.
    • In 1789, Thomas Jefferson, concerned over the failure to fund an American naval force to confront the Barbary pirates, wrote to James Monroe, "It will be said there is no money in the treasury.

  • Madison and the Pressure for War

    • In the early nineteenth century, President James Madison faced pressure from Democratic-Republican "war hawks" to go to war with Britain.
    • The term "war hawks" was a name used for a historical group of Democratic-Republicans in the early nineteenth century who pushed for war with Great Britain.
    • The war hawks advocated going to war with Britain for reasons related to the interference of the British Royal Navy in American shipping, which was hurting the American economy and, the war hawks believed, injuring American prestige.
    • A portrait of Henry Clay, the leader of the war hawks' western faction, painted after the War of 1812.
    • Discuss the reasons for war with Great Britain proposed by the "war hawks"

  • Range Wars

    • Range wars occurred throughout the American West throughout the late nineteenth century.
    • Famous range wars included the Lincoln County War, the Pleasant Valley War, the Mason County War, and the Johnson County Range War.
    • The Pleasant Valley War was commonly thought to be an Arizona sheep war between two feuding families, the cattle-herding Grahams and the sheep-herding Tewksburys.
    • The Johnson County War, also known as the War on Powder River and the Wyoming Range War, was a range war that took place in Johnson, Natrona and Converse County, Wyoming in April 1892.
    • Assess the significance of range wars in late nineteenth century America

  • European Wars in the Colonies

    • The war was largely subsumed by the War of the Austrian Succession in 1742.
    • Britain and France fought four wars that became known as the French and Indian Wars—followed in 1778 with another war when France joined the Americans in the American Revolution.
    • Queen Anne's War (1702–1713) was the second war for control of the continent and was the counterpart of the War of the Spanish Succession in Europe.
    • King George's War, 1744–1748, was the North American phase of the concurrent War of the Austrian Succession.
    • The final imperial war, the French and Indian War (1754–1763), known as the Seven Years’ War in Europe, proved to be the decisive contest between Britain and France in America.

  • The Cold War's Costs and Consequences

    • The costs of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, as well as its numerous proxy wars, were extensive.
    • The legacy of the Cold War continues to influence world affairs today.
    • Many of the proxy wars and subsidies for local conflicts ended along with the Cold War, and the incidence of interstate, ethnic, and revolutionary wars, as well as refugee and displaced persons crises, has declined somewhat in the post-Cold War years.
    • Many specific nuclear legacies can be identified from the Cold War.
    • The legacy of the Cold War continues to influence world affairs.

  • The Breakdown of Sectional Balance

    • With the conflict over the Texan border escalating, Polk sent Zachary Taylor and American troops into Texas to defend the Rio Grande boundary, provoking the outbreak of war.The American public largely supported the war and was eager for news of conquest and war stories disseminated from newspapers and magazines.The war also held romantic appeal for Americans who believed that it was the destiny of the United States to possess the North American continent and to expand "progressive democracy" to new territories acquired from backward nations.
    • Whigs who had opposed the war from the start.
    • The war also inflamed the slavery issue and sectional splits in the United States.The new territories in the west (particularly California) meant that the westward expansion of slavery became an increasingly central and heated theme in national debates preceding the American Civil War.Furthermore, in extending the nation farther toward the Pacific Ocean, the Mexican–American War contributed to the massive migrations of Americans to the West, which culminated in transcontinental railroads and the Indian wars later in the same century.
    • Map of the Mexican-American War, with routes of both Taylor and Scott's campaigns.
    • Examine the role that the Mexican American War played in increasing sectional tension