Hi Snowshoe; Re: "he Barbary Pirate episode was a formative experience for our nation. It directly influenced us to form a permanent navy and start to intervene in international affairs."
The US had a permanent navy, though a small one, by the end of the Revolution. That navy went to war against France in 1798. When the war of 1812 ended, the Navy was vastly increased in size, a sufficient size to allow the government to cease the regular payments that had been negotiated with the governments of Tunis, Algiers and Tripoli.
The war against the Barbary states was more successful than the war of 1812, or the Quasi war with France, so it is the one that is remembered by the US. But the US Navy was built for the war of 1812, not the Tripolitan affair, (and had ships not entirely suitable for the coastal work required) which was never formally declared by the US. I seem to recall that Algiers actually did formally declare war against the US, but this was just a formality. The governments in North Africa could issue "letters of marque" against American shipping without a formal declaration of war, just as the United States did against France in 1798.
There were never any "pirates". If there had been any "pirates", the United States would not have signed diplomatic agreements with them, (some of which required the annual deliver of huge amounts of gold, ammunition, and ships), but would have hung them by the yardarm, as was traditional at the time.
After the US defeated the "pirates", it became obvious that the expenditures involved in keeping an active navy was cheaper than the annual payments that had been made to North Africa, and a lot cheaper than the losses to American shipping.
The era of wooden ships (and iron men), is my favorite part of history. The standard U.S. version of the conflict has the United States victorious in 1805, before the war of 1812, but a simple reading of the diplomatic agreements will show that the U.S. didn't win until 1815-1816. Here's a good link:
yale.edu
Note that the "Treaty of Peace and Amity, Signed at Tripoli June 4, 1805" includes a ransom paid to the Barbary states:
We hereby acknowlidge to have received from the hands of Colonel Tobias Lear the full sum of sixty thousand dollars, mentioned as Ransum for two hundred Americans, in the Treaty of Peace concluded between Us and the United States of America on the Sixth day of the first Month of Rabbia 1220-and of all demands against the said United States.
Done this twenty first day of the first month of Rabbia 1220."
yale.edu
As far as the Barbary conflict influencing the United States to intervene in international affairs, I don't think so. From that time to 1917 the United States hardly intervened in anything outside of the new world. The only thing I can think of is when Teddy Roosevelt (a man I have the utmost respect for "walk softly and carry a big stick") sent the Navy's new battleships on a tour of the world (and thereby defused a possible military conflict with Japan).
-- Carl |
