In the Margins

Gas is expensive, food's expensive, everything is expensive.

And a lot of it is because of a little thing you probably don't think about much.

Maritime commerce.

Specifically, the virtual shutdown of this strip of water.

The Strait of Hormuz during the U.S.

and Israel's war with Iran.

But having its economy in a chokehold by waterways thousands of miles away, is actually one of America's oldest traditions.

In fact, having access to trade on the seas is so important 10 00:00:33,366 --> 00:00:37,328 that it drove the U.S.

to its first foreign war in 1801 Called the First Barbary War.

This forgotten war in Northern Africa helped lay the groundwork for American foreign policy for the next 225 years.

It's a story of firsts the first national Navy, the country's first engagement with the Islamic world, and its first rogue attempt to overthrow another nation's ruler.

I'm Harini Bhat and this is In The Margins.

America's fixation on free trade goes way back.

One of the main gripes with the British that led to the Revolutionary War was over their "cutting off our trade with all parts of the world".

When the US won, statesmen like John Adams pushed to send trade ships to China immediately.

He believed that expanding overseas commerce was critical to American prosperity.

And he worried that Britain would stand in the way, which they did.

For instance, the British Empire had blocked the U.S.

from trading with the West Indies, reserving that right for British subjects.

But the bigger blow was that American merchant ships would no longer have the protection of the British Navy.

After the war, the US was vulnerable.

They had sold off their warships.

So when American ships sailed in the Mediterranean Sea, which was the main access way to Europe and a major global trade hub, dozens of their ships were captured by foreign powers.

In 1790, Thomas Jefferson claimed, though he was exaggerating, that trade in the region was deadlocked because sailors feared being taken specifically by the Barbary States.

These states lined the North African coast.

They were Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli.

The Barbary States had a practice of selling captives into slave labor until a ransom was negotiated.

To the Barbary States, they were abiding by their legal system which required that other nations pay a tribute to travel the waters safely.

European nations had been paying these tributes for more than two hundred years.

But Americans saw their captors as pirates.

Though people of all races were captured, white Americans were outraged that white captives were being enslaved.

They extensively detailed life in captivity, "the severities of which are beyond your imagination" according to one letter writer.

In 1786, the U.S.

established its own treaty with Morocco, one of the Barbary States, which is also the first country to recognize American sovereignty.

Treaties with the other three Barbary States followed in the 1790s.

Thomas Jefferson, the Secretary of State under Washington, helped negotiate these treaties and the release of captives, but he didn't think the tributes would be a lasting solution.

On a practical level, the U.S.

could hardly afford to pay the fees.

The initial treaty payment was about $1.25 million, which was one fifth of the national budget at the time.

The tributes were also politically costly.

People like Richard O'Brien, a former captive turned U.S.

consul to Algiers, thought that paying the tribute was dishonorable and weak.

But the U.S.

was weak and still a minor player, especially compared to Britain and France.

Once these two powers began fighting the Napoleonic Wars, both nations captured neutral U.S.

ships to keep America from trading with their enemy.

The US government was ready to fight to protect its ships and reputation.

In 1794, George Washington signed the Naval Armament Act, which authorized the construction of six naval warships to fend off Barbary attacks.

The last frigate, named "The President", was completed in 1800.

By 1801, the U.S.

had fallen behind on its payments to multiple Barbary States when the ruler of Tripoli, Yusuf Karimanli, demanded a $225,000 tribute up front, plus another $20,000 each year.

In May of that year, Tripoli declared war on the U.S.

and cut down the American consulate's flagpole.

Thomas Jefferson, the third president who had just taken office, ordered naval ships to confront Tripoli and also to blockade its harbor.

Although the U.S.

won an early battle on the sea that August, come winter, the war was at a stalemate.

At home things remained tense economically.

There were three major challenges for America's war efforts.

The first issue was physical.

Crews at sea were constantly getting sick from things like scurvy, yellow fever, syphilis, or even the plague.

Sickness abroad was made even worse by the second challenge, which is that America had no overseas bases.

This may be surprising, since today the US has far more overseas bases than any other country in the world.

But at the time, the US didn't have any.

This made it very difficult to repair and resupply ships with fresh food, medical supplies and ammunition until other nations like Spain offer to help.

The third big challenge, broadly speaking, was poor leadership.

Here's the thing.

In the early 1800s, communication with Congress was really slow.

It took an average of 55 days to travel from the US to the Mediterranean.

Navy commanders often had to rely on their own judgment, which was by many accounts questionable.

Take Richard Valentine Morris, who was tapped to command the US squadron in the Mediterranean.

Commodore Morris arrived in May 1802 along with his wife and child, the first sign that he was a little underprepared for war.

In June, a corsair from Tripoli captured an American merchant ship called "The Franklin" off the Spanish coast with about nine captives taken for enslavement.

This incident was embarrassing for the US because it revealed that their blockade, it wasn't working.

American forces were split between enforcing the blockade and being protective envoys for American ships, which made them less effective at both.

Commodore Morris attempted to negotiate with Tripoli.

But bafflingly, he dismissed the US consul to Tripoli, James Leander Cathcart, without telling his superiors.

As a former captive, Cathcart was a rare American on the ground who actually spoke the language and knew the local rituals for diplomacy.

After just one day, negotiations fell apart when Morris balked at Tripoli's demand for at least $200,000.

Relations had also soured with Morocco, and they declared war on the U.S.

But in 1803, things finally started to turn around for the Americans.

Congress recalled Morris and put him on trial for, quote, dereliction of duty.

End quote.

He was replaced with Commodore Edward Preble, who was given more ships and who leaned on advisers who actually understood and respected the local culture.

Preble applied his diplomatic skills towards the Sultan of Morocco, Mulay Sulayman.

Aware of the Sultan's strong sense of honor, Preble's delegation offered public salutes and gifts, including tea, sugar and linens.

In October of 1803, Morocco agreed to a peace treaty with the US without further payments.

Now Preble could focus solely on Tripoli.

In October, the US warship Philadelphia ran aground and was taken by Tripoli.

Refitting the powerful gunship could have tipped the scales towards Tripoli.

So the US planned a daring sneak attack.

Led by Stephen Decatur, a small force, fought their way onto the Philadelphia and set it on fire.

This - burning down its own ship was the US's biggest victory in the war.

And it was made possible by a local man named Salvatore Catalano.

His knowledge made it possible for Decatur to navigate Tripoli's shores.

Now, halfway through the war, the US was beginning to accept that audacity or "American exceptionalism" alone wouldn't win the day.

They have started to improve slightly at foreign diplomacy, but they needed more help, even from unlikely parties.

If you've ever heard the Marine's Hymn, then you've heard a hint about how this war ended.

It involves marching to the shores of Tripoli.

Since 1801, the US consul to Tunis, William Eaton, had been secretly crafting a backup plan.

Eaton believed that the US could overthrow the ruler of Tripoli, Yusuf Karamanli, by backing his exiled brother Hamet.

It took a few years to get buy in from the Navy, but even then Commodore Samuel Barron warned Eaton not to promise a throne to Hamet.

But Eaton had already made that promise.

In 1805, Eaton's men finally met with Hamet and survived a brutal 500 mile march from Alexandria to Derna.

Yusuf's forces were also on their way to Derna, since Eaton's plan was a terribly kept secret.

Eaton and Hamet had got to Derna first and succeeded in taking the city.

Eaton knew they couldn't hold Derna against Yusuf's forces, so they escaped by sea.

But the plan had already paid off.

During Eaton's march, Yusuf Karamanli started putting out feelers for peace talks with the US.

Historians say it's unlikely that Yusuf felt threatened by the US.

It's more that he was tired of dealing with this annoying conflict, and felt it hampered Tripoli's ability to focus on their perpetual enemies, like the Italian states.

On June 10th, 1805, the US and Tripoli signed a treaty to end the war.

So did America win their first foreign war?

Kinda.

Technically, the US saw the treaty as a win, but they kept paying tributes to Algiers and gifts to Tunis and Morocco.

American ships were also increasingly targeted by Britain and France, who were fighting the Napoleonic Wars.

By 1812, the US was back at war with Britain, fighting to defend America's access to free trade on the sea.

In the big scheme of things, the First Barbary War didn't immediately change the US.

By the end of the war, the US was still a relatively weak nation, but the path to becoming a global power had been revealed.

Whoever controlled trade on the seas controlled significant economic power.

Throughout history til today, America's desire to protect its economic interests continues to lead the country to wars, colonization and interventions in other countries, no matter the costs.