The Wars of the Barbary Pirates: To the shores of Tripoli: the rise of the US Navy and Marines (Essential Histories) - Softcover

Fremont-Barnes, Gregory

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846030307 ISBN 13: 9781846030307

Publisher: Osprey Publishing, 2006

Synopsis

The Barbary War - the first American war against Libya - was the first war waged by the United States outside national boundaries after gaining independence and unification of the country. The four Barbary States of North Africa - Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli - had plundered seaborne commerce for centuries. This was piracy on an extraordinary scale: they controlled all trading routes through the Barbary waters and North Africa: demanding ransom and booty for safe passage.
In 1801 the newly elected President Jefferson ordered a naval and military expedition to North Africa in order to put down regimes that endorsed piracy and slavery. The Pasha of Tripoli declared war on the United States. Under the leadership of Commodores Richard Dale and Edward Preble, the US Navy blockaded the enemy coast and engaged in close, bitterly contested gunboat actions. On 16 February 1804 LT Stephen Decatur led 74 volunteers into Tripoli to burn the captured American frigate The Philadelphia. British Admiral Lord Nelson called the raid "the most daring act of the age". In 1805 Marines stormed the Barbary pirates' harbor fortress stronghold of Derna (Tripoli), commemorated in the Marine Corp Hymn invocation "To the Shores of Tripoli."
The US Navy troops were recalled before they could secure their gains, but returned after the War of 1812. Their success then won worldwide admiration for the Americans and their Navy. They marked the way for the European nations to finally quash the Barbary States and end the piracy.

This event marks the true birth of the US Navy and Marines and is ever remembered in the Marines' battle hymn.

About this title

About the Author:

Gregory Fremont-Barnes holds degrees in history from the University of California, Berkeley (BA), the University of Chicago (MA) and the University of Oxford (D. Phil.). From 1993 to 2002 he lectured in British and American history in Japan, principally at Kobe University. He is the author of The French Revolutionary Wars (2001), The Peninsular War (2002), and The Fall of the French Empire, 1813-1815 (2002). He is currently co-editing a four-volume Encyclopedia of the American Revolutionary War. The author lives in Oxford, UK.

Review:

“The Wars of the Barbary Pirates is 90 pages of highly informative military history. Readers interesed in early American history or the beginning of the US Navy will find it informative. True to its series' namesake, it covers an essential part of history that isn't well know, yet it is a significant and formative part of America's rise onto the world state. Readers with an interest in this period won't want to miss it.” ―Mike Dorn, Wargamer

“...this is a superlative book filled with artwork of the period for illustration and excellent maps to help us envision the operations against these pirates. It is a book that I found thoroughly engrossing and I'm sure you will as well.” ―Scott Van Aken, modelingmadness.com

About this edition

• Publisher: Osprey Publishing
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1846030307
• ISBN 13: 9781846030307
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 96