(Redirected from Barbary pirates)
The 'Barbary pirates', also sometimes called '
Ottoman corsairs', were
pirates and
privateers that operated from north Africa (the "
Barbary coast"). They operated out of
Tunis,
Tripoli,
Algiers,
Salé and ports in
Morocco, preying on shipping in the western
Mediterranean Sea from the time of the
Crusades as well as on ships on their way to Asia around Africa until the early 19th century. Their stronghold was along the stretch of
northern Africa known as the
Barbary Coast (a medieval term for the
Maghreb after its
Berber inhabitants), although their predation was said to extend throughout the
Mediterranean, south along
West Africa's
Atlantic seaboard, and into the
North Atlantic, purportedly as far north as
Iceland. As well as preying on shipping, raids were often made on European coastal towns. The pirates were responsible for capturing large numbers of Christian
slaves from Europe, who were sold in
slave markets in places such as Algeria and Morocco.
[1][2]
According to Robert Davis between 1 million and 1.25 million
Europeans were captured by pirates and sold as slaves between the 16th and 17th century. These slaves were captured mainly from seaside villages in
Italy,
Spain and
Portugal, and from more distant places like France or England, the Netherlands, Ireland and even Iceland and North America.
The impact of these
attacks was devastating –
France,
England, and
Spain each lost thousands of ships, and long stretches of the Spanish and Italian coasts were almost completely abandoned by its inhabitants. Pirate raids discouraged settlement along the coast until the 19th century. Barbary pirates frequently attacked the
Balearic islands, resulting in many coastal watchtowers and fortified churches being erected. The threat was so severe that island of Formentera became uninhabited. In 1551, Turgut Reis enslaved the entire population of the Maltese island
Gozo, between 5,000 and 6,000, sending them to
Libya.
Even
Americans were not immune. For example, one
American slave reported that 130 other American seamen had been enslaved by the Algerians in the Mediterranean and Atlantic just between 1785 and 1793. Isolated cases of
piracy have occurred on the Rif coast of
Morocco even at the beginning of the 20th century, but the pirate communities which lived by plunder and could live by no other resource, vanished with the French conquest of
Algiers in 1830.
[3]
The most famous corsairs were the Ottoman ''
Barbarossa'' (meaning ''Redbeard'') brothers, the nickname of
Hızır (Hayreddin) and his older brother
Oruç who took control of
Algiers in the early 16th century and turned it into the center of Mediterranean piracy and privateering for the next three centuries, as well as establishing the
Ottoman Empire presence in
North Africa which lasted four centuries. Other famous Ottoman privateer-admirals included
Turgut Reis (known as
Dragut in the West),
KurtoÄŸlu (known as
Curtogoli in the West),
Kemal Reis,
Salih Reis and
Koca Murat Reis.
History
Battle between the British frigate ''
HMS Mary Rose'' and seven Algerine pirates, 1669.
Although piracy had existed in the region throughout the decline of the
Roman Empire, the
barbarian invasions, the
Golden Age of Piracy and the
Middle Ages, piracy became particularly flagrant in the 14th century when the local
Berber dynasties were in decadence. The town of
Bougie was then the most notorious pirate base.
The organized powers which became known as the Barbary pirates arose in the 16th century, became most powerful in the 17th, declined gradually throughout the 18th and were extinguished about 1830, when the French conquered Algiers.
Several events influenced the growth of the pirates. The
conquest of
Granada by the Catholic sovereigns of
Spain in 1492 drove many
Moors into exile. They revenged themselves by piratical attacks on the Spanish coast. They had the help of Muslim adventurers from the
Levant, of whom the most successful were
Hızır and Oruç, natives of
Mitylene. Spain in self-defense began to conquer the coast towns of
Oran,
Algiers and
Tunis. Oruç having fallen in battle with the Spaniards in 1518, his brother Hızır appealed to
Selim I, the
Ottoman Sultan, who sent his troops. He drove the
Spaniards in 1529 from the rocky island in front of
Algiers, where they had a fort, and was the founder of the Ottoman power. From about 1518 till the death of Uluch Ali in 1587 Algiers was the main seat of government of the
beylerbeys of northern Africa, who ruled over Tripoli, Tunisia and Algeria. From 1587 till 1659, they were ruled by Ottoman
pashas, sent from
Constantinople to govern for three years; but in the latter year a military revolt in Algiers reduced the pashas to nonentities. From 1659 onwards, these African cities, although nominally forming part of the
Ottoman empire, were in fact anarchical military republics which chose their own rulers and lived by plunder.
During the first period (1518-1587) the beylerbeys were admirals of the sultan, commanding great fleets and conducting serious operations of war for political ends. They were slave-hunters and their methods were ferocious. After 1587, plunder became the sole object of their successors—plunder of the native tribes on land and of all who went upon the sea. The maritime side of this long-lived brigandage was conducted by the captains, or ''reises'', who formed a class or even a corporation. Cruisers were fitted out by capitalists and commanded by the ''reises''. Ten percent of the value of the prizes was paid to the treasury of the pasha or his successors, who bore the titles of agha or dey or bey.
Ships
Bougie was the chief shipbuilding port and the timber was mainly drawn from the country behind it. Until the 17th century the pirates used
galleys, but a Dutch renegade by the name of
Simon de Danser taught them the advantage of using sailing ships. In this century, indeed, the main strength of the pirates was supplied by renegades from all parts of Europe. An English gentleman of the distinguished Buckingamshire family of Verney was for a time among them at Algiers. This port was so much the more formidable that the name of Algerine came to be used as synonymous with Barbary pirate, but the same trade was carried on, though with less energy, from Tripoli and Tunis—as also from towns in the empire of Morocco, of which the most notorious was
Salé. The introduction of sailing ships gave increased scope to the activity of the pirates. While the galleys, being unfit for the high seas, were confined to the Mediterranean and the coast, the sailing vessels ranged into the Atlantic as far as the
Canary Islands or even to Iceland.
Era of the pirates
The first half of the 17th century may be described as the flowering time of the Barbary pirates. More than 20,000 captives were said to be imprisoned in Algiers alone. The rich were allowed to redeem themselves, but the poor were condemned to slavery. Their masters would on occasion allow them to secure freedom by professing Islam. A long list might be given of people of good social position, not only Italians or Spaniards, but German or English travellers in the south, who were captives for a time.
In
Iceland Murat Reis (
Jan Janszoon) is said to have taken 400 prisoners, later raided the nearby island of
Vestmannaeyjar. Among those captured in Vestmannaeyjar was
Ólafur Egilsson, who was released with a ransom the next year and, upon returning back to Iceland, wrote a detailed book in
1628 about his experience. The sack of Vestmannaeyjar is known in The History of Iceland as ''
Tyrkjaránið'' (
The Turkish abductions) and is arguably the most horrible event in the history of Vestmannaeyjar. In June
1631 Murat Reis, with pirates from
Algiers and armed troops of the
Ottoman Empire, stormed ashore at the little harbour village of
Baltimore, County Cork. They captured almost all the villagers and bore them away to a life of
slavery in North Africa.
The prisoners were destined for a variety of fates -- some would live out their days chained to the oars as galley slaves, while others would spend long years in the scented seclusion of the harem or within the walls of the Sultan's palace. The old city of
Algiers, with its narrow streets, intense heat and lively trade, was a melting pot where the villagers would join slaves and freemen of many nationalities. Only two of them ever saw
Ireland again. A detailed account of the
Sack of Baltimore, County Cork can be found in the book, The Stolen Village Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates by Des Ekin.
Although Barbary pirate attacks were more common in south and east
Spain, the
Balearic Islands,
Sardinia,
Corsica,
Elba, the
Italian Peninsula (especially the coasts of
Liguria,
Toscana,
Lazio,
Campania,
Calabria and
Puglia),
Sicily and
Malta, they also attacked the Atlantic northwest coast of the
Iberian Peninsula. In
1617, the African corsairs launched their major attack in the region when they destroyed and sacked
Bouzas,
Cangas and the
churches of
Moaña and
Darbo.
The chief sufferers were the inhabitants of the coasts of Sicily, Naples and Spain. But all traders belonging to nations which did not pay blackmail in order to secure immunity were liable to be taken at sea. The payment of blackmail, disguised as presents or ransoms, did not always secure safety. The most powerful states in Europe condescended to make payments to them and to tolerate their insults. Religious orders—the
Redemptionists and
Lazarists — were engaged in working for the redemption of captives and large legacies were left for that purpose in many countries. The continued existence of this African piracy was indeed a disgrace to Europe, for it was due to the jealousies of the powers themselves. France encouraged them during their rivalry with Spain; and when she had no further need of them they were supported against her by Great Britain and Holland. In the 18th century British public men were not ashamed to say that Barbary piracy was a useful check on the competition of the weaker Mediterranean nations in the carrying trade. When
Lord Exmouth sailed to coerce Algiers in 1816, he expressed doubts in a private letter whether the suppression of piracy would be acceptable to the trading community. Every power was, indeed, desirous to secure immunity for itself and more or less ready to compel Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, Sale and the next to respect its trade and subjects. In 1655 the British admiral,
Robert Blake, was sent to teach them a lesson, and he gave the Tunisians a severe beating. A long series of expeditions was undertaken by the British fleet during the reign of
Charles II, sometimes singled-handed, sometimes in combination with the Dutch. In 1682 and 1683, the French bombarded Algiers. On the second occasion the Algerines blew the French consul from a gun during the action. An extensive list of such punitive expeditions could be made out, down to the American operations of 1801-5 and 1815. But in no case was the attack pushed home, and it rarely happened that the aggrieved European state refused in the end to make a money payment in order to secure peace. The frequent wars among them gave the pirates numerous opportunities of breaking their engagements, of which they never failed to take advantage.
Some of them were
renegades or
Moriscos. Their usual ship was the
galley with slaves or prisoners at the oars. Two examples of these renegades are Süleyman Reis "De Veenboer" who became admiral of the Algerian corsair fleet in 1617, and his quartermaster Murat Reis, born
Jan Janszoon van Haarlem. Both worked for the notorious corsair
Simon the Dancer, who owned a palace. These pirates were all originally
Dutch. The Dutch admiral
Michiel de Ruyter unsuccessfully tried to end their piracy.
The United States and the Barbary Wars
''See also
First Barbary War and
Second Barbary War''
In 1783 the
USA forced peace with and was recognized by
British monarchy, and in 1784 the first American ship was seized by pirates from
Morocco. After six months of negotiation, a treaty was signed, $60,000 cash was paid, and trade began. Morocco was the first independent nation to recognize the USA back in 1778.
[4]
But Algeria was different. In 1784 two ships (the Maria of Boston and the Dauphin of Philadelphia) were seized, everything sold and their crews ordered to build port fortifications.
In 1786,
Thomas Jefferson, then the ambassador to France, and
John Adams, then the ambassador to Britain, met in London with Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, the ambassador to Britain from
Tripoli. The Americans asked Adja why his government was hostile to American ships, even though there had been no provocation. The ambassador's response was reported to the
Continental Congress:
:''That it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman [Muslim] who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise.''
[5]
American ships sailing in the Mediterranean chose to travel close to larger convoys of other European powers who had bribed the
pirates. In the early 1800s, President Thomas Jefferson proposed a league of smaller nations to patrol the area, but the USA could not contribute. For the prisoners, Algeria wanted $60,000 dollars, America offered $4,000. Jefferson said a million dollars would buy them off, but Congress would only appropriate $80,000. For eleven years Americans who lived in Algeria lived as slaves to Algerian Moors.
For a while,
Portugal was patrolling the
Straits of Gibraltar and preventing Barbary Pirates from entering the Atlantic. But they made a cash deal with the pirates, and they were again sailing into the Atlantic and engaging in piracy. By late 1793, a dozen American ships had been captured, goods stripped and everyone enslaved.
Portugal had offered some armed patrols, but American merchants needed an armed American presence to sail near Europe. After some serious debate, the
United States Navy was born in March 1794. Six frigates were authorized, and so began the construction of the
''United States'', the
''Constellation'', the
''Constitution'' and three other frigates.
This new military presence helped to stiffen American resolve to resist the continuation of tribute payments, leading to the two
Barbary Wars along the North African coast, the
First Barbary War from
1801 to
1805 and the
Second Barbary War in
1815. It was not until
1815 that naval victories ended tribute payments by the U.S., although some European nations continued annual payments until the
1830s.
The
United States Marine Corps actions in these wars led to the line, "to the shores of
Tripoli" in the opening of the
Marine Hymn. Also, in order to reduce the likelihood of being beheaded while boarding enemy ships, Marines wore leather collars. This led to the nickname ''Leatherneck'' for U.S. Marines.
After 1815
''Bombardment of Algiers by Lord Exmouth in August 1816'',
Thomas Luny.
''Bombardment of Algier'', August 27th, 1816. Photogravure of a painting by
T. Whitcombe, after a plan by Captain Sir
James Brisbane RN.
After the general pacification of 1815, the suppression of African piracy was universally felt to be a necessity. The insolence of Tunisian squadron which sacked
Palma in the island of
Sardinia and carried off 158 of its inhabitants, roused widespread indignation. Other influences were at work to bring about their extinction. The United Kingdom had acquired
Malta and the
Ionian Islands and now had many Mediterranean subjects. She was also engaged in pressing the other European powers to join with her in the suppression of the slave trade which the Barbary states practised on a large scale and at the expense of Europe. The suppression of the trade was one of the objects of the
Congress of Vienna. The United Kingdom was called on to act for Europe, and in 1816
Lord Exmouth was sent to obtain treaties from Tunis and Algiers. His first visit produced diplomatic documents and promises and he sailed for England. While he was negotiating, a number of British subjects had been brutally ill-treated at
Bona, without his knowledge. The British government sent him back to secure reparation, and on the 17th of August, in combination with a Dutch squadron under Admiral Van de Capellen, he administered a smashing
bombardment to Algiers. The lesson terrified the pirates both of that city and of Tunis into giving up over 3,000 prisoners and making fresh promises. Within a short time, however, Algiers renewed its piracies and slave-taking, though on a smaller scale, and the measures to be taken with it were discussed at the
Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818. In 1824 another British fleet under Admiral Sir Harry Neal had again to bombard Algiers. The great pirate city was not in fact thoroughly tamed till its
conquest by France in 1830.
French bombardment of Algiers by Admiral
Dupperé, 13 June 1830.
However, for the Barbary Pirates, the end could be seen quite clearly from their telescopes. In the past, they had terrorized as far North as Iceland, England, and Ireland, raking in large amounts of protection and ransom money from individuals up to the great powers of Europe. However, when the Barbary states were humiliated and the defiance of the nascent United States bore fruit, other powers began to take note that the feared Corsairs of North Africa had been bested by a tiny, third-rate power that was only at the time thirty years old.
Another factor to the downfall of the Barbary Coast was that by the 1810s, Europe had been at war in the Napoleonic Wars for around twenty years. This left the now-exhausted powers with a sizable, technologically-advanced and disciplined navy. And to veterans of Trafalgar, Camperdown, and Cape St. Vincent, the Barbary Pirates were poor matches for the professional naval crews of Spain, Portugal, The Netherlands, France, and (especially) Great Britain. And they were operating in concert instead of against each other.
Another side effect of the humiliations of the Barbary Pirates was that their reputation declined. They could no longer compete with Western navies in a fair fight, and as such, their tribute declined astronomically. To Kleptocracies like the Barbary States, which relied heavily on piracy, this was quite possibly one of the worst things that could have happened.
As mentioned above, the cities were never completely tamed by outside until the European colonization of Africa. However, the Barbary States that were known and feared for centuries had effectively vanished decades before. Without solid support from pirates due to their declining economic strengths, they could no longer withstand the pressure of the nation that had been their nominal sovereign. The Barbary States became territories of the Ottoman Empire, and then, bit by bit, the nations fell to European conquerors.
Barbary pirates in literature
Barbary pirates appear in a number of famous novels, including ''
Robinson Crusoe'' by
Daniel Defoe, ''
The Count of Monte Cristo'' by
Alexandre Dumas, père, ''
The Sea Hawk'' by
Rafael Sabatini, ''
The Algerine Captive'' by Royall Tyler, ''
Master and Commander'' by
Patrick O'Brian, the ''
Baroque Cycle'' by
Neal Stephenson, and ''
Doctor Doolittle'' by
Hugh Lofting.
Miguel de Cervantes was captive in the ''
bagnio'' of Algiers, and reflected his experience in some of his books, including ''
Don Quixote''.
See also
★
Knights of Rhodes
★
First Barbary War
★
Second Barbary War
★
Barbary treaties
★
List of Ottoman & Barbary raids
★
Stephen Decatur
★
USS ''Hornet''
★
Dey of Algiers
★
Lundy - captured by Barbary pirates.
★
Miguel de Cervantes - spent five years as a slave in
Algiers.
★
Arab Slave Trade
★
Islam and Slavery
★
Spanish Empire
★
Ottoman Empire
★
Ottoman-Habsburg wars
★
History of the Ottoman Navy
Further reading
★ London, Joshua E. ''Victory in Tripoli: How America's War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation'' New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005. ISBN 978-0471444152
★
The Stolen Village Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates by Des Ekin ISBN 978-0862789558
★
Pirate Laws
★
Jefferson Versus the Muslim Pirates Christopher Hitchens
References
1. BBC - History - British Slaves on the Barbary Coast
2. Jefferson Versus the Muslim Pirates by Christopher Hitchens, City Journal Spring 2007
3. ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html Barbary Pirates - Encyclopedia Britannica
4. The Wars of the Barbary Pirates: To the Shores of Tripoli: The Birth of the US Navy and Marines, , Gregory, Fremont-Barnes, Osprey Publishing, ,
5. America's Earliest Terrorists: Lessons from America's First War against Islamic Terror
★ A History of Pirates by Angus Konstam
★ Earle, Peter. ''The Pirate Wars''. Thomas Dunne, 2003
★ Forester, C. S. ''The Barbary Pirates''. Random House, 1953
★ Leiner, Frederick C. ''The End of Barbary Terror: America's 1815 War against the Pirates of North Africa''. Oxford University Press, 2006
★ Lambert, Frank. ''The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World''. Hill & Wang, 2005
★
World Navies
Iceland sources
Barbary To and Fro by Jens Riise Kristensen, Ørby publishing 2005. (www.oerby.dk)
★
goiceland.org
★
Vestmannaeyjar
★
Heimaey
★
halfdan.is
★
cruiseatlantic.com
★
factmonster.com
★
eas.ualberta.ca
★
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