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The 'Quasi-War' was an undeclared war fought entirely at sea between the United States and France from 1798 to 1800. In the United States, the conflict is sometimes also referred to as the 'Undeclared War with France' or 'Half-War'.

Contents

Background

Naval engagements

Conclusion of hostilities

Further reading

References

External link

Background

The Kingdom of France had been a major ally of the United States in the American Revolutionary War, but the new government of Revolutionary France viewed the Jay Treaty, a 1794 agreement between the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain, as a violation of France’s 1778 Treaty of Alliance with the United States. The Jay Treaty resolved several points of contention between the United States and Great Britain that had lingered since the end of the war, but also contained economic clauses, and seeing that the United States had already declared neutrality in the conflict between Great Britain and France, that American legislation was being passed for a trade deal with their enemy led to French outrage.
The French began to seize American ships trading with their British enemies and refused to receive a new United States minister when he arrived in Paris in December 1796. In his annual message to Congress at the close of 1797, President John Adams reported on France’s refusal to negotiate and spoke of the need "to place our country in a suitable posture of defense." In April 1798, President Adams informed Congress of the "XYZ Affair," in which French agents demanded a large bribe for the restoration of relations with the United States.
The French inflicted terrible losses on American shipping. Secretary of State Timothy Pickering reported to Congress on 21 June 1797 that the French had captured 316 American merchant ships in the previous eleven months.
The hostilities caused insurance rates on American shipping to increase at least 500 percent, as French marauders cruised the length of the U.S. Atlantic seaboard virtually unopposed.
The administration had no warships to combat them; the last had been sold off in 1785. The United States possessed only a flotilla of revenue cutters and some neglected coastal forts.
Increased depredations by privateers from Revolutionary France required the United States Navy to protect the expanding merchant shipping of the United States. The United States Congress authorized the President to acquire, arm, and man no more than twelve vessels, of up to twenty-two guns each. Under the terms of this act, several vessels were purchased and converted into ships of war.
July 7, 1798 when Congress rescinded treaties with France, can be considered a semi-official beginning of the Quasi War. The act of 7 July was followed two days later with Congressional authorization to attack French vessels.

Naval engagements

The U.S. Navy operated with a battle fleet of roughly 30 vessels. The Navy patrolled the southern coast of the United States and throughout the Caribbean, seeking out French privateers. Captain Thomas Truxtun’s insistence on the highest standards of crew training paid handsome dividends as the frigate ''Constellation'' captured ''L'Insurgente'', and severely punished ''La Vengeance''. Often, French privateers showed great audacity, as was the case with the privateer ''La Croyable'', which was captured on July 7, 1798, by ''Delaware'' outside of Egg Harbor, New Jersey. The ''Enterprise'' captured eight privateers and liberated 11 American vessels from captivity. ''Experiment'' captured the ''Deux Amis'' and the ''Diane''. Numerous American merchantmen were likewise recaptured by the ''Experiment''. The ''Boston'' summarily pounded ''Le Berceau'' into submission. Silas Talbot engineered an expedition in the Puerto Plata harbor in St. Domingo, a possession of France's ally Spain, on May 11, 1800, in which sailors and marines of the ''Constitution'' under Lieutenant Isaac Hull cut out the French privateer ''Sandwich'' from the harbor and spiked the guns in the Spanish fort.
Of all of the vessels operating under command of the US Navy, only one vessel was captured—and later recaptured—by French forces: ''Retaliation''. ''Retaliation'' was the captured privateer ''La Croyable'', recently purchased by the US Navy. ''Retaliation'' departed Norfolk on October 28, 1798, with ''Montezuma'' and ''Norfolk'' and cruised in the West Indies protecting American commerce. On November 20, the French frigates ''L’Insurgente'' and ''Volontaire'' overtook ''Retaliation'' while her consorts were away on a chase and forced commanding officer Lieutenant William Bainbridge to surrender the out-gunned schooner. However, even as a prisoner, the clever young American officer managed to serve his country. He saved USS ''Montezuma'' and USS ''Norfolk'' by convincing the senior French commander that those American warships were too powerful for his frigates and induced him to abandon the chase. Renamed ''Magicienne'' by the French, the schooner again came into American hands on June 28, when a broadside from USS ''Merrimack'' forced her to haul down her colors.
Revenue cutters, the Coast Guard, also assisted in capturing two others. The cutter ''USRC Pickering'', commanded by Edward Preble, made two cruises to the West Indies and captured ten prizes, one of which carried 19 guns throwing 150 pounds of iron compared to ''Pickering’s'' 14 guns and total iron weight of only 56 pounds, and was manned by some 250 sailors, more than three times ''Pickering’s'' strength.
In total, the U.S. Navy captured 85 French ships.
By the war's end in 1800 the French had seized over two thousand American merchant vessels."America’s First Limited War", Lieutenant Colonel Gregory E. Fehlings, U.S. Army Reserve.
Although they were fighting the same enemy, the Royal Navy and the United States Navy did not cooperate operationally, nor did they share operational plans or come to mutual understandings about deployment of their forces. The British did sell the American government naval stores and munitions. In addition, the two navies shared a system of signals by which each could recognize the other’s warships at sea and allowed merchantmen of their respective nations to join their convoys.

Conclusion of hostilities

By the autumn of 1800, the United States Navy and the Royal Navy, combined with a more conciliatory diplomatic stance by the government of First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte, produced a reduction in the activity of the French privateers and warships. The Treaty of Mortefontaine, signed on September 30, 1800, ended the Quasi-War.

Further reading

★ Alexander De Conde: ''The quasi-war: the politics and diplomacy of the undeclared war with France 1797–1801''. New York: Scribner’s, 1966

★ Frederick C. Leiner: ''Millions for Defense: The Subscription Warships of 1798''. US Naval Institute Press, November 1999

★ Nathan Miller: ''The US Navy: An Illustrated History''. New York: American Heritage, 1977

★ Ian W. Toll: ''Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of The U.S. Navy.'' New York: W.W. Norton, 2006

References

External link

★ Naval History Bibliography