May 22, 2009
First Barbary War (May 1801-1805)
The First Barbary War (1801 – 1805, also known as the Barbary Coast War or the Tripolitan War) was one of two wars fought between the United States of America and the semi-autonomous North African city-states of Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, known collectively as the Barbary States. It was the first war declared under the United States Constitution.
Who said that the 19th Century wasn’t fascinating!
comments
Leave a Reply
From the halls of Montezu-uma, to the shores of Tripoli,
We fight our country’s battles, on the land as on the sea.
Admiration of the nation, we’re the finest ever seen;
And we glory in the title of United States Marines!
NB: Barbary Allen was not harmed in the making of this war.
And the Barbary apes maintained neutrality.
I’d just like to thank you people for bringing this to the attention of the world. Nobody is talking about it. Nobody. It’s been all ‘ooh how tasty barbary duck is’ and shit like this. It is terrible. The truth has yet to come out. There is a lot more to the barbary war story. Thank you. Thank you.
You are most welcome. I am particularly concerned over the ‘scapegoating’, as it were, of the Barbary apes, who — though thievish and uncultured — are no fomentors of international strife. They wish only to be left in peace to snatch ‘pic-nic’ lunches from visitors to Gibraltar.
Our invasion of the Barbary States was based on faulty intelligence.
Ok but on this topic, look I’ve met a few barbary apes and quite frankly, some of them actually are barbarous. It is a complex situation we are dealing with in the region.
I’ve planted, trimmed, or dug up plenty of their prickly, spiny bushes and I’m here to tell you, they probably deserved whatever they got.
Those Berbers — or whatever one calls the savages of northern Africa — do they know the Word of God? Have we established missions?
Funny, just the other day I wrote a story about a barbary ape that took off with my rental car.
I thought both the barbary apes and the berbers were rather kind and docile, compared to other denizens of Morocco. They come nowhere near the tree-climbing goats though.
Some of those Moroccan coastal cities would’ve been spectacular places to engage in war, with the ramparts and everything.
Trickster ape.
O! the rockets’ red glare over the ramparts! It fires my blood!
where’d everybody go? I myself spent the night with the zombies in Addis Ababa airport. I see Coop is still here. I guess I should post a goat photo to fill the void.
Photo? Car? What is this trickery? Sheila, ma’am, shall we burn the African, “Derek White”?
Hsst! Lucy! He is no African but goes about in the guise of a savage and mingles with them. Whether to dark purpose I know not, but I believe he is not altogether unsound.
They say he speaks many heathen tongues. ‘Tis said also that he may be gathering ‘intelligence’.
I had actually forgotten about this barbaric story so I went back to see if it was any good. Here’s an excerpt, a clusterflock exclusive:
“It never crossed my mind he could drive stick when I lured him in. The Berber fossil hawker was the one who egged me to egg him on, with a cream egg no less that he then wanted me to buy. He had a Spy vs. Spy shirt on that made me skeptical. I asked him, “black or white?” and he said, “it all started in Africa.”
“What all started here?”
“With a monkey bite. And here is not Africa, my friend.”
We were left standing amidst some cedars in a deserted ski village made up of roofs that all slanted in the same direction, at the same pitch—not at all what I expected of this place. Though it was the winter solstice and there was no snow.
This didn’t stop them from running the chairlift for the tourists. They’d ride up and stay on for the ride back. I was contemplating the worth of this when I noticed a tourist giving another tourist a blowjob up on the chairlift. I pointed them out to my tour guide and he shook his head, saying, “they will have to come down some time.” This was before I had stopped to feed the Barbary ape.”
Man, I’m sorry I was off the grid for this one. Glad y’all were on the case.
Always diggin’ the nineteenth-century maritime scene, Mary — even when you (and India) are land-locked.
P.S. Derek. Derek, Derek, Derek. That is one brilliant tale. (Do Barbary apes have . . . ? Wait. No.Yes? No?)
Barbary apes!
[...] From Derek White: It never crossed my mind he could drive stick when I lured him in. The Berber fossil hawker was the one who egged me to egg him on, with a cream egg no less that he then wanted me to buy. He had a Spy vs. Spy shirt on that made me skeptical. I asked him, “Black or white?” and he said, “It all started in Africa.” [...]
In San Francisco, “The Financial District has been renamed Barbary Coast to harken the Gold Rush-era hangout for prostitutes, whiskey and poker.”
However, later on in the article an intrepid bartender points out that the entire area was underwater at the time, so technically, there was no coast.
I just spat tea laughing, Matt!
Whatever you want to say about Jefferson, he always wanted to stand up against the Barbary pirates. Washington and Adams thought it was cheaper to just pay them off, especially since the US was so weak after the Revolution.
But the war was never about religion. It was about money – free trade on the American side, tribute payments on the Tripoli side.
Check it out: http://barbarywars.wordpress.com/2009/06/04/jefferson-and-the-barbary-pirates-war-of-economics-not-religion/
You are right. I was making light-hearted and likely misleading remarks about religion in an effort to connect the early nineteenth century with the latter part and with our own time. It’s the kind of thing that can work in conversation but falls flat and can even confuse when set down in such a forum as this.
Piracy is an ugly thing, whether you are a Barbary pirate or Sir Francis Drake or our contemporary pirates.
I do hesitate even to mention pirates, though. They are bad pieces of work and no doubt, but their iniquity is theirs and theirs alone. Shoot ‘em dead, if you can, I say, and if you hit the pirates and miss the captain of the vessel, you’re one hell of a shot. Spare the innocent, though.
I am drifting off into an insular reference, so it is time to stop with the commenting for a bit.
I am descended from pirates.
Or ascended, depending on your perspective.
Lucy! You reckon you and Phil might be related?
His mum confesses to gypo roots.
Phil the gyp. Kin.