First Barbary War

One thing many people have forgotten is the First Barbary War. The First Barbary War started after the Revolutionary War in 1801 and lasted to 1805. This meant the US ships did not have and protection form the British or French Navy. Because of this the US had no protection for sailing their merchant ships in the Mediterranean. The US Congress decided to try and pay tribute to the Barbary Pirates. They also asked the French and British ambassadors to negotiate with the Barbary nations for peace treaties. The price for the peace treaties ended up being way over the budget for America to handle due to the war they just had. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both fought to pay the wages for the treaties which ended up costing to 1 million dollars for the next 15 years. War was declared in May 1801 after Yussif Karamanli, the Bashaw of Tripoli wanted to receive $225,000 from Jefferson's administration and Jefferson refused to pay. Jefferson sent ships to defend American interests in the Mediterranean. The USS Enterprise defeated a 14-gun Tripolitan ship after a long and hard battle on August 1, 1801. Then on the American Navy was unchallenged on sea and the US continued with a blockade of Barbary ports and did raids and attacks on the cities' forces. The blockades and attacks were set up by Commodore Edward Preble. On June 10, 1805 Karamanli signed a peace treaty ending hostilities due to being run down from the blockade and the raids.