The Cause Of War: The First Barbary War

The Barbary States were a collection of North African States. They included four states that were Tunis, Algeria, Morocco, and Tripoli. The Barbary States led to the significant war, which was the conflict between these four states and America, during Thomas Jefferson took a position of the President of the United States. This war was known as the First Barbary War, which was the first of two Barbary Wars, in 1801 to 1805. Therefore, the Barbary States and the conflict or the war had an impact on politics and economy of the United States. Before Thomas Jefferson was elected as the President of the United States in 1800, Yusef, who was the pasha of Tripoli, declared that every countries had to pay tribute to the Barbary States for protecting and securing their products during transportation. Most European countries decided and agreed with this negotiation for avoiding any problems with the pirates and rulers of Barbary States. They “agreed to pay steep tribute,” but some European corsairs did in the different ways. For example, they decided to “[capture] Africans to exchange as prisoners or to sell as slaves in North Africa instead of paying tribute” (Gillon, pg.268). …show more content…
They also warned that if Americans did not follow the agreement, Yusef “would cease protecting American merchant ships from the swarms of pirates along the North African coastline who captured and ransomed American crews” (Gillon, pg.268). However, American people still disagreed with the agreement because they thought that: “freedom of the seas was an inviolate principle of civilized nations” (Gillon, pg.268). So, they insisted that they did not pay for that rights. The Americans’ disagreement caused Yusef made a decision to make the Barbary