Tripolitan War

a war (1801-05) that Tripoli declared on the United States because of American refusal to pay tribute for the safe passage of shipping in Barbary Coastal waters. Cf. Barbary Coast Wars.

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(1801–05) Conflict between the U.S. and Tripoli.

The U.S. refused to continue paying tribute to the rulers of the North African Barbary Coast states, which had bought immunity from pirate attacks in the Mediterranean. The pasha of Tripoli demanded greater tribute and then declared war on the U.S. (1801). A U.S. naval squadron was sent to Tripolitan waters and fought several skirmishes, including a raid by Stephen Decatur. A U.S. naval blockade and an overland expedition from Egypt ended the war with a peace treaty favourable to the U.S.

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▪ United States-Tripoli

      (1801–05), conflict between the United States and Tripoli (now in Libya), incited by American refusal to continue payment of tribute to the piratical rulers of the North African Barbary States of Algiers, Tunis, Morocco, and Tripoli; this practice had been customary among European nations and the nascent United States in exchange for immunity from attack on merchant vessels in the Mediterranean.

      A demand from the pasha of Tripoli for greater tribute and his dramatic declaration of war on the United States (May 14, 1801) coincided with a decision by President Thomas Jefferson's (Jefferson, Thomas) administration to demonstrate American resolve. Despite his opposition to the expense of maintaining a navy, Jefferson dispatched an American naval squadron to Tripolitan waters. By means of a special “Mediterranean Fund,” the navy—which had been partially dismantled and was perhaps nearing extinction—actually increased in size.

      During the following years, American warships fought in the waters around Tripoli, and, in 1803, when Commodore Edward Preble (Preble, Edward) became commander of the Mediterranean squadron, greater successes ensued. The intrepid Preble sailed into Tangiers to rescue a number of American prisoners, and, on Feb. 16, 1804, he ordered his young lieutenant, Stephen Decatur, to undertake the spectacular raid in which the captured U.S. frigate Philadelphia was destroyed in the harbour of Tripoli.

      The combination of a strong American naval blockade and an overland expedition from Egypt finally brought the war to a close, with a treaty of peace (June 4, 1805) favourable to the United States. The other Barbary rulers, though considerably chastened, continued to receive some tribute until 1816.

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