In Search Of History - Pirates Of The Barbary Coast (History Channel Documentary)
REA197457 Bombardment of Algiers, August 1816, 1820 (oil on canvas) by Luny, Thomas (1759-1837); 122x183 cm; Private Collection; © Royal Exchange Art Gallery at Cork Street, London; English, out of copyright
"While the Moroccan pirates cooperated, Ottoman Algerian leader Dey Mohammed ben-Osman declared war on the United States, capturing a merchant ship in 1784, and offered to assume peaceful relations only if the U.S. government could pay him a tribute. Though the U.S. was able to negotiate a treaty with Morocco in 1786, Congress didn’t have the money to pay off Mohammed, according to records held by the U.S. State Department.
Luckily for then-President George Washington, Portugal was warring with Algiers and protected U.S. merchant ships — until 1793, when the two states reached a truce, opening American vessels up to attack once more."
Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War that Changed American History
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