Barbary pirates had been disrupting trade for years. Typically they captured ships, sold their cargo, and then either sold the crews into slavery or held them as slaves until they were ransomed. They would take ships all over the Mediterranean and out into the Atlantic. They even went so far as to raid the coast of Ireland and southern England scooping up the populations of coastal villages to be sold as slaves.
Some European states bought them off by paying tribute to the rulers of the north African states that they operated out of. Initially the newly created United States of America tried doing the same and successfully established a treaty with Morocco to pay them off, however Morocco's neighbouring kingdoms got greedy and started demanding more money than the fledgling country could afford. Creating a navy and marine force to protect their traders must have seemed like the cheaper option, and that is exactly what they did so when Jefferson became President in 1801 he had a small fleet of 6 ships under his command. Jefferson had long been an advocate of not paying the tribute so when Yusuf Karamanli, the Pasha of Tripoli, demanded $225,000 he was in no mood to hand it over. So the First Barbery War began on May the 10th 1801.
The Barbary pirates were not used to fighting people with the ability to fight back and so were completely outclassed on the sea. However the US force was far too small to be able to do anything about fighting on land. To end this stalemate they hired a mercenary force and using this they were able to capture the city of Derna. This act proved a sufficiently powerful that they were then able to buy free all the captured Americans for much less money than had been initially demanded. The war did not solve the Barbary problem as soon enough the other Barbary states were taking American sailors as slaves again. It took a second war for America to prove itself too expensive a country to raid for slaves, and the conquest of the area by European powers before the African slave trade was finally brought to an end.
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