Frank Lambert details America's nineteenth-century conflicts in the Middle East in The Barbary Wars. The history of America's conflict with the piratical states of the Mediterranean runs through the presidencies of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison; the adoption of the Constitution; the Quasi-War with France and the War of 1812; the construction of a full-time professional navy; and, most important, the nation's haltering steps toward commercial independence. Frank Lambert's genius is to see in the Barbary Wars the ideal means of capturing the new nation's shaky emergence in the complex context of the Atlantic world. Depicting a time when Britain ruled the seas and France most of Europe, The Barbary Wars proves America's earliest conflict with the Arabic world was always a struggle for economic advantage rather than any clash of cultures or religions. “For those in search of lessons for today, Lambert's crisp and readable narrative makes clear that it took a combination of patient diplomacy, military force, and good luck to make the Atlantic and Mediterranean worlds safe for U.S. commerce. One suspects that all three factors are needed again now.” ― Walter Russell Mead, Foreign Affairs “Does an excellent job of placing the Barbary Wars within the context of their time.” ― The Roanoke Times Frank Lambert studied birds in Southeast Asian rainforests for his doctorate and in subsequent research. An avid world birder, Frank started his career working for various conservation NGOs, but in recent years has mainly worked as an international bird guide. Having lived in Asia for more than 20 years and travelled the globe in search of birds, Frank has seen almost all the species featured in this book. Apart from seeing birds, Frank's main passion is to capture the sounds that they make. He has recorded the songs and calls of more than 5,000 bird species, most of which are freely available at xeno-canto.org. The Barbary Wars American Independence in the Atlantic World By Frank Lambert Hill and Wang Copyright © 2007 Frank Lambert All right reserved. ISBN: 9780809028115 The Barbary Wars ONE THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION CHECKED I n August 1785, shortly after the Algerine attacks on the Maria and Dauphin , John Adams reflected on the state of American independence from his diplomatic post in London. In a letter to John Jay, he confided, "I find the spirit of the times very different from that which you and I saw ... in the months of November and December, 1783"--that is, just after Britain recognized the United States as a sovereign state. Then expectations were high that the two nations would prosper under reciprocal trade agreements. But alas, a very different climate prevailed just two years after the Treaty of Paris. "Now," Adams continued, "the utmost contempt of our commerce is freely expressed in pamphlets, gazettes, coffee-houses, and in common street talk."1 Rather than becoming America's main trading partner, Britain had reinstated and even reinforced trade regulations through navigation acts that blocked the United States from lucrative markets and extorted high tariffs in others. At the same time, Algiers declared war on American shipping. After independence, instead of becoming an equal partner in the Atlantic world, the United States was again a dependent--subjugated by British trade restrictions and defenseless against the Barbary pirates.Americans viewed the pirates as vestiges of an unenlightened and vanishing time when depredations of the powerful, not the rule of law, dictated the rhythms of trade. American independence promised to usher in a novus ordo seclorum , a new age that wouldtransform the "tribute-demanding" Atlantic into a free-trade zone.2 Thomas Jefferson spoke for many of his countrymen when he envisioned an end to the old mercantilist system. "I would say then to every nation on earth," Jefferson declared just a week before the Algerines captured the Boston schooner Maria , "your people shall trade freely with us, and ours with you, paying no more than the most favoured nation, in order to put an end to the right of individual states acting by fits and starts to interrupt our commerce or to embroil us with any nation."3 Free trade would help everyone, Americans argued, expanding the overall volume of commerce so greatly that an individual country would benefit from even a modest share. Such reasoning made no sense to the Barbary pirates. They too subscribed to the notion of a zero-sum game: there was a fixed amount of trade available, and thus what one country gained was always at the expense of another.While American merchants and Barbary pirates confronted each other from very different orientations, neither controlled the arena in which they clashed. In the 1780s both parties were on the margins of an Atlantic world dominated by the great European maritime powers. To understand the Barbary Wars, therefore, it is necessary to consider American-B