TheBarbary Coast (alsoBarbary,Berbery, orBerber Coast) were the coastal regions of central and westernNorth Africa, more specifically, theMaghreb and theOttoman borderlands consisting of the regencies inAlgiers,Tunis, andTripoli, as well as theSultanate of Morocco from the 16th to 19th centuries.[1][2][3] The term originates from anexonym for theBerbers.[4][5]
Barbary was not always a unified political entity. From the 16th century onward, it was divided into four political entities—from west to east—theAlawi Sultanate, theRegency of Algiers, theRegency of Tunis, and theRegency of Tripoli. Major rulers and petty monarchs during the times of the Barbary states' plundering parties included thesultan of Morocco, thedey of Algiers,bey of Tunis, andpasha of Tripoli, respectively.[6]
Theslave trade was not just an economic lifeline to the Barbary States, but was often justified as a form ofjihad against Christian states. Although mainly captives from sea piracy and coastal raiding around the Mediterranean,[7][8][9] there were also Atlantic raids as far asIceland.
The Ottoman Eastern Mediterranean was the scene of intense piracy.[10] As late as the 18th century, piracy continued to be a "consistent threat to maritime traffic in theAegean".[11] Slaving came to an end in the early years in the 1830s after theFrench conquest of Algeria.[12][13]
In 1625, the pirate fleet of Algiers, by far the largest, numbered 100 ships of various sizes, carrying 8,000 to 10,000 men. Thecorsair industry alone accounted for 25 percent of the workforce of the city, not counting other activities of the port. Thefleet only averaged 25 ships in the 1680s, but these were larger vessels than had been used since the 1620s, so the fleet still employed some 7,000 men. In addition, 2,500 men manned the pirate fleet of Tripoli, 3,000 inTunis, and several thousand more in the various minor pirate bases such asBona, Susa,Bizerta, andSalé. The corsairs were not solely natives of the cities where they were based; while many were Arabs and Berbers, there were also Turks, Greeks, Albanians, Syrians, and renegade Italians, especially Corsicans, among their number.[14]
When thefall of Granada completed theReconquista in Iberia,Ferdinand II launchedcampaigns to curb Barbary piracy, taking North African cities includingMelilla,[15] andCharles V installed his vassalMuley Hacen in Tunis,[16] though much of the Mediterranean remained under Ottoman influence until theBattle of Lepanto in 1571. In the 17th century, Barbary pirates, now including expelledMoriscos adopted European naval tactics most notably in theRepublic of Salé whose 'Moriscos' exploited their familiarity with Spanish shores to raid theSpanish Levante in the 17th century. From 1617 onward, pirate raids targeted the northwest of Spain (Galicia), prompting the formation of a Spanish fleet around 1621 to defend against Barbary corsairs and the Dutch, albeit with limited success.[17]
The United States fought theBarbary Wars from 1801 to 1805 with some of the Barbary states[18] which led up to theBattle of Derna, the first overseas military land action of theUnited States and the inspiration for the opening line of theMarines' Hymn "From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli...".[19] TheSecond Barbary War ended with an agreement that American ships had free passage without the need to pay tribute.[20]
consistent threat to maritime traffic in the Aegean
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