Barbary States

The North African states of Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and Morocco, which, until the 19th century, Europeans collectively referred to as the “Barbary States,” first came into existence with the spread of Islam across the northern African coast and into the Iberian Peninsula from the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century. Over the following eight centuries, these small states on the edges of the Mediterranean world employed a mix of trade and privateering (often labeled piracy) to sustain their economies. Based on religious dictate, Barbary privateers sailed against Christian nations who failed to negotiate a treaty with the Barbary States. Once captured, Christians were sold into slavery in the North African nations. Although commonly referred to as “pirates,” the Barbary ships might more properly be referred to as “privateers” or “corsairs.” While many of these ships were privately held, they operated with the sanction of the Barbary governments, lending a legitimacy to their activity that the term pirate denies them. The practice of privateering was recognized by states throughout the world as legal until 1856, when privateering was abolished under the Declaration of Paris. It was on this premise that the Barbary States, primarily Algeria and Morocco, sailed the Mediterranean in search of wealth. These raids supplied these North African states with both treasure and captives. The crews and state governments split the spoils of the raids, while captive crewmen found themselves on the auction block and sold into slavery throughout North Africa. Captives with few skills often ended up working in the quarries or shipyards. Seamen trained in a trade often found themselves in cities working at their craft. Those sailors who converted to Islam were able to return to sea as crewmen aboard the Barbary corsairs. Officers on the captured vessels were often placed on parole, reflecting similar European practices, provided they paid a monthly fee for their limited freedom. For the European powers, the threat of the Barbary States was best managed through a series of yearly tributes to maintain safe passage for their ships. While the many European navies were more than a match for the North African forces, most European powers deemed annual payment the most effective means for dealing with these North African states. Following the Napoleonic Wars and a series of conflicts with the newly independent United States, the Barbary raids were finally terminated in the early 19th century, culminating with the French conquest of Algeria in 1830.

Sea Power and Neutrality: The American Experience in Europe during the French Wars, 1793–1812

This chapter analyses the systemic effects of the Franco-British revolutionary and Napoleonic wars on American trade and shipping. The recourse to neutral carriers consistently reduced the impact of belligerents’ economic warfare against enemy trade, but it also alleviated the consequences of the enemy’s disruptive policy on its own economy. Merchants of neutral countries took advantage of the context to expand their business, but the range of their opportunities varied in time and space, as they depended on the evolving needs of each of the belligerents, and the sea power in a given area. As a result, American ships met with different opportunities in Bordeaux, with its rich agricultural hinterland – where they considerably sustained local interests – and in the Mediterranean, where they faced the fierce competition of other neutral carriers, and met consistent difficulties in preserving their neutrality with regards to European belligerents and Barbary States. While pointing at the difficulty of concretely implementing economic warfare, the comparison also illustrates the need to precisely contextualise the effects of economic warfare.

Early Modern Period (1500–1800 CE)

This chapter surveys the limited evidence on Islamic palatial architecture in the Western Mediterranean during the Early Modern Period. Northern Africa was weakly incorporated into the Ottoman Empire as the Barbary States. In the capital cities– Tripoli, Tunis and Algiers – leaders took on the trappings of traditional Islamic rulers and preserved the earlier architectural styles and concepts of space in their palace designs. In Morocco a succession of Berber and Arab dynasties resisted the Ottomans and united the far-western Maghreb. These rulers underpinned their rule by religious ideology and built huge palatial cities featuring a diversity of architectural forms at the “royal cities” (Fes, Marrakesh, Rabat and Méknes) – though, for the most part, the chief typologies and spatial concepts were developed in previous centuries. Towards the end of the period, the growing influence of European colonialism brought an end to the tradition of Islamic architecture in both regions.

John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and the Barbary Pirates: An Illustration of Relevant Costs for Decision Making

The concepts of incremental cost, opportunity cost, sunk cost, and cost allocation are identified and discussed in the context of early U.S. foreign policy. The case is derived from an authentic exchange of views between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams about how the United States should protect its merchant shipping against the Barbary pirates. Both men compare the cost of waging war against the Barbary States with the cost of paying ransom for captured U.S. seamen and bribes to protect future shipping. Adams quantifies the opportunity cost associated with not taking any action. Jefferson articulates an incremental costing argument, on the assumption that the U.S. should build a navy regardless of U.S. policy toward the Barbary States. The case constitutes a brief introduction to management accounting by illustrating various cost concepts. The case lends itself to a discussion of how cost information can be chosen to support a particular course of action, and it can also prompt a discussion of the historical origins of management accounting.

A Tribal Market in the Spanish Zone of Morocco

As far as I am aware, no complete detailed study has been made before of any tribal market in North-West Africa (Barbary States), and certainly not of any in Morocco.Ubach and Rackow give a few details of the organization and customs at such a market in Tódga (S.E. Morocco), and other workers such as Doutté, Michaux-Bellaire and Salmon, Montagne, Coon, and the anonymous contributors to the official French Government publication Villes et Tribus du Maroc give general descriptions and a few details. Further, Hanoteau and Letourneux, and Schurtz, make some generally applicable statements, while Westermarck gives accurate details of a considerable number of practices at, and beliefs concerning, different markets in different tribes of Morocco. But no previous worker has published a detailed study of any one market.