America's First War On Terror: The Barbary Pirate Wars

Burning of the Frigate Philadelphia in the Harbor of Tripoli,
Painting by Edward Moran 1897"The most bold and daring act of the age."
—Horatio Nelson

In the early 1800s, the United States of America fought two small but fierce wars with the Islamic states of Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli and the independent Sultanate of Morocco.  The first war's turning point was the Battle of Derna, where a mercenary force lead by U.S. Marines took the City of Derna in a combined overland and naval attack.

The Battle for Tripoli was adverted by a premature peace treaty.  Derna was returned to the Pasha.

Tripoli Momument, U.S. Navel Academy 

A Tripolitan observer of the time was quoted as saying: “The English, French, and Spanish Consuls have told us that they [the Americans] were a young nation, and got their independence by means of France; that they had a small navy and their officers were inexperi­enced, and they were merely a nation of merchants, and that by taking their ships and men, we should get great ransoms. Instead of this, their Preble pays us a coin of shot, shells, and hard blows; and sent a Decatur, in a dark night with a band of Christian dogs fierce and cruel as the tiger, who killed our brothers and burnt our ships before our eyes.”

Unfortunately the hostage and privateering practices of the Barbary States did not end there.  They soon started up again and the Barbary States took advantage of the War of 1812 and the United States' preoccupation with Great Britain.  It was only after the war concluded that Stephen Decatur led another force to the Mediterranean which after two Barbary ships being seized resulted in negotiations which ended the hostage taking practices of these states.