What was the name of the war on terror that Thomas Jefferson waged against a middle eastern country?

Question

Just need to know what the war was known as...

Answer 1

Well, first of all, Jefferson was one of the worst Presidents of all time and any war that he was in charge of would have been a complete war of Incompetence.

Second, once America was independent of England, American merchant ships no longer enjoyed the protection of the Royal Navy and almost immediately the Barbary Pirates(petty warlords who plied the seas from Morocco to Libya) started confiscating US ships and selling American sailors into slavery until they were ransomed.

The USN which had won a measure of respect during the Revolutionary War and the naval Quasi-War with France was nearly destroyed by Jefferson. His great idea was that all warships should be destroyed once a peace treaty was signed and new ones not built until the next war, thus theoretically saving money. His idiotic view point was that a few gunboats(little more than a rowboat with a few cannon in it) could protect the many towns and harbors on the American Coast and since he rejected all ideas of expansion, the US would have no need for an actual sea going navy.

His policy cost not only the loss of many jobs in those cities that were naval building cities and ports, but also do to massive corruption by his political appointees, the cost of the some 280 gunboats that he had built cost more than building, manning and provisioning of a USN fleet that would have been second only to the Royal Navy for the next 30 years .

The complete lack of training for the officers and crew of the fledgling USN bore bitter fruit before and during the War of 1812 and may in fact have been one of the causes of the war itself. It has been proven time and time again, country after country, that the only way to prevent someone from attacking you is to be so prepared to defend yourself that nobody dares to attack you.

Jefferson's official policiy was that it was much cheaper to pay the danegeld(BRIBE!) than to create, train, man and provision an actual navy. Of course, he signed treaties with the various warlords and they promised not to attack US ships, treaties which lasted only so long as they needed more money or more slaves.

Jefferson finally sent USN ships to the Mediterranean Sea to protect US merchant ships and to punish the pirates. The inadequately provided for and trained USN and the US Marines did wonders, including the capture of Derna(Tripoli).

Unfortuneately, just as William Eaton, the Consul to Tripoli, with the able assistance of the USMC who had captured Derna, was working out a new treaty with the pacha that would forevermore remove US ships from the reaches of the Barbary Pirates AND without the US paying anymore tribute AND with the return of all Americans who were captured and sold into slavery, Jefferson sent another embassy to the pacha of Tripoli that resumed the previous treaty and included the resumption of payment of tribute to the pacha. A treaty that would be broken by the end of the decade and would require the USN to once again go into harm's way to end once and for all the War of the Barbary Pirates on the United States.

The Barbary Pirate states included Tripoli, Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis.

whale

Answer 2

Thomas Jefferson (March 28, 1786) We had a conference with the Ambassador of Tripoli at his house. The amount of all the information we can obtain from him was that perpetual peace was in all respects the most advisable, because a temporary treaty would leave room for increasing demands upon every renewal of it, and a stipulation for annual payments would be liable to failures of performance which would renew the war, repeat the negotiations and continually augment the claims of his nation and the difference in expense would by no means be adequate to the inconvenience. We took the liberty to make some inquiries concerning the grounds of their pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation. The Ambassador answered us that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Muslim who should be slain in battle was sure to go to paradise.

Answer 3

You would be speaking of the First or the Second Barbary War fought at Sea and on land by American Marines against Pirates in North Africa, a Moslem Vassal Statem that had been preying on ships for hundreds of years demanding and getting tribute from lesser nations. America said No to paying a bribe and humbled the Barbary Pirates/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Wars
""The Barbary Wars (or Tripolitan Wars) were two wars between the United States of America and Barbary States in North Africa. At issue was the pirates' demand of tribute from American merchant vessels in the Mediterranean Sea. American naval power attacked the pirate cities and extracted concessions of fair passage from their brigand rulers.

The Barbary Wars are sometimes called "America's Forgotten War", although they share that dubious honor with several other conflicts. The wars largely passed out of popular memory within a generation.

The punitive actions against the Barbary States were launched by the administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. When they proved successful, partisans of the Jeffersonian Republicans contrasted their administrations' refusal to buy off the pirates with the failure of the preceding federalist administration to live up to the rhetorical flight, "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute," attributed to Charles C. Pinckney in the course of the XYZ Affair.

The Marines Hymn contains a reference to this conflict in the opening line: "From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli..."

Peace

Answer 4

why William H has three thumbs down is puzzling, as he is 100% correct..

and one of those ships from that war, is still in commission as a US Navy ship, Flagship of the first Naval District in Boston ; the USS Constitution.

There is a great painting of her and the first USS Enterprise, standing into Tripoli harbor with their guns run out, to give our reply to the Pasha, called "Payment in Iron"