Ottoman-USA War in Libya

Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On June 10, 1805 AD, the First Barbary War ended when the Ottoman Pasha (governor) of Tripolitania (Western Libya), Yusuf Karamanli, signed a treaty ending hostilities with the United States, which was forced to pay huge war indemnity. The First Barbary War occurred off the coast of Tripolitania between the North African Berber Muslim states and the intruding US fleet.
The principalities of Tripoli, Algiers, and Tunis, which were quasi-independent entities nominally under the Ottoman Empire, along with the semi independent Sultanate of Morocco, defeated the US navy. The war lasted four years, and the US, as per the advice of France and Spain had to pay war indemnities in order to procure the release of its prisoners.
In 1815, the US, now no longer engaged in hostilities with the British, again attacked the North African states in the Second Barbary War (also known as the Algerian War). With Ottoman naval power on the wane and the Mediterranean Sea no long the Turkish Lake of the past three centuries, the Barbary States were forced to seek peace by paying heavy damages to the US.
Within decades, European powers built more sophisticated ships which the Turks and the Barbary States could not match in numbers or technology. These iron-clad warships of the late 19th century and the early 20th century ensured European dominance of the Mediterranean. As a result Algeria and Tunis were occupied by France, although the Turks continued to hold Tripolitania (Libya) till 1911, when it fell to Fascist Italy.