Ottoman Algeria in Western Diplomatic History with ... - Bibliothèque

adventurers who were roaming in the vicinity of the North African shores to
prey on inhabitants and shipping of Algiers; and all that was sanctioned by
treaties which granted them protection at the least cost. So, more than just
providing protection against Algerian corsairs for safe passage of Anglo-Saxon
shipping in the Mediterranean as always argued, the treaties are “intriguing
examples of inequality of treatment” 31 and they offer a blatant diplomatic cover
for infiltration, a pre-stage for prospective colonization, wholesale enslavement
of peoples, and pillage of their national wealth.
Throughout the colonial period, American shipping in the
Mediterranean benefited from Great Britain’s treaties with Algiers and colonial
sailing-vessels carried passports delivered by British admiralty courts. 32 Such
conditions were highly profitable to the colonials and generated prosperity in
the American colonies. 33 After the colonies declared independence from Britain
in 1776, the latter issued new passports for its national ships, 34 a move which
the French Consul in Morocco Louis Chénier interpreted as a measure “to
deprive the insurgents of freedom of navigation on the coasts of Europe and
expose them to the attacks of the Barbaresques.” 35 But even that change did not
31 Kenneth Parker, “Reading ‘Barbary’,” p. 103.
32 For the Form of the Pass as provided by the treaty of 1682 see Hertslet, Collection of Treaties and
Conventions, pp. 65-66; for later passports see Marsden, Law and Custom of the Sea, pp. 347-348.
33 The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, edited by Francis Wharton
(Washington, D. C.: Government printing Office, 1889), 6:763, Morris to Messrs. Willink & Co,
Office of Finance, February 12, 1784. (Hereafter cited as USRDC).
34 Benjamin Franklin, The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, with a Life and Introduction, edited by
Albert Henry Smyth, 10 Vol. (New York/London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1906), 7:139, Claud Gillaud
to Benjamin Franklin, April 10, 1778. (Hereafter cited as WBF).
35 Priscilla H. Roberts and James N. Tull, “Moroccan Sultan Sidi Muhammad Ibn Abdallah’s
Diplomatic Initiatives toward the United States, 1777-1786,” Proceedings of the American
Philosophical Society, 143: 2 (Jun., 1999), p. 236.
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