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

CHAPTER VI
Diplomacy of Aggression, 1784-1789
America has never ceased to be an enigma to itself and to others,
incalculable because so untried, so little ballasted by tradition: compared
with any of the European countries a figure without a shadow, a young
giant, childlike, at once heroic and destructive, an innocently-trampling
Siegfried. 1 Victor G. Kiernan (2005)
Introduction
From the long history of diplomatic relations between Algiers and
foreign states this work has already identified four major principles that were
still in force at the end of the 18 th
century. Those principles included:
recognition of the sovereignty of Algiers, maritime control which necessitated
the use of valid passports to identify friendly shipping, and redemption or
exchange of captives. Finally expenses for treaties, tribute, and consular
presents were negotiated, fixed, and incorporated into treaties. It is, therefore,
worth noting right at the beginning that the crisis of the 1780s in Algerian-
American relations related directly to those principles, or at least all excepting
sovereignty.
1 Victor Gordon Kiernan, America, the New Imperialism: From White Settlement to World Hegemony
(London/New York: Verso, 2005), pp. 3-4.
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