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

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that was wait<strong>in</strong>g to attack him should he did not comply. The message was also<br />

penned <strong>in</strong> Monroe’s <strong>in</strong>structions:<br />

The honorable term<strong>in</strong>ation of the war <strong>with</strong> England, <strong>with</strong> which the<br />

Government of Algiers is doubtless well <strong>in</strong>formed and the complete<br />

liberation of our forces for this service, must satisfy the Dey that he has<br />

much to dread from the cont<strong>in</strong>ued hostility of the United States. From<br />

the formidable force ready to assail him, he must anticipate the most<br />

serious disasters, and when he recollects how rapidly we have grown to<br />

the present height, a sure presage of the high dest<strong>in</strong>y which awaits us, he<br />

will f<strong>in</strong>d no cause to hope for any change <strong>in</strong> his favor. 165<br />

Accord<strong>in</strong>gly, the achievement of this complex set of objectives which<br />

implied strategic, political, economic, as well as nationalistic and j<strong>in</strong>goistic<br />

<strong>in</strong>gredients required that the Americans embark on a policy of gunboat<br />

diplomacy towards Algiers. The series of developments <strong>in</strong> relations between<br />

Algiers and the United States that occurred between 1798 and 1812, did only<br />

give the Americans, particularly the adm<strong>in</strong>istration of James Madison (1809-<br />

1817), the necessary arguments for send<strong>in</strong>g squadrons to Algiers <strong>in</strong> 1815. But<br />

the diplomacy of aggression was already a characteristic <strong>in</strong>herent <strong>in</strong> American<br />

foreign policy.<br />

165 WJMPPP, 5:379.<br />

381

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