Second Barbary War

Second Barbary War
Part of the Barbary Wars
Decatur's Squadron off Algiers.
Date June 17–19, 1815 Location Mediterranean sea, Barbary states Result United States victory
Belligerents
United States	Regency of Algiers
Commanders and leaders
James Madison Stephen Decatur, Jr. William Bainbridge James C. George	Mohamed Kharnadji Omar Agha Reis Hamidou
Strength
10 warships	1 brig 1 frigate
Casualties and losses
10 killed 30 wounded	53 killed 486 captured

The Second Barbary War (1815–1816), was the second of two wars fought between the United States and the North African Barbary states of Tripoli, Tunis, and Algeria. The war between the Barbary states and the U.S. ended when "the U.S. Senate ratified Decatur’s Algerian treaty on December 5, 1815". However, Dey Omar Agha, the ruler of Algeria, repudiated the US treaty, refused to accept the terms of peace that had been ratified by the Congress of Vienna, and threatened the lives of all Christian inhabitants of Algiers. William Shaler, the US commissioner who had negotiated alongside Decatur, had to flee aboard British vessels and later watched "shells and rockets fly over [his] house like hail" as a result of the subsequent Bombardment of Algiers (1816). Shaler then negotiated a new treaty after the Bombardment of Algiers in 1816, which was not ratified by the Senate until February 11, 1822, owing to an accidental oversight.

After the end of the war, the United States and European nations stopped their practice of paying tribute to the pirate states to forestall attacks on their shipping. It helped mark the beginning of the end of piracy in that region, which had been rampant in the days of Ottoman domination (16th–18th centuries). Within decades, European powers built ever more sophisticated and expensive ships which the Barbary pirates could not match in numbers or technology.

After the First Barbary War (1801–1805), the U.S. found its attention diverted to its worsening relationship with Great Britain over trade with France, which culminated in the War of 1812. The Barbary pirate states took this opportunity to return to their practice of attacking American and European merchant vessels in the Mediterranean Sea and holding their crews and officers for ransom.

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