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Corsairs
CORSAIRS
The corsairs sailed under the colors of the so-called Barbary states of North Africa from the early sixteenth century until the European naval powers suppressed their activity after the end of the Napoleonic wars. The North African corsairs attacked commercial ships sailing the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea of those Christian powers that did not have treaty relations with their political masters, seized the vessels, cargoes, and crews, and sold them in their home ports—Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, Rabat-Salé, and other smaller coastal towns. In Algiers, and to a lesser extent in Tunis and Tripoli, the corsairs came to control the (nominally) Ottoman Empire's political systems in the latter part of the sixteenth century, while in Morocco the Alawi (of the Alawite dynasty) sultans used them as a tool of their foreign policy after their rise to power in the 1660s. The corsairs were chief participants in the Barbary wars that ended in 1821. see also alawite dynasty; barbary states; barbary wars. Jerome Bookin-Weiner |
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Cite this article
Bookin-weiner, Jerome. "Corsairs." Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. Bookin-weiner, Jerome. "Corsairs." Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3424600727.html Bookin-weiner, Jerome. "Corsairs." Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. 2004. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3424600727.html |
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privateers
privateers Licensed sea-raiders in time of war, who had government-issued letters of marque or reprisal allowing them to attack enemy shipping. Privateers were often employed in European wars in the 16th and 17th centuries by the English, French, and Dutch, and they later became common in the Caribbean, North America, and the Indian Ocean during imperial conflicts. The Americans resorted to widespread privateering during the Wars of Independence and 1812; the South followed this example during the Civil War. Privateers were internationally abolished by the Declaration of Paris (1856).
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Cite this article
"privateers." A Dictionary of World History. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "privateers." A Dictionary of World History. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O48-privateers.html "privateers." A Dictionary of World History. 2000. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O48-privateers.html |
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