Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm editor Candice Gibson, joined today by the fabulous and
Speaker 1: oh so awesome Josh Click. Thank you Cannis and let
Speaker 1: me say you are and ahoy to you. Oh that
Speaker 1: reminds me of a joke that I know. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: what what do pirates drive cars? That's great. You know,
Speaker 1: there's not enough pirate jokes these days. No, but there's
Speaker 1: no shortage of pirates. I mean you've got Johnny Depp
Speaker 1: and sure Keith Richards, and Johnny Depp doing Keith Richards,
Speaker 1: and then Johnny Depp pretending East Keith Richards, which is
Speaker 1: totally different. And then Johnny Depp recently played a musical
Speaker 1: instrument on stage somewhere, not under the guise of a
Speaker 1: pirate musical, a guitar, nice one. That's great. You know
Speaker 1: there's also some real life pirates off the coast of
Speaker 1: Somalia is a strong haven for pirates these days. And
Speaker 1: actually that's uh, that's kind of been the way it's
Speaker 1: been for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Do you
Speaker 1: remember when we were doing the America's first Murderer podcast,
Speaker 1: and we were saying, like, one of the cool things
Speaker 1: about America being such a young nation as we can
Speaker 1: point to the first you know, like, we know who
Speaker 1: America's first murderer was, and um, the first child born
Speaker 1: in America. Sure, that kind of thing, Virginia Dair, first
Speaker 1: English child born in America was Virginia Dare. Uh. We
Speaker 1: should really make that that distinction, thank you. Um. Actually,
Speaker 1: we can point to America's first terrorist threat. We know
Speaker 1: exactly what it was. And you know, in the world today,
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of a commonplace thing. We're always thinking
Speaker 1: about terrorism. It's always somewhere in the back of our mind,
Speaker 1: especially around you know, September eleven, which is around the
Speaker 1: time and we're recording this right, um, But the terrorists
Speaker 1: of your are well are kind of a different ilk
Speaker 1: than than the ones we're running into today. Do you
Speaker 1: do you know much about the Barbary pirates? I do.
Speaker 1: These guys were smart. They were Class A extorationists. They
Speaker 1: essentially set up camp along the Barbary coast and they
Speaker 1: had really gosh full rain over the Mediterranean. Really, they
Speaker 1: were European ships that would make several routes back and
Speaker 1: forth between Europe and the East Indies which is today
Speaker 1: the Middle East, and the Barbary Pirates caught one of
Speaker 1: this and they're like, you know, these guys, they they're wealthy,
Speaker 1: they have all these goods on board their ships. Why
Speaker 1: don't we kidnap them and thunder? They're good? This is
Speaker 1: they weren't the first ones to come up with the
Speaker 1: bar The Barbary Pirates were named after the Barbary Coast,
Speaker 1: which is the North African coast today like live and
Speaker 1: l Jeers and that kind of thing. Morocco Um and
Speaker 1: the coast was named after the brothers Barbarossa, which was
Speaker 1: I believe Spanish for red beards. It was the Spaniards
Speaker 1: who were getting attacked the most frequently Um and the
Speaker 1: these these two brothers, the two red Beard brothers, were
Speaker 1: actually Turks who came down to the coast of North
Speaker 1: Africa to assist the Moors. So anyway, these two Turkish brothers,
Speaker 1: the red Beard brothers, Um, the Barbarossa brothers, came down.
Speaker 1: They're helping the Moors get back at the Spanish by
Speaker 1: um molesting ships, capturing people, enslaving them, and they started
Speaker 1: to make a lot of money doing this. But like
Speaker 1: I said, they weren't the first once the Mediterranean, especially
Speaker 1: in the area, had been the site of piracy for
Speaker 1: thousands of years by the time the Barbarossa brothers showed up.
Speaker 1: So that's the story of the Barbary coast up to well,
Speaker 1: I stand correct, and I don't even know what to
Speaker 1: do with myself now. I'm say he used to being
Speaker 1: an at all. So not coincidentally, that year really begins
Speaker 1: the age of exploration to the New World. But like
Speaker 1: you said, by this time, all of Europe was going
Speaker 1: to the East Indies for hundreds of years by then, right,
Speaker 1: And as a result, all of Europe was under the
Speaker 1: thumb of these Barbary pirates. Uh. The thing is is
Speaker 1: people kept giving tribute to them, kept paying them off,
Speaker 1: kept basically bribing these people to leave their country alone
Speaker 1: or leaving ships from the country alone, but you know,
Speaker 1: maybe harass other countries. I had heard though, that it
Speaker 1: was actually your favorite president, Mr Thomas Jefferson, who finally
Speaker 1: stood up to the Barbary pirates when no one else would.
Speaker 1: Is that fact or fiction? That's fact? Okay, it is fact.
Speaker 1: T Jay is my faith and you know he had
Speaker 1: red hair, not to be confused with the red bearded pirates.
Speaker 1: He was, you know, his pretty ballsy. And America was
Speaker 1: a very a young nation, but it had grown exponentially
Speaker 1: by this time, and so the Barbary pirates had been
Speaker 1: demanding tribute from American ships, and originally it had been
Speaker 1: a more modest sum. I think that eighty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: had been the first amount actually built into the United
Speaker 1: States budgets. So the US was paying tribute like everybody
Speaker 1: else because they were they were going through the Mediterranean
Speaker 1: as well to get to the East Indies right precisely. Well,
Speaker 1: that was four but then by sevent they were demanding
Speaker 1: one million dollars. What was the what was the change? Well,
Speaker 1: because the US was getting bigger and it was importing
Speaker 1: and experting more and being more frequently on these trade routes.
Speaker 1: And at this point Thomas Jefferson sort of took notice
Speaker 1: of the situation, and the US had really good diplomatic
Speaker 1: relations with France. Ben Franklin had originally been the US
Speaker 1: Minister to France, and he had set up a treaty
Speaker 1: with France that set essentially, you know, you look out
Speaker 1: for the American sailors will look out for the French
Speaker 1: sailors everything, you know, tip for tat on the high
Speaker 1: seas against these pirates. And then Thomas Jefferson when he
Speaker 1: was ministered to France, when he was actually in Paris,
Speaker 1: you know, gathering ideas for the architecture of Monticello, he
Speaker 1: also started to think about, well, why can't we take
Speaker 1: the superpower of France and the growing strength of the
Speaker 1: US and maybe reach out to England and see if
Speaker 1: we can form some sort of coalition against these pirates.
Speaker 1: But no one was on board. It was just him
Speaker 1: and well, I imagine England was still a little irked
Speaker 1: from you know, the whole revolution and everything. Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 1: So finally, when Thomas Jefferson has elected the presidency, he
Speaker 1: has the ability to say at that point, okay, this
Speaker 1: is it. And it was perfect timing because at this
Speaker 1: point that Barbary pirates had gotten some American sailors and
Speaker 1: essentially they told the U s Okay, we're going to
Speaker 1: release two. You are going to pay us this much money,
Speaker 1: and if you don't, we're going to war. And that
Speaker 1: was just the door that Thomas Jefferson was looking for.
Speaker 1: He was like, all right, we're going to war. It
Speaker 1: was that simple. So he sent his eight eight to
Speaker 1: the Mediterranean. And there were actually two sets of barbary
Speaker 1: wars that resulted from this, and the first that Thomas
Speaker 1: Jefferson wage, they were sort of uneventful. It was mostly
Speaker 1: sea battles, you know, maritime fighting. It went on for
Speaker 1: four years and it ended with a treaty and things
Speaker 1: were okay for a couple of years after that. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think that there was still some plundering and pillaging
Speaker 1: and raping and slave trading going on, but typical pirates,
Speaker 1: typical pirates stuff. Anyway. Uh In eighteen fifteen, when James
Speaker 1: Monroe came along, there was a second set of barbary wars,
Speaker 1: and he was a little bit more shall we say,
Speaker 1: assertive than Thomas Jefferson was. Sure. He's the one who
Speaker 1: came up with the Monroe doctrine, right, yeah, you wanna
Speaker 1: you wanna have out of with that. That's the world
Speaker 1: police doctrine pretty much right, that the US would serve
Speaker 1: as the police of the Western hemisphere as far as
Speaker 1: I know, And that they did, and they gave it
Speaker 1: back to these pirates. It was like all those years
Speaker 1: of pent up frustration of of having American sailors kidnapped
Speaker 1: and having to doll out and money. Finally, just you know,
Speaker 1: you came to Ahead today. It came to Ahead, I understand.
Speaker 1: You know what I find striking though, and I've heard
Speaker 1: this before, that you said that a treaty ended the
Speaker 1: first Barbary War, right, and um, I think that was
Speaker 1: brokered by a diplomat that the US actually had in Um,
Speaker 1: one of the Barbary states. Then you find it on
Speaker 1: that that we had diplomats like trying to broker peace
Speaker 1: deals stationed in these these countries that were run by pirates.
Speaker 1: You would think so, but I think that it was
Speaker 1: sort of no holds barred when it came to this
Speaker 1: piracy because for so long we had been negotiating with
Speaker 1: pirates like they were businessmen. You know, there were sums
Speaker 1: worked out, there were tributes paid, there were I think
Speaker 1: some sort of backhand, backhanded deals waged against them in
Speaker 1: order to get the release of prisoners. And you know,
Speaker 1: it wasn't unheard of for something like this to occur.
Speaker 1: So that's like the original state sponsored terrorism. Huh wow,
Speaker 1: all right, thanks Cannice. I get it now. And is fact?
Speaker 1: You say fact that's great. So I have a little
Speaker 1: fact of my own. You want to hear it? Yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: I want to hear it. So you know the marine him, Yes,
Speaker 1: you've heard it. You know, from the halls of Montezouma
Speaker 1: to the shores of Triple Lee. Yeah, that's a nice sparitane.
Speaker 1: Thank you. That um that that shores of Tripoli was
Speaker 1: actually from the Barbary war. I think it was the
Speaker 1: second one. The Marines stormed Tripoli, Libya and basically took
Speaker 1: care of business. So that's where that part of the
Speaker 1: first line of the Marines him comes from. Did you did?
Speaker 1: And if you want to know even more about the
Speaker 1: Barbary pirates, maybe even as much, if not more than Josh,
Speaker 1: you can read what was America's First terrorist threat on
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