The sums the US was paying as ransom was absolutely enormous. A fifth of the national budget. 👀
Discussion
Whoa…
Interesting fact: if you go to Walt Disney world, in Epcot Morocco, there is a facsimile of a letter George Washington wrote to the king of Morocco…I believe it is framed under the title “America’s first friend,” which is a nice way of looking at the conflict and “Treaty of Peace and Friendship.”
Apparently Morocco was held hostage too by the same pirates, but history is always tricky to parse finely.
Some of the European shipmen that were enslaved converted to Islam and became captains. They were the most successful pirates because they knew the European coastline.
Some eventually went rogue and started their own states.
Reminds me of the German ISIS guys, who went to Asia and immediately took over.
Or the Chechyen troops leading the Russian front.
European + Islam = Holy Terror
Like Andrew Tate. 😂
Converts to Islam and 5 minutes later he's like
Look at me. Look at me. I am the captain now.
lol…well, those pirates learned that America really doesn’t like it when you mess with our boats. The US destroyed half the Iranian navy in 8 hours for an attack during freedom of navigation exercises to reopen the gulf back in the 70’s I think…
A lot of global trade has been enabled by US boats guaranteeing freedom of navigation…the lack of a piracy tariff (nation state tariffs are barely different and bad enough) has enabled economies to develop in historically unlikely places.