Barbary Wars:american Independence Atlantic World. The Book

¶ … Barbary Wars:American Independence Atlantic World. The book written Frank Lambert. You cite book identify page number parenthesis. The book source . This review focus Chapter 4: The Cultural Construction Barbary States.

There is much controversy concerning the American public and the degree to which its tendency to ignore foreign ideas affects its ability to play an active role within the community. Americans firstly failed in many of their attempts to establish connections with other peoples because of their tendency to consider stereotypes when interacting with these respective communities. American relations with Barbary States were characterized by the American public being bombarded with information involving the harsh contrast between the cruel Barbary Pirates and the freedom-loving American society.

The American treatment of countries like Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli as "piratical states" certainly makes it possible for one to understand the degree to which American ideology promotes the idea that a body can be discriminated on account of its associations with other criminal bodies. The American government had a different understanding with regard to pirates who acted on behalf of their own interests and pirates who were supported by foreign governments. "During its War of Independence, for example, the United States relied heavily upon privateers to disrupt British supply ships." (107)

The fact that each nation had to devise laws with regard to pirates led to a series of opinions about what should be considered a standard set of requirements that a person would have to meet in order for him or her to be categorized as a pirate. Francis Drake is renowned as a hero on account of his participation in destroying the Spanish armada, despite the fact that many considered him to be no different from a pirate. This is actually one of the reasons why the American government changed its perspective concerning privateers. Many European nations considered that the Barbary corsairs could not possibly be considered pirates and the British in particular provided certain privateers with a series of privileges. "Having suffered unprovoked attacks by the corsairs, Americans of course found this preposterous." (108) Americans came to be confused as a result of seeing how European states accepted Barbary communities in spite of the fact that they could easily defeat them.

Americans came to consider cultural values as being extremely important in shaping people's thinking. As a result, they associated behavior seen with Barbary pirates with the fact that Barbary states in general were somewhat primitive in nature and that it would be pointless for them to try and use reason as a means to communicate with these respective states. "John Adams referred to the Barbary States as a "nest of banditti," a metaphor that George Washington employed as well." (110) Many Americans considered the traditional definition of a barbarian when considering such assumptions and thus believed that individuals in Barbary States could practically be considered the most dangerous and malevolent enemies that they U.S. had ever dealt with. This is actually one of the reasons why American history is filled with episodes involving Americans knowing very little concerning foreign states. The American public was bombarded with controversial information throughout the years and had difficulty filtering it. This eventually led to Americans coming to have particularly distorted perceptions of foreign states.

American leaders used the term barbarian in a series of occasions, as they became accustomed to relating to many individuals that were in conflict with their thinking style by using it. Their views were no limited by geographical location, as they even considered British general Charles Cornwallis to be a barbarian. These respective leaders were basically influencing the American public to associate cruel images from antiquity with the image of individuals in foreign states. Even with the fact that their behavior was typical for the time period they lived in, many foreign leaders were regarded as putting across barbaric attitudes on account of their failure to cooperate with the U.S. The American public's opinion concerning foreign states was often shaped by how its leaders would relate to particular topics.