Thursday, August 26, 2021

North Africa History



Rockport History Book Club

North Africa History

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

 



Arab Spring in Egypt

Wednesday, August 25, 2021. History of North Africa, from Morocco to Egypt, and including Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan, Mauritania and more. Pick a nation or a group of nations in the northern tier of Africa and learn how they interact, how they came to be, what problems are they having, or had, that attracted world attention in the past.  Some examples: The Barbary Pirates and how America’s President Jefferson took them on; The Italian Colonial history in Abyssinia and Somaliland; World War II—Field Marshal Rommel in North Africa; “Carthago delenda est!” The Punic War between Rome and Carthage; Tunisia and he Start of Arab Spring. [Proposed by Sam Coulbourn]

Gregory Fremont-Barnes, The Wars of the Barbary Pirates: To the shores of Tripoli—the rise of the U.S. Navy and Marines, Oxford, UK:Osprey. 2006.

            I thought it would be interesting to look at the history of this layer of countries on the Mediterranean shore of Africa, but my exposure was because of that body of water, more than those countries.

            I have read for years about the heroic efforts of America’s young navy in fighting the Barbary pirates, and for several years I sailed back and forth from Tangier to Tripoli to Marsa Matruh and the Gulf of Sollum, often submerged, cruising at 200- or 300-feet depth, but sometimes in a destroyer trailing warships of the Soviet Navy.

            These nations have history going back thousands of years, while there was a vast forest where the Sahara Desert is now.  The Phoenicians visited this land and planted settlers, and so did the Greeks and the Romans. At the very start of the birth of Islam in the seventh century CE Arabs swept over the land, which became known as Maghreb, or “The West” in Arabic.

            Muslims had advanced in Europe in Spain and France and then 1492 marked the year when Grenada fell and they were swept out of Europe, back across the Straits of Gibraltar to Africa. Spaniards came after them and that marked the high-water mark of Spain’s colonialism in North Africa.

             Then came the Ottomans, who occupied the Maghreb and extracted tribute from the residents and local leaders.  Gradually collecting the tribute or sending it to Constantinople got to be too hard.  But the local pirates on the Barbary Coast kept it up, attacking merchant ships sailing along the eastern Atlantic coast, or along the Mediterranean.  Some Barbary pirates sailed out further, toward South America, and along the British Isles.

            One pair of brothers, called the Barbarossa Brothers, Aruj and Khayr ad Din, born in Lesbos in the Aegean, became Muslims, came to Tunis in 1504 and arranged with the ruler to give him a fifth of their booty. They were wild. They gathered a squadron of ships and one day they captured the treasure galley, a large boat propelled by slave rowers, belonging to Pope Julius II. Aruj was killed soon after, but Khayr raised hell for decades, while many thousands were killed.

            European Navies worked out individual arrangements with the Dey of Algiers, the Bey of Tunis, the Bashaw of Tripoli and the Emperor of Morocco, and American colonial merchantmen sailing the Barbary coast were protected by the Royal Navy—until the Revolutionary War ended. 

            With war over, the American Continental Congress sold the warships that had helped to win the war.  Under Presidents Washington and Adams, America began to pay tribute to these Barbary pirates, until President Jefferson took over and he demanded that America build a Navy again, and Congress agreed.

            I supplemented my reading at this point with an 1805 newspaper I have in my collection. The Boston Repertory for Friday September 6, 1805, carries a story from Salem about the adventure of General Eaton, operating under orders of the United States, landed the previous December in Alexandria, Egypt with a cargo of money, musquets (sic), pikes, ammunition, field artillery, camp equipment, etc. and several officers. They met with the ex-Bashaw of Tripoli and gathered an army of some 6000 volunteers. They marched west toward Tripoli. They encountered Tripolitan forces and captured the city of Dern, seeking to free American slaves held there, and obtain an “honorable treaty of peace” for the United States. When the city fell, one of the eight U.S. Marines replaced the Tripolitan flag with the Stars and Stripes.  This was a first for the young USA, and the reason for “the shores of Tripoli” in the Marines’ Hymn.

            The first war of the United States with the Barbary States—the Tripolitan, from 1801 to 1805, was mainly the young U.S. Navy growing, with officers like Decatur, Preble and Bainbridge showing their skill and improving their leadership for fighting and defeating the Royal Navy in the War of 1812.

            The second, the Algerine war from 1815-16 was exacerbated by the British and lasted only three days.  It resulted in the end of tribute payments and enslavement of American sailors.

                                   

                                                                                -end-

  

HISTORY BOOK CLUB TOPICS FOR 2021


Elizabeth Eckford goes to school, Little Rock, 1957

Wednesday, September 29, 2021. The Fight for Civil Rights. America began with the fight for Civil Rights for colonists and the fight continues for groups of Americans.  Pick a group – what are they fighting for, what’s their strategy, are they gaining or losing ground and why? [Proposed by Mary Beth Smith]

 


Karen women in Myanmar 

Wednesday, October 27, 2021. Mass Refugee movements in History. Movements of a large number from one nation to another can and have changed the face of the earth. Read about any era on this topic or read about the phenomenon as a whole. Consider the movement of Arab nationals today into Europe, or the pre-historic migration of peoples from Siberia to North America. Or perhaps Irish victims of the potato famine coming to America and Canada in the 1840s. [Proposed by Sam Coulbourn]



                                                                K. Moran, New York Times

 Wednesday, December 1, 2021. [Moved back one week to avoid conflict with Thanksgiving.] Is the American Empire in retreat? Roman troops met their match in German forests and Parthian deserts, and there was decay at home, and suddenly, the Roman Empire was gone. America saw the limits of empire as helicopters lifted escapees from the American Embassy in Saigon in 1975, and then again in a dramatic exodus from Kabul in 2021. We keep learning that our military power can destroy but it cannot build.  China is growing and aiming at world-wide supremacy, and Russia is straining to recover its super-power. At home there are signs of decay, as our democracy is challenged, millions resist cures for a pandemic and our spirit is tested. Is this the twilight of American ascendance? [Proposed by Sam Coulbourn]

There will be no later meeting in December.

2022

Women defense workers, World War II

Wednesday, January 26, 2022. World War II at Home.  World War II raged from the jungles of Burma to the steppes of Russia, all over the world.  But this is a look at the Home Front, from Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Fireside Chats to children collecting tin cans and lead toothpaste tubes, paper and even jars of grease for “The War Effort”. It includes the movement of many thousands of Black Americans from menial jobs in the South to better paying jobs in the North, working in defense plants.  Millions of women also joined the work force as men went to fight overseas. Also, how Hollywood helped with patriotic films and propaganda cartoons, as well as War Bond drives. [Proposed by Cindy Grove].

 

Landing of Pedro Cabral in future Brazil, 1500.

Painting by Oscar da Silva, 1922.

Wednesday, February 23, 2022. South America has a rich history, from Incas and other indigenous peoples to colonization by Spanish, Portuguese, and other European nations, onward to monarchy in Argentina, slavery, and struggling democracies. It’s the history of Machu Pichu, exploration and exploitation of the Amazon, Simon Bolivar, Pedro Cabral, Juan Peron, Hugo Chavez, Augusto Pinochet, The Falklands War, Shining Path.  Select any period, any nation or group, and let us learn together. [Proposed by Sam Coulbourn]

 

 

 

Wednesday, March 30, 2022.  Reconstruction, 1865-77 Abraham Lincoln had a clear picture of what should be done after the end of the War Between the States, but his assassination meant that Andrew Johnson, the Democrat who succeeded him, would be President. Read about this dangerous, murderous time in our history as we sought to regain the 11 Confederate States in the Union.  Read about the growth of white supremacist organizations, and the different ways that America handled the end of slavery, and welcoming (?) millions of newly freed Africans to America.  [Proposed by Mary Beth Smith]

 

 







                                       



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