Ottoman Algeria in Western Diplomatic History with ... - Bibliothèque

American agents, however, without instructions of their government sought the
good offices of the amicable and friendly Dey Hassan Pasha who did the
preliminary job and secured them advantageous treaties. The Dey even went
further; he guaranteed the treaties with Tunis and Tripoli that were signed in
1796 and 1797 respectively but also advanced the money needed for those
treaties. 133 But before all that was accomplished for the United States, Algiers
had to put up with all the drawbacks of an irresponsible Congress and
contemptuous and duplicitous amateurs in diplomacy.
Upon concluding those treaties, the United States moved further in its
penetration of the Mediterranean but that time it exported influence, not just
goods, into the Muslim world; or as the American historian Field and authority
on American relations with the Mediterranean world put it:
In the Mediterranean and Near East the export of American produce was
soon followed by an export of American skills and of American
missionary benevolence, commodities which over the long run would
prove of greater importance than the items on conventional bills of
lading. 134
Finally, economic and missionary activities brought about a naval
presence which proved to be long-lasting. From its first sail in the
Mediterranean in 1801 and until 1816, America’s last show of muscles at the
port of Algiers, Jefferson’s “squadron of observation” had become involved in
the dignity of Congress to read a detail of the ceremonies which attended the conference: it would be
more proper to write them to harlequin, for the amusement of the gay at the New York theatre.” USDC,
4:489-90, From John Adams to John Jay, February 17, 1786.
133 Irwin, Diplomatic Relations, p. 76.
134 Field, James A., Jr. “Trade, Skills, and Sympathy: The First Century and a Half of Commerce with
the Near East,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 401, America
and the Middle East, (May, 1972), p. 2.
244