Menacing Tides: Security, Piracy and Empire in the Nineteenth-century Mediterranean

Abstract

The fight against piracy changed the face of the Mediterranean forever. Over the course of the nineteenth century, the repression of the so-called ‘Barbary pirates’ from the North African states of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli inspired diplomatic interventions, destructive bombardments and unprecedented forms of military cooperation. It also opened the door to European imperial expansion and colonial rule on the Mediterranean’s southern shores. Menacing Tides explains why the fight against Mediterranean piracy began and uncovers the importance of security thinking to this repressive effort. Starting in 1815, when peace in Europe brought different states together in new projects of cooperation, this work analyses how perceptions of a piratical threat were turned into implemented policies and military campaigns. Menacing Tides draws from various archives and tells the stories of high-ranking diplomats, pirate captains, ruined merchants and unsuspecting tourists, clarifying how the Mediterranean Sea was turned into a space of security.