The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World - Essay Example

? Book Review: The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World Sagas of sea wars and piracy of ships crossing Mediterranean waters have long been a readers’ delight. Those action packed stories are profound significances of the emergence of a nationality spirit against the might of invaders in the utmost serenity of the aquatic blueness. The thematic skills applied in the fictional part become more competent if the tussle is between a mighty hero and a group of villains. Lambert’s insight of fact –finding historical literature creates an ornamental insignia of all the presumptions and imaginations about the implications of the off-shore piracy, the deadly wars and the formation of political realignments of security measures among various European and African countries and North America. The book “The Barbary Wars” thus needs to be seen as the compilation of actual incidents with fictional decoration. As can be seen, this is the first of its kind book with careful concern for the risks of international trade and on-water merchandising. This book hails concerns of applaud from all its readers because of the simplicity of literature and accuracy of fictional presentation of witnessed events with contemporary views about the present political and defense manifestations across the member nations. The enthusiasm emerged from reading the stories of piracy is higher than the ferocity it has in reality; I f one witnesses or reads through the history, it can never be comfortably sensible to appreciate the deeds of pirates. The main factors attributed to the fights by an international coalition against the unconventional enemy were predominantly the search for a circumstantial withdrawal from creative terror to sea-water trade. The coalition of British Royal Navy was initially a great factor for the protection of American merchant ships. Since the fear factor claims rose higher than the tolerable limits, France also joined the ally to provide safety to vessels crossing the waters of piratical states of the Mediterranean Sea. Huge amount of dollars for ransom were the aim of pirates; and with the emergence of statehood, America had to give priority concerns to its sovereignty by contributing more and more protection to inter-water trade. But much of this strength on offer was considered a possible threat by America for the fact the British feared the “United States as a competitor” (Lambert, 43). The book reveals the trials of eminent politicians and statesmen of the country to frame tactics against piracy and pirates. The need for a war was highly intense, but the consideration of human elements always stood stronger than the urge for the calamity. What is explicit through the tuning of the literature is the finding of a great answer to the question if the mighty America was rising above the powers of evil forces of tyranny on the water or the then politically insignificant affair of the United State’s struggle for excellence in activating the entity of free trade among the dominant naval giants Like France, Britain and Spain. The political scenario was as such where America had to yield a submission to the European power support to weigh up strategies against the Muslim North Africa’s mercenary naval forces or so called Mediterranean pirates. Hence, the entire story can be deemed as a historical theme of settlement of cause-effect standardization of American opportunities in international business aided by their military forces in a rather conflict condition of a disastrous war. The historical struggle for survival concern against the mercantile constraints is the theme of the novel. But the author has shown his inimitable style of narrating the attributes of how a political and military discomfort reaching the religious conflicts between Christian dominant U S A and the Muslim held Arab World. “The Barbary Wars” justifies the quest for a resourcing detail as to how the pirates roamed around on the surface of the sea in search of priceless booty they could seize from a comparatively unarmed crew and how the survival of America was possible after the colonial seizure by the British for such a long time. This book characterizes the crises America faced the phenomenal struggle for economic stability alongside the aftershocks of the imperial plundering of England and the post liberation concerns from the unpredictability of piracy. This is an unforgettable reading experience for every truth searchers to find how hard American military forces struggled uphold the privilege of sea-water trade in the international levels to emerge as the highest strength in world economy. The book is clearly based on a historical incident, but the literature sometimes draws your eyes to feel the visual presence of a war-booting experience of incidents described in the development. Most of such stories have impressive outfits of integrity concerns among neighbor nations and the surfacing of a protective human cover was devised only from the imaginations of appreciable levels of intellectual writing. Lambert is of the view that the business interest is power driven by the interference of international political pressures on America to reach the apex of world sea water trade and excel its off-shore ability as a naval force. Lambert believes that as the end of the Napoleonic War, it “gave America freedom of navigation in the Atlantic” (Lambert,188).The story goes interesting when it reaches the lines of a rather adventurous team of American sailors overpowering the attack of the pirates in the outer seas. Symbolism is required in a limited volume in this type of narrations. He has justified the base of his stance as a political critic while exploring the undisclosed facts behind piracy and its manifestations. Essentially, the theme of the work flows through a centralized view of the political and economical reframing of the United States after the independence from British colonialism with the importance for a powerful naval force. Continuous confrontations with pirates was the biggest threat faced by the country simultaneously with the rivalry factors of the entire Barbary coast covering the North African Arab speaking states like Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco, and Algiers. Lambert says, “a small band (Algeiers)of pirates brought (American)commerce to stand still” (Lambert,.30, 56).These factors, however draws limited attention towards the development of the story as Lambert considers struggle for winning the political supremacy was more important for America than grievances caused during the interventions of piracy. “the Barbary Wars were primarily about trade, not theology, and that rather than being holy wars, they were an extension of America’s War of Independence”( Lambert, 8). Lambert is successful in covering all the aspects related to the political prominence of the Barbary States and the factors behind its development as a piracy hub. The criticism of its literature is basically balanced on how Lambert considers military experiences of American naval force as a political tool for promoting business supremacy over all other Western countries, in particular, the European counterparts. Lambert connects the American republican ideology with the importance of fascinating stories of pirates and the talk of Holy Wars due to the high intensity disputes between Christians and Muslims in a fantastic way. The author covers his acute canvassing style for presenting the inner plays of leaders of nations in pursuit of their interest in international business in a formative way. According to Lambert’s view, “America’s rise was the result of changes in the Atlantic world more than in the country’s military exploits” ( Lambert, 22). Thus the channel through the Atlantic was more precious to American business set up than the Mediterranean Sea. The story sounds vehemently interesting with pulsating narrations of action sequences at regular intervals for the preservation for action lovers. At times, the author uses glimpse of political satires as a resultant mixture of cultural conflicts between the English minded Americans and the Arabs. He tries his maximum to exclude the doses of direct indications of religious references but the factual statements in some contexts of the narration moves close to the sensations similar to them. This book is a prominent reference for the political observation of the history of post constitution adoption In America. The revitalization of economic policies and improvement of water based international trades was the priorities of the presidencies of Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison. If the author is believed to be a potential observer, the Barbary coasts and the Atlantic water were the important locations for the development of the narration. It was along this these regions he found the conflict growing from mere attempts of ransom scuffles to a relatively high intensity zone of religious conflicts and cultural clash between two ethnic groups of the prominent business world in the past. This work may be criticized as a directory of chronological application of America’s war tactics and the formulation of plans to stifle the countries that supported the piracy by applying the flame of religious confrontations between two demographic groups having similar business interest. Finally, Frank Lambert’s creative abilities to manipulate the facts to readable literary property are conscious about the failure factors of overwhelming power demonstrations or elaborated exaggerations. ”The Barbary Wars” owes Lambert a lot for his intelligence in tuning a theme of piracy and ships to higher magnitudes of international trade and political rivalries caused by cultural imbalances. Lambert surely hails a lot of applauds for the accreditation the book has got among globalized readers. Works Cited Lambert, Frank. The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World. US: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Print. Read More