Quasi-War
From Free net encyclopedia
| Military history of France Military history of the United States | |||||||||||||
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| Conflict | Quasi-War | ||||||||||||
| Date | 1798–1800 | ||||||||||||
| Place | North American coasts | ||||||||||||
| Result | End of French Revolutionary piracy | ||||||||||||
| Battles of the Quasi-War | |||||||||||||
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The Quasi-War was an undeclared war fought entirely at sea between the United States and France from 1798 to 1800. In the United States, the conflict is sometimes also referred to as the Undeclared War with France.
In 1778, the US and France signed the Treaty of Alliance to deepen their relations in line with the help France provided to the United States during its Revolutionary War against Great Britain. Along with the alliance, France, then ruled by monarch Louis XVI, made substantial loans to the new United States nation. After the French Revolution, the United States refused to pay back its debt and revoked its agreements with France, arguing that these had been with the French monarchy and that their obligations were null after the change of regime in France. Meanwhile, the United States signed, on November 19th, 1794, Jay's Treaty with the United Kingdom, against French corsairs.
The Quasi-War started on July 7, 1798 when the United States Congress rescinded treaties with France. United States Naval squadrons then sought out and attacked the French privateers.
The Barbary Pirates of the Mediterranean Sea caused the United States Congress to begin building a navy for the protection of commerce in 1794. Shortly thereafter, depredations by privateers of Revolutionary France required the United States Navy to protect the expanding merchant shipping of the United States.
Captain Thomas Truxtun's insistence on the highest standards of crew training paid handsome dividends as the frigate Constellation won two victories over French men-of-war. Eight cutters (one sloop, five schooners, and two brigs) operated along the southern coast of the United States and among the islands of the West Indies. The two brigs and two of the schooners each carried 14 guns and 70 men. The sloop and the other schooners each had ten guns and 34 men. Of the twenty-two prizes captured by the United States between 1798 and 1799, eighteen were taken by unaided cutters. Revenue cutters also assisted in capturing two others. The cutter USRC Pickering made two cruises to the West Indies and captured ten prizes, one of which carried 19 guns throwing 150 pounds of iron compared to Pickering's 14 guns and total iron weight of only 56 pounds, and was manned by some 250 sailors, more than three times Pickering's strength.
The Quasi-War was ended by the Convention of 1800.
See also
Further reading
- Alexander De Conde: The quasi-war : the politics and diplomacy of the undeclared war with France 1797–1801. – New York : Scribner's, 1966