fbpx
Wikipedia

Quasi-War

The Quasi-War (French: Quasi-guerre) was an undeclared naval war fought from 1798 to 1800 between the United States and the French First Republic, primarily in the Caribbean and off the East Coast of the United States. The ability of Congress to authorize military action without a formal declaration of war was later confirmed by the Supreme Court and formed the basis of many similar actions since, including American participation in the Vietnam War and the 1991 Gulf War.[2][a]

Quasi-War
Part of the French Revolutionary Wars

Left: USS Constellation vs L'Insurgente; right: U.S. Marines from USS Constitution boarding and capturing French privateer Sandwich
DateJuly 7, 1798 – September 30, 1800 (2 years, 2 months, 3 weeks and 2 days)
Location
Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea
Result Convention of 1800
Belligerents
Commanders and leaders
Strength
  • Up to 9 frigates, 4 sloops, 2 brigs, 3 schooners
  • 5,700 sailors and Marines
  • 365 privateers
Unknown
Casualties and losses
  • American:
    • Military personnel: 82+ killed, 84+ wounded
    • Civilians: Unknown
    • Ships: 22 privateers, up to 2000 merchant ships captured
  • French:
    • Military personnel: 20+ killed, 42+ wounded, 517 captured
    • Civilians: Unknown
    • Ships: 1 frigate, 2 corvettes, 1 brig; 118 privateers sunk or captured[1]

In 1793, Congress suspended repayments of French loans incurred during the American Revolutionary War. The dispute escalated further due to different interpretations of the 1778 treaties of Alliance and Commerce between the two countries. France, then engaged in the 1792–1797 War of the First Coalition, which included Great Britain, viewed the 1794 Jay Treaty between the United States and Britain as incompatible with those treaties, and retaliated by seizing American ships trading with Britain.

Diplomatic negotiations failed to resolve these differences, and in October 1796 French privateers began attacking merchant ships sailing in American waters, regardless of nationality. The dissolution of Federal military forces following independence left the US unable to mount an effective response and by October 1797, over 316 American ships had been captured. In March 1798, Congress reassembled the United States Navy and in July authorized the use of military force against France.

In addition to a number of individual ship actions, by 1799 American losses had been significantly reduced through informal cooperation with the Royal Navy, whereby merchant ships from both nations were allowed to join each other's convoys. Diplomatic negotiations between the US and France continued, the establishment of the French Consulate in November 1799 led to the Convention of 1800, which ended the war.

Background

Under the Treaty of Alliance (1778), the United States had agreed to protect the French West Indies in return for their support in the American Revolutionary War. As the treaty had no termination date, France claimed this obligation included defending them against Great Britain and the Dutch Republic during the 1792 to 1797 War of the First Coalition. Despite popular enthusiasm for the French Revolution, especially among anti-British Jeffersonians, there was little support for this in Congress. Neutrality allowed New England shipowners to earn huge profits evading the British blockade, while Southern plantation owners feared the example set by France's abolition of slavery in 1794.[3]

In 1793, Congress suspended repayment of French loans incurred during the Revolutionary War, arguing the execution of Louis XVI and establishment of the French First Republic rendered existing agreements void. They further argued American military obligations under the Treaty of Alliance applied only to a "defensive conflict" and thus did not apply, since France had declared war on Britain and the Dutch Republic. To ensure the US did not become involved, Congress passed the Neutrality Act of 1794, while President George Washington issued an Executive Order forbidding American merchant ships from arming themselves.[4] France accepted these acts, but on the basis of 'benevolent neutrality', which they interpreted as allowing French privateers access to US ports, and the right to sell captured British ships in American prize courts, but not vice versa. However, the US viewed 'neutrality' as the right to provide the same privileges to both.[5]

 
Caribbean, main focus of operations during the Quasi-War

These differences were further exacerbated in November 1794 when the US and Britain signed a new trade agreement, which contradicted the 1778 Commercial Treaty granting France "most favoured nation" status. The Jay Treaty resolved outstanding issues from the American Revolution, and expanded trade between the two countries; between 1794 and 1801, American exports to Britain nearly tripled in value, from US$33 million to $94 million.[6]

As a result, in late 1796 French privateers began seizing American ships trading with the British. An effective response was hampered by the almost complete lack of a United States Navy, whose last warship had been sold in 1785, leaving only a small flotilla belonging to the United States Revenue Cutter Service and a few neglected coastal forts. This allowed French privateers to roam virtually unchecked; from October 1796 to June 1797, they captured 316 ships, 6% of the entire American merchant fleet, causing losses of $12 to $15 million.[7] On March 2, 1797, the Directory issued a decree permitting the seizure of any neutral shipping without a role d'equipage, a crew manifest which listed the nationalities of each crewmen.[8] Since virtually no American merchantman carried such a document, this effectively initiated a French commerce war on American shipping.[9]

Efforts to resolve the conflict through diplomacy ended in the 1797 dispute known as the XYZ Affair.[10] However, the hostilities created support for establishing a limited naval force, and on June 18, President John Adams appointed Benjamin Stoddert the first Secretary of the Navy.[11] On July 7, 1798, Congress approved the use of force against French warships in American waters, but wanted to ensure conflict did not escalate beyond these strictly limited objectives.[12] As a result, it was called a "limited" or "Quasi-War" and led to political debate over whether it was constitutional. A series of rulings by the Supreme Court of the United States established its legality and confirmed the ability of the US to conduct undeclared war or "police actions".[13]

Forces and strategy

Since battleships were expensive to build and required highly specialised construction facilities, in 1794 Congress compromised by ordering six large frigates. By 1798, the first three were nearly complete and on July 16, 1798, additional funding was approved for the USS Congress, USS Chesapeake, and USS President, plus the frigates USS General Greene and USS Adams. The provision of naval stores and equipment by the British allowed these to be built relatively quickly, and all saw action during the war.[14]

The US Navy was further reinforced by so-called 'subscription ships', privately funded vessels provided by individual cities. These included five frigates, among them the USS Philadelphia, commanded by Stephen Decatur, and four merchantmen converted into sloops. Primarily intended to attack foreign shipping, these were noted for their speed, and earned huge profits for their owners; the USS Boston captured over 80 enemy vessels, including the French corvette Berceau.[15]

With most of the French fleet confined to home ports by the Royal Navy, Secretary Stoddert was able to concentrate his forces against the limited number of frigates and smaller vessels that evaded the blockade and reached the Caribbean. The US also needed convoy protection, and while there was no formal agreement with the British, considerable co-operation took place at a local level. The two navies shared a signal system, and allowed their merchantmen to join each other's convoys, most of which were provided by the British, who had four to five times more escorts available.[16]

This allowed the US Navy to concentrate on attacking French privateers, most of very shallow draft and armed with between one and twenty guns. Operating from French and Spanish bases in the Caribbean, particularly Guadeloupe, they made opportunistic attacks on passing ships, before escaping back into port. To counter those tactics, the US used similarly sized vessels from the United States Revenue Cutter Service, as well as commissioning their own privateers. The first American ship to see action was the USS Ganges, a converted East Indiaman with 26 guns; most were far smaller.[17]

The Revenue cutter USS Pickering, commanded by Edward Preble, made two cruises to the West Indies and captured ten prizes. Preble turned command of Pickering over to Benjamin Hillar, who captured the much larger and more heavily armed French privateer l'Egypte Conquise after a nine-hour battle. In September 1800, Hillar, Pickering, and her entire crew were lost at sea in a storm.[18] Preble next commanded the frigate USS Essex, which he sailed around Cape Horn into the Pacific to protect U.S. merchantmen in the East Indies. He recaptured several U.S. ships that had been seized by French privateers.[19][20]

For various reasons, the role of the Royal Navy was minimised both at the time and later; the first significant study of the war by US naval historian Gardner W. Allen in 1909 focused exclusively on ship-to-ship actions, and this is how the war is often remembered.[21] However, historian Michael Palmer argues American naval operations cannot be understood in isolation and when operating in the Caribbean

...they entered a European theater where the war had been underway since 1793. The Royal Navy deployed four to five times more men-of-war in the West Indies than the Americans. British ships chased and fought the same French cruisers and privateers. Both navies escorted each other's merchantmen. American warships operated from British bases. And most importantly, British policies and shifts in deployment had dramatic effects on American operations.[22]

Significant naval actions

 
A 20th-century illustration depicting United States Marines escorting French prisoners

From the perspective of the US Navy, the Quasi-War consisted of a series of ship-to-ship actions in US coastal waters and the Caribbean; one of the first was the Capture of La Croyable on 7 July 1798 by the Delaware outside Egg Harbor, New Jersey.[23] On 20 November, a pair of French frigates, Insurgente and Volontaire, captured the schooner USS Retaliation, commanded by Lieutenant William Bainbridge; Retaliation would be recaptured on 28 June 1799.

On 9 February 1799, the frigate Constellation captured the French Navy's frigate L'Insurgente and severely damaged the frigate La Vengeance, largely due to Captain Thomas Truxtun's focus on crew training[citation needed]. By 1 July, under the command of Stephen Decatur, USS United States had been refitted and repaired and embarked on its mission to patrol the South Atlantic coast and West Indies in search of French ships which were preying on American merchant vessels.[24]

On 1 January 1800, a convoy of American merchant ships and their escort, United States naval schooner USS Experiment, engaged a squadron of armed barges manned by French-allied Haitians known as picaroons off the coast of present-day Haiti. On 1 February, the American frigate USS Constellation unsuccessfully tried to capture the French frigate La Vengeance off the coast of Saint Kitts. In early May, Captain Silas Talbot organized a naval expedition to Puerto Plata on the island of Hispaniola in order to harass French shipping, capturing the Spanish coastal fort at Puerto Plata and a French corvette. Following the French invasion of Curaçao in July, the American sloops USS Patapsco and USS Merrimack began a blockade of the island in September that led to a French withdrawal. On 12 October, the frigate Boston captured the corvette Le Berceau.[25]

On 25 October, the USS Enterprise defeated the French brig Flambeau near the island of Dominica in the Caribbean Sea. Enterprise also captured eight privateers and freed eleven U.S. merchant ships from captivity, while Experiment captured the French privateers Deux Amis and Diane and liberated numerous American merchant ships. Although overall USN losses were light, by the time the war ended in 1800, the French had seized over 2,000 American merchant ships.[26]

Conclusion of hostilities

By late 1800, the United States Navy and the Royal Navy, combined with a more conciliatory diplomatic stance by the government of First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte, had reduced the activity of the French privateers and warships. The Convention of 1800, signed on 30 September, ended the Quasi-War. It affirmed the rights of Americans as neutrals upon the sea and abrogated the alliance with France of 1778. However, it failed to provide compensation for the $20 million "French Spoliation Claims" of the United States. The agreement between the two nations implicitly ensured that the United States would remain neutral toward France in the wars of Napoleon and ended the "entangling" French alliance.[27] This alliance had been viable only between 1778 and 1783.[28]

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ Since its foundation in 1776, the United States has engaged in only five declared wars (War of 1812, Mexican–American War, Spanish–American War, World War I and World War II), versus more than 115 undeclared.[2]

Citations

  1. ^ Clodfelter 2002, pp. 136–137.
  2. ^ a b Fehlings 2000, p. 18.
  3. ^ Young 2011, pp. 436–466.
  4. ^ Fehlings 2000, pp. 106–107.
  5. ^ Hyneman 1930, pp. 279–283.
  6. ^ Combs 1992, pp. 23–24.
  7. ^ Sechrest 2007, p. 103.
  8. ^ Palmer 1989, p. 4-5.
  9. ^ Palmer 1989, p. 5.
  10. ^ Coleman 2008, p. 189.
  11. ^ Williams 2009, p. 25.
  12. ^ Eclov 2013, p. 67.
  13. ^ Fehlings 2000, pp. 101=102.
  14. ^ Eclov 2013, p. 69.
  15. ^ Sechrest 2007, p. 119.
  16. ^ Eclov 2013, pp. 8–10.
  17. ^ Eclov 2013, pp. 71–72.
  18. ^ . Archived from the original on 28 July 2013. Retrieved 9 November 2008.
  19. ^ The United States Coast Guard The Coast Guard at War
  20. ^ Love 1992, p. 68
  21. ^ Allen 1909.
  22. ^ Palmer 1989, p. x.
  23. ^ Mooney 1983, p. 84.
  24. ^ Mackenzie 1846, p. 40.
  25. ^ Knox, 1939, vol 1
  26. ^ Hickey 2008, pp. 67–77.
  27. ^ Lyon 1940, pp. 305–333.
  28. ^ DeConde 1966, pp. 162–184.

General and cited references

  • Allen, Gardner Weld (1909). Our Naval War With France. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin. OCLC 1202325.
  • Clodfelter, Micheal (2002). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Reference to Casualty and Other Figures 1500-1999. McFarland & Co. ISBN 978-0786412044.
  • Coleman, Aaron (2008). ""A Second Bounaparty?" A Reexamination of Alexander Hamilton during the Franco-American Crisis, 1796-1801". Journal of the Early Republic. 28 (2): 183–214. doi:10.1353/jer.0.0004. JSTOR 30043587. S2CID 143138929.
  • Combs, Jerald A (1992). The Jay Treaty: Political Battleground of the Founding Fathers. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520015739.
  • DeConde, Alexander (1966). The Quasi-War: The Politics and Diplomacy of the Undeclared War with France, 1797–1801. Charles Scribner's Sons.
  • Eclov, Jon Paul (2013). Informal Alliance: Royal Navy And U.S. Navy Co-Operation Against Republican France During The Quasi-War And Wars Of The French Revolution (PhD). University of North Dakota.
  • Fehlings, Gregory E (2000). "America's First Limited War". Naval War College Review. 53 (3).
  • Hickey, Donald R. (2008). "The Quasi-War: America's First Limited War, 1798–1801" (PDF). The Northern Mariner/Le Marin du Nord. XVIII (3–4).
  • Hyneman, Charles (1930). "Neutrality during the European Wars of 1792–1815: America's Understanding Of Her Obligations". The American Journal of International Law. 24 (2): 279–309. doi:10.2307/2189404. JSTOR 2189404. S2CID 147162918.
  • Knox, Dudley W., ed. (1939). Naval Documents related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers, Volume I. Washington: United States Government Printing Office. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  • Lyon, E Wilson (1940). "The Franco-American Convention of 1800". The Journal of Modern History. XII (3): 305–333. doi:10.1086/236487. JSTOR 1874761. S2CID 144516482.
  • Mackenzie, Alexander Slidell (1846). Life of Stephen Decatur: A Commodore in the Navy of the United States. C. C. Little and J. Brown.
  • Mooney, James L., ed. (1983). Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Vol. 6. Defense Dept., Navy, Naval History Division. ISBN 978-0-16-002030-8.
  • Palmer, Samuel Putnam (1989). Stoddert's War: Naval Operations During the Quasi War with France, 1798-1801. University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0872494993.
  • Sechrest, Larry (2007). "Privately Funded and Built U.S. Warships in the Quasi-War of 1797–1801". The Independent Review. XII (1).
  • Williams, Greg H. (2009). The French Assault on American Shipping, 1793–1813: A History and Comprehensive Record of Merchant Marine Losses. McFarland Publishers. ISBN 9780786454075.
  • Young, Christopher J (2011). "Connecting the President and the People: Washington's Neutrality, Genet's Challenge, and Hamilton's Fight for Public Support". Journal of the Early Republic. 31 (3): 435–466. doi:10.1353/jer.2011.0040. JSTOR 41261631. S2CID 144349420.

Further reading

  • Bowman, Albert Hall. The struggle for neutrality: Franco-American diplomacy during the Federalist era (1974), online free
  • Daughan, George C. (2008). If By Sea: The Forging of the American Navy – From the Revolution to the War of 1812. Philadelphia: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-01607-5.
  • Harris, Thomas (1837). The life and services of Commodore William Bainbridge, United States navy. Carey Lea & Blanchard. p. 254. ISBN 0945726589.
  • Hickey, Donald R. (2021). "The Quasi-War". The Journal of Military History. 85 (April). A history of the use of the term "Quasi-War" in the years after 1800.
  • Jennings, John (1966). Tattered Ensign The Story of America's Most Famous Fighting Frigate, U.S.S. Constitution. Thomas Y. Crowell. OCLC 1291484.
  • Kohn, Richard H. (1975). Eagle and Sword: The Federalists and the Creation of the Military Establishment in America, 1783–1802.
  • Leiner, Frederick C. (1999). Millions for Defense: The Subscription Warships of 1798. Annapolis: US Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-508-8.
  • Love, Robert (1992). History of the U.S. Navy Volume One 1775–1941. Harrisburg PA: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-1862-2.
  • Nash, Howard Pervear. The Forgotten Wars: The Role of the US Navy in the Quasi War with France and the Barbary Wars 1798–1805 (AS Barnes, 1968)
  • Toll, Ian W. (2006). Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of The U.S. Navy. New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-05847-5.
  • Unger, Harlow (2005). The French War Against America: How a Trusted Ally Betrayed Washington and the Founding Fathers. Hoboken NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-0-471-65113-0.
  • Waldo, Samuel Putnam (1821). The Life and Character of Stephen Decatur. Hartford, Conn.: P. B. Goodsell. ISBN 9780795013324.

External links

  • "Selected Bibliography of The Quasi-War with France" 8 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine compiled by the United States Army Center of Military History
  • U.S. Department of State
  • "U.S. treaties and federal legal documents re 'Quasi-War with France 1791–1800'", compiled by the Lillian Goldman Law Library of Yale Law School
Preceded by
Irish Rebellion of 1798
French Revolution: Revolutionary campaigns
Quasi-War
Succeeded by
Peasants' War (1798)

quasi, french, quasi, guerre, undeclared, naval, fought, from, 1798, 1800, between, united, states, french, first, republic, primarily, caribbean, east, coast, united, states, ability, congress, authorize, military, action, without, formal, declaration, later,. The Quasi War French Quasi guerre was an undeclared naval war fought from 1798 to 1800 between the United States and the French First Republic primarily in the Caribbean and off the East Coast of the United States The ability of Congress to authorize military action without a formal declaration of war was later confirmed by the Supreme Court and formed the basis of many similar actions since including American participation in the Vietnam War and the 1991 Gulf War 2 a Quasi WarPart of the French Revolutionary WarsLeft USS Constellation vs L Insurgente right U S Marines from USS Constitution boarding and capturing French privateer SandwichDateJuly 7 1798 September 30 1800 2 years 2 months 3 weeks and 2 days LocationAtlantic Ocean Caribbean Indian Ocean and Mediterranean SeaResultConvention of 1800Belligerents United States FranceCommanders and leadersJohn Adams Benjamin Stoddert Thomas Truxtun Silas Talbot William Bainbridge Stephen DecaturPaul Barras Napoleon Bonaparte Edme Desfourneaux Victor Hugues Andre RigaudStrengthUp to 9 frigates 4 sloops 2 brigs 3 schooners 5 700 sailors and Marines 365 privateersUnknownCasualties and lossesAmerican Military personnel 82 killed 84 wounded Civilians Unknown Ships 22 privateers up to 2000 merchant ships capturedFrench Military personnel 20 killed 42 wounded 517 captured Civilians Unknown Ships 1 frigate 2 corvettes 1 brig 118 privateers sunk or captured 1 In 1793 Congress suspended repayments of French loans incurred during the American Revolutionary War The dispute escalated further due to different interpretations of the 1778 treaties of Alliance and Commerce between the two countries France then engaged in the 1792 1797 War of the First Coalition which included Great Britain viewed the 1794 Jay Treaty between the United States and Britain as incompatible with those treaties and retaliated by seizing American ships trading with Britain Diplomatic negotiations failed to resolve these differences and in October 1796 French privateers began attacking merchant ships sailing in American waters regardless of nationality The dissolution of Federal military forces following independence left the US unable to mount an effective response and by October 1797 over 316 American ships had been captured In March 1798 Congress reassembled the United States Navy and in July authorized the use of military force against France In addition to a number of individual ship actions by 1799 American losses had been significantly reduced through informal cooperation with the Royal Navy whereby merchant ships from both nations were allowed to join each other s convoys Diplomatic negotiations between the US and France continued the establishment of the French Consulate in November 1799 led to the Convention of 1800 which ended the war Contents 1 Background 2 Forces and strategy 3 Significant naval actions 4 Conclusion of hostilities 5 Explanatory notes 6 Citations 7 General and cited references 8 Further reading 9 External linksBackground EditUnder the Treaty of Alliance 1778 the United States had agreed to protect the French West Indies in return for their support in the American Revolutionary War As the treaty had no termination date France claimed this obligation included defending them against Great Britain and the Dutch Republic during the 1792 to 1797 War of the First Coalition Despite popular enthusiasm for the French Revolution especially among anti British Jeffersonians there was little support for this in Congress Neutrality allowed New England shipowners to earn huge profits evading the British blockade while Southern plantation owners feared the example set by France s abolition of slavery in 1794 3 In 1793 Congress suspended repayment of French loans incurred during the Revolutionary War arguing the execution of Louis XVI and establishment of the French First Republic rendered existing agreements void They further argued American military obligations under the Treaty of Alliance applied only to a defensive conflict and thus did not apply since France had declared war on Britain and the Dutch Republic To ensure the US did not become involved Congress passed the Neutrality Act of 1794 while President George Washington issued an Executive Order forbidding American merchant ships from arming themselves 4 France accepted these acts but on the basis of benevolent neutrality which they interpreted as allowing French privateers access to US ports and the right to sell captured British ships in American prize courts but not vice versa However the US viewed neutrality as the right to provide the same privileges to both 5 Caribbean main focus of operations during the Quasi War These differences were further exacerbated in November 1794 when the US and Britain signed a new trade agreement which contradicted the 1778 Commercial Treaty granting France most favoured nation status The Jay Treaty resolved outstanding issues from the American Revolution and expanded trade between the two countries between 1794 and 1801 American exports to Britain nearly tripled in value from US 33 million to 94 million 6 As a result in late 1796 French privateers began seizing American ships trading with the British An effective response was hampered by the almost complete lack of a United States Navy whose last warship had been sold in 1785 leaving only a small flotilla belonging to the United States Revenue Cutter Service and a few neglected coastal forts This allowed French privateers to roam virtually unchecked from October 1796 to June 1797 they captured 316 ships 6 of the entire American merchant fleet causing losses of 12 to 15 million 7 On March 2 1797 the Directory issued a decree permitting the seizure of any neutral shipping without a role d equipage a crew manifest which listed the nationalities of each crewmen 8 Since virtually no American merchantman carried such a document this effectively initiated a French commerce war on American shipping 9 Efforts to resolve the conflict through diplomacy ended in the 1797 dispute known as the XYZ Affair 10 However the hostilities created support for establishing a limited naval force and on June 18 President John Adams appointed Benjamin Stoddert the first Secretary of the Navy 11 On July 7 1798 Congress approved the use of force against French warships in American waters but wanted to ensure conflict did not escalate beyond these strictly limited objectives 12 As a result it was called a limited or Quasi War and led to political debate over whether it was constitutional A series of rulings by the Supreme Court of the United States established its legality and confirmed the ability of the US to conduct undeclared war or police actions 13 Forces and strategy Edit Benjamin Stoddert United States Secretary of the Navy Since battleships were expensive to build and required highly specialised construction facilities in 1794 Congress compromised by ordering six large frigates By 1798 the first three were nearly complete and on July 16 1798 additional funding was approved for the USS Congress USS Chesapeake and USS President plus the frigates USS General Greene and USS Adams The provision of naval stores and equipment by the British allowed these to be built relatively quickly and all saw action during the war 14 The US Navy was further reinforced by so called subscription ships privately funded vessels provided by individual cities These included five frigates among them the USS Philadelphia commanded by Stephen Decatur and four merchantmen converted into sloops Primarily intended to attack foreign shipping these were noted for their speed and earned huge profits for their owners the USS Boston captured over 80 enemy vessels including the French corvette Berceau 15 With most of the French fleet confined to home ports by the Royal Navy Secretary Stoddert was able to concentrate his forces against the limited number of frigates and smaller vessels that evaded the blockade and reached the Caribbean The US also needed convoy protection and while there was no formal agreement with the British considerable co operation took place at a local level The two navies shared a signal system and allowed their merchantmen to join each other s convoys most of which were provided by the British who had four to five times more escorts available 16 This allowed the US Navy to concentrate on attacking French privateers most of very shallow draft and armed with between one and twenty guns Operating from French and Spanish bases in the Caribbean particularly Guadeloupe they made opportunistic attacks on passing ships before escaping back into port To counter those tactics the US used similarly sized vessels from the United States Revenue Cutter Service as well as commissioning their own privateers The first American ship to see action was the USS Ganges a converted East Indiaman with 26 guns most were far smaller 17 The Revenue cutter USS Pickering commanded by Edward Preble made two cruises to the West Indies and captured ten prizes Preble turned command of Pickering over to Benjamin Hillar who captured the much larger and more heavily armed French privateer l Egypte Conquise after a nine hour battle In September 1800 Hillar Pickering and her entire crew were lost at sea in a storm 18 Preble next commanded the frigate USS Essex which he sailed around Cape Horn into the Pacific to protect U S merchantmen in the East Indies He recaptured several U S ships that had been seized by French privateers 19 20 For various reasons the role of the Royal Navy was minimised both at the time and later the first significant study of the war by US naval historian Gardner W Allen in 1909 focused exclusively on ship to ship actions and this is how the war is often remembered 21 However historian Michael Palmer argues American naval operations cannot be understood in isolation and when operating in the Caribbean they entered a European theater where the war had been underway since 1793 The Royal Navy deployed four to five times more men of war in the West Indies than the Americans British ships chased and fought the same French cruisers and privateers Both navies escorted each other s merchantmen American warships operated from British bases And most importantly British policies and shifts in deployment had dramatic effects on American operations 22 Significant naval actions Edit A 20th century illustration depicting United States Marines escorting French prisoners From the perspective of the US Navy the Quasi War consisted of a series of ship to ship actions in US coastal waters and the Caribbean one of the first was the Capture of La Croyable on 7 July 1798 by the Delaware outside Egg Harbor New Jersey 23 On 20 November a pair of French frigates Insurgente and Volontaire captured the schooner USS Retaliation commanded by Lieutenant William Bainbridge Retaliation would be recaptured on 28 June 1799 On 9 February 1799 the frigate Constellation captured the French Navy s frigate L Insurgente and severely damaged the frigate La Vengeance largely due to Captain Thomas Truxtun s focus on crew training citation needed By 1 July under the command of Stephen Decatur USS United States had been refitted and repaired and embarked on its mission to patrol the South Atlantic coast and West Indies in search of French ships which were preying on American merchant vessels 24 On 1 January 1800 a convoy of American merchant ships and their escort United States naval schooner USS Experiment engaged a squadron of armed barges manned by French allied Haitians known as picaroons off the coast of present day Haiti On 1 February the American frigate USS Constellation unsuccessfully tried to capture the French frigate La Vengeance off the coast of Saint Kitts In early May Captain Silas Talbot organized a naval expedition to Puerto Plata on the island of Hispaniola in order to harass French shipping capturing the Spanish coastal fort at Puerto Plata and a French corvette Following the French invasion of Curacao in July the American sloops USS Patapsco and USS Merrimack began a blockade of the island in September that led to a French withdrawal On 12 October the frigate Boston captured the corvette Le Berceau 25 On 25 October the USS Enterprise defeated the French brig Flambeau near the island of Dominica in the Caribbean Sea Enterprise also captured eight privateers and freed eleven U S merchant ships from captivity while Experiment captured the French privateers Deux Amis and Diane and liberated numerous American merchant ships Although overall USN losses were light by the time the war ended in 1800 the French had seized over 2 000 American merchant ships 26 Conclusion of hostilities EditBy late 1800 the United States Navy and the Royal Navy combined with a more conciliatory diplomatic stance by the government of First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte had reduced the activity of the French privateers and warships The Convention of 1800 signed on 30 September ended the Quasi War It affirmed the rights of Americans as neutrals upon the sea and abrogated the alliance with France of 1778 However it failed to provide compensation for the 20 million French Spoliation Claims of the United States The agreement between the two nations implicitly ensured that the United States would remain neutral toward France in the wars of Napoleon and ended the entangling French alliance 27 This alliance had been viable only between 1778 and 1783 28 Explanatory notes Edit Since its foundation in 1776 the United States has engaged in only five declared wars War of 1812 Mexican American War Spanish American War World War I and World War II versus more than 115 undeclared 2 Citations Edit Clodfelter 2002 pp 136 137 a b Fehlings 2000 p 18 Young 2011 pp 436 466 Fehlings 2000 pp 106 107 Hyneman 1930 pp 279 283 Combs 1992 pp 23 24 Sechrest 2007 p 103 Palmer 1989 p 4 5 Palmer 1989 p 5 Coleman 2008 p 189 Williams 2009 p 25 Eclov 2013 p 67 Fehlings 2000 pp 101 102 Eclov 2013 p 69 Sechrest 2007 p 119 Eclov 2013 pp 8 10 Eclov 2013 pp 71 72 USRCS Lost at Sea Archived from the original on 28 July 2013 Retrieved 9 November 2008 The United States Coast Guard The Coast Guard at War Love 1992 p 68 Allen 1909 sfn error no target CITEREFAllen1909 help Palmer 1989 p x Mooney 1983 p 84 Mackenzie 1846 p 40 Knox 1939 vol 1 Hickey 2008 pp 67 77 Lyon 1940 pp 305 333 DeConde 1966 pp 162 184 General and cited references EditAllen Gardner Weld 1909 Our Naval War With France Boston and New York Houghton Mifflin OCLC 1202325 Clodfelter Micheal 2002 Warfare and Armed Conflicts A Statistical Reference to Casualty and Other Figures 1500 1999 McFarland amp Co ISBN 978 0786412044 Coleman Aaron 2008 A Second Bounaparty A Reexamination of Alexander Hamilton during the Franco American Crisis 1796 1801 Journal of the Early Republic 28 2 183 214 doi 10 1353 jer 0 0004 JSTOR 30043587 S2CID 143138929 Combs Jerald A 1992 The Jay Treaty Political Battleground of the Founding Fathers University of California Press ISBN 978 0520015739 DeConde Alexander 1966 The Quasi War The Politics and Diplomacy of the Undeclared War with France 1797 1801 Charles Scribner s Sons Eclov Jon Paul 2013 Informal Alliance Royal Navy And U S Navy Co Operation Against Republican France During The Quasi War And Wars Of The French Revolution PhD University of North Dakota Fehlings Gregory E 2000 America s First Limited War Naval War College Review 53 3 Hickey Donald R 2008 The Quasi War America s First Limited War 1798 1801 PDF The Northern Mariner Le Marin du Nord XVIII 3 4 Hyneman Charles 1930 Neutrality during the European Wars of 1792 1815 America s Understanding Of Her Obligations The American Journal of International Law 24 2 279 309 doi 10 2307 2189404 JSTOR 2189404 S2CID 147162918 Knox Dudley W ed 1939 Naval Documents related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers Volume I Washington United States Government Printing Office Retrieved 12 November 2018 Lyon E Wilson 1940 The Franco American Convention of 1800 The Journal of Modern History XII 3 305 333 doi 10 1086 236487 JSTOR 1874761 S2CID 144516482 Mackenzie Alexander Slidell 1846 Life of Stephen Decatur A Commodore in the Navy of the United States C C Little and J Brown Mooney James L ed 1983 Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships Vol 6 Defense Dept Navy Naval History Division ISBN 978 0 16 002030 8 Palmer Samuel Putnam 1989 Stoddert s War Naval Operations During the Quasi War with France 1798 1801 University of South Carolina Press ISBN 0872494993 Sechrest Larry 2007 Privately Funded and Built U S Warships in the Quasi War of 1797 1801 The Independent Review XII 1 Williams Greg H 2009 The French Assault on American Shipping 1793 1813 A History and Comprehensive Record of Merchant Marine Losses McFarland Publishers ISBN 9780786454075 Young Christopher J 2011 Connecting the President and the People Washington s Neutrality Genet s Challenge and Hamilton s Fight for Public Support Journal of the Early Republic 31 3 435 466 doi 10 1353 jer 2011 0040 JSTOR 41261631 S2CID 144349420 Further reading EditBowman Albert Hall The struggle for neutrality Franco American diplomacy during the Federalist era 1974 online free Daughan George C 2008 If By Sea The Forging of the American Navy From the Revolution to the War of 1812 Philadelphia Basic Books ISBN 978 0 465 01607 5 Harris Thomas 1837 The life and services of Commodore William Bainbridge United States navy Carey Lea amp Blanchard p 254 ISBN 0945726589 Hickey Donald R 2021 The Quasi War The Journal of Military History 85 April A history of the use of the term Quasi War in the years after 1800 Jennings John 1966 Tattered Ensign The Story of America s Most Famous Fighting Frigate U S S Constitution Thomas Y Crowell OCLC 1291484 Kohn Richard H 1975 Eagle and Sword The Federalists and the Creation of the Military Establishment in America 1783 1802 Leiner Frederick C 1999 Millions for Defense The Subscription Warships of 1798 Annapolis US Naval Institute Press ISBN 978 1 55750 508 8 Love Robert 1992 History of the U S Navy Volume One 1775 1941 Harrisburg PA Stackpole Books ISBN 978 0 8117 1862 2 Nash Howard Pervear The Forgotten Wars The Role of the US Navy in the Quasi War with France and the Barbary Wars 1798 1805 AS Barnes 1968 Toll Ian W 2006 Six Frigates The Epic History of the Founding of The U S Navy New York W W Norton ISBN 978 0 393 05847 5 Unger Harlow 2005 The French War Against America How a Trusted Ally Betrayed Washington and the Founding Fathers Hoboken NJ John Wiley amp Sons Inc ISBN 978 0 471 65113 0 Waldo Samuel Putnam 1821 The Life and Character of Stephen Decatur Hartford Conn P B Goodsell ISBN 9780795013324 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Quasi War Selected Bibliography of The Quasi War with France Archived 8 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine compiled by the United States Army Center of Military History U S Department of State The XYZ Affair and the Quasi War with France 1798 1800 U S treaties and federal legal documents re Quasi War with France 1791 1800 compiled by the Lillian Goldman Law Library of Yale Law SchoolPreceded byIrish Rebellion of 1798 French Revolution Revolutionary campaignsQuasi War Succeeded byPeasants War 1798 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Quasi War amp oldid 1123135959, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.