What was America's first terrorist threat?

This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Hey, you already like YouTube, right? How could it get any better? It's premium. Premium is the supercharged way to experience YouTube. There's so many features and benefits stuff like. How about those ads? Want to get rid of them? Hey, you can have ad free with YouTube premium. Yeah, Ed, if you want something to play in the background while you're exercising, you're cooking, background play on premium, let you keep listening with your screen locked. You can download videos offline, so you don't even need Wi-Fi connection to watch your stuff. And Matt, you and I have had a great time with YouTube premium. What's one of your favorite things? Dude, I've been using YouTube for so long. I finally have premium. And you know me, Ben. I am a late night talk show kind of guy. I like to keep up on my late night with Seth Meyers and my The Daily Show. Now I can get as much as I want and it is awesome. No ads. Folks, whether you're relaxing at home or on the go, it is built for you because your YouTube experience just got even better with premium. So if you like YouTube, you'll love premium. So don't delay. Sign up now for your free trial, turns in condition supply. Workplace chaos. We've all been there. Deadlines are slipping. Projects are piling up and suddenly you realize the missing piece is the right person. That's what you say. This is a job for sponsored jobs. With indeed sponsored jobs, your job post gets abused, so you can connect with quality candidates faster. In fact, sponsored jobs posted directly on indeed are 95% more likely to report a higher than non sponsored jobs spend less time searching and more time interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for indeed sponsored jobs. You ever show up late to the game when your friends already saved your seat, your drink, even a plate? That's looking out. That's having your back. And that's exactly what AT&T does with the AT&T Guarantee. They know staying connected matters. So they actually guarantee a network that comes through when it counts. AT&T has connectivity. You can depend on or they'll proactively make it right. Just like that friend who takes care of things before you even ask. AT&T. Connecting changes everything. Terms and conditions supply. Visit AT&T.com/guarantee for details. The old gays are back with silver linings. They're lovable podcasts from IHART's Ruby Studio in partnership with Veeve Healthcare. Robert, Mick, Bill, and Jess A. Straight back down memory lane for season two. Sharing lessons on life, love, and loss. These are the kind of insights that only come from experience. So tune in to silver linings with the old gays on the IHART radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History class from HouseOfWorks.com. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm editor Candace Gibson, joined today by the fabulous and also awesome Josh Clark. Thank you, Candace. And let me say R and Hoi to you. Oh, that reminds me of a joke that I know. Okay, yeah. What? What do pirates drive? What? Cars. That's great. You know there's not enough pirate jokes these days. No, but there's no shortage of pirates. I mean, we've got Johnny Depp and. Sure, Keith Richards. Yeah. And Johnny Depp doing Keith Richards. Yeah. And then Johnny Depp pretending he's Keith Richards, which is totally different. And then Johnny Depp recently played a musical instrument on stage somewhere, not under the guise of a pirate. What musical instrument did he play? A guitar. Nice one. That's great. You know, there's also some real life pirates off the coast of Somalia. There's a strong haven for pirates these days. And actually, that's kind of been the way it's been for hundreds if not thousands of years. Do you remember when we were doing the America's first murderer podcast? I do. And we were saying like one of the cool things about America being such a young nation is we can point to the first, you know, like we know who America's first murderer was. And the first child born in America. Sure. That kind of thing. Virginia Dare. First English child born in America was Virginia Dare. Yes. We should really make that that distinction. Thank you. You're welcome. Actually, we can point to America's first terrorist threat. We know exactly what it was. And, you know, in the world today, it's kind of a commonplace thing. We're always thinking about terrorism. It's always somewhere in the back of our mind, especially around, you know, September 11th, which is around the time we're recording this, right? But the terrorists of your are, well, are kind of a different ilk than the ones we're running into today. Do you know much about the Barbary pirates? I do. These guys were smart. They were class A extortionists. They essentially set up camp along the Barbary coast. And they had really gosh full rain over the Mediterranean. Really, there were European ships that would make several routes back and forth between Europe and the East Indies, which is today the Middle East. And the Barbary pirates caught one of this. And they're like, you know, these guys, they're wealthy. They have all these goods on board their ships. Why don't we kidnap them? Yeah, absolutely. And they're good. They weren't the first ones to come up with the Barbary pirates were named after the Barbary coast, which is the North African coast today, like Libya and Algiers and that kind of thing, Morocco. And the coast was named after the brothers Barbarossa, which was, I believe, Spanish for redbeards. It was the Spaniards who were getting attacked the most frequently. And these two brothers, the two redbeard brothers, were actually Turks who came down to the coast of North Africa to assist the moors. So anyway, these two Turkish brothers, the redbeard brothers, the Barbarossa brothers, came down. They're helping the moors get back at the Spanish by molesting ships, capturing people and slaving them. And they started to make a lot of money doing this. But like I said, they weren't the first ones. The Mediterranean, especially in that area, had been the site of piracy for thousands of years by the time the Barbarossa brothers showed up. So that's the story of the Barbary coast up to 1492. Well, I stand corrected. I don't even know what to do with myself now. I'm so used to being a no at all. So not coincidentally, that year really begins the age of exploration to the new world. But like you said, by this time, all of Europe was going to the East Indies for hundreds of years by then. And as a result, all of Europe was under the thumb of these Barbary pirates. But the thing is, is people kept giving tribute to them, kept paying them off, kept basically bribing these people to leave their country alone, or leave ships from their country alone. But maybe harass other countries. I had heard, though, that it was actually your favorite president, Mr. Thomas Jefferson, who finally stood up to the Barbary pirates when no one else would. Is that fact or fiction? That's fact. It is fact. T.J. is my faith, and you know, he had red hair, not to be confused with the red bearded pirate. No. He was, you know, he was pretty ballsy. And America was a very young nation, but it had grown exponentially by this time. And so the Barbary pirates had been demanding tribute from American ships. And originally, it had been a more modest sum. I think that $80,000 had been the first amount actually built into the United States budget. Yes. So the US was paying tribute like everybody else. Right. Because they were going through the Mediterranean as well to get to the East Indies, right? Precisely. Well, that was 1784. But then by 1795, they were demanding $1 million. What was the change? Well, because the US was getting bigger, and it was importing and exporting more and being more frequently on these trade routes. And at this point, Thomas Jefferson sort of took notice of the situation. And the US had really good diplomatic relations with France. Ben Franklin had originally been the US minister of France, and he had set up a treaty with France that set essentially, you know, you look out for the American sailors, you look out for the French sailors, everything, you know, tit for tat, on the high seas against these pirates. And then Thomas Jefferson, when he was minister to France, when he was actually in Paris, you know, gathering ideas for the architecture of Montetello. Sure. He also started to think about, well, why can't we take the superpower of France and the growing strength of the US and maybe reach out to England and see if we can form some sort of coalition against these pirates? But no one was on board. It was just him. Well, I imagine England was still a little irked from, you know, the whole revolution and everything. Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. So finally, when Thomas Jefferson is elected to the presidency, he has the ability to say at that point, okay, this is it. And it was perfect timing because at this point, the barbaric pirates had gotten some American sailors and essentially they told the US, okay, we're going to release two. People are going to pay us this much money and if you don't, we're going to war. And that was just the door that Thomas Jefferson was looking for. He was like, all right, we're going to war. It was that simple. So he sent his navy to the Mediterranean and there were actually two sets of barbarous wars that resulted from this. And the first that Thomas Jefferson wage, they were sort of uneventful. we see battles, you know, maritime. fighting it went on for four years and it ended with a treaty and things were okay for a couple of years after that. I mean I think that there was still some plundering and pillaging and raping and slave trading going on but typical pirate stuff. Typical pirate stuff. Anyway in 1815 when James Monroe came along there was a second set of Barbary Wars and he was a little bit more, shall we say assertive than Thomas Jefferson. Well sure he's one who came up with the Monroe doctrine, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. You want to you want to have that with that? That's the world police doctrine pretty much right? That the US would serve as the police of the Western Hemisphere as far as I know. And that they did and they gave it back to these pirates. It was like all those years of pent-up frustration of having American sailors kidnapped and having a doll-out money finally just, you know, it came to a head. It came to a head. I understand you know what I find striking though and I heard this before that you said that the treaty ended the first Barbary War right? And I think that was brokered by a diplomat that the US actually had in one of the Barbary states. Don't you find it on that that we had diplomats like trying to broker peace deals station in these these countries that were run by pirates? You would think so but I think that it was sort of no-holds-barred when it came to this piracy because for so long we had been negotiating with pirates like they were businessman. You know there were sums worked out there were tributes paid there were I think some sort of backhand backhanded deals waged against them in order to get the release of prisoners and you know it wasn't unheard of for something like this to occur. So this is like the original state-sponsored terrorism huh? Well all right thanks can't it so get it now and it's fact you say. Fact. That's great. So I have a little fact of my own you want to hear it? Yeah sure I want to hear it. So you know the Marine him? Yes. You've heard it you know from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli yeah. That's a nice baritone. Thank you that that that shores of Tripoli was actually from the Barbary War. I think it was the second one the Marine stormed Tripoli Libya and basically took care of business so that's where that part of the first line of the Marines came from. I did. You did and if you want to know even more about the Barbary pirates maybe even as much if not more than Josh you can read what was America's first terrorist threat on howstuffworks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics visit howstuffworks.com. Let us know what you think. Send an email to [email protected] You ever show up late to the game and your friends already saved your seat your drink even a plate that's looking out that's having your back and that's exactly what AT&T does with the AT&T guarantee they know staying connected matters so they actually guarantee a network that comes through when it counts. AT&T has connectivity you can depend on or they'll proactively make it right just like that friend who takes care of things before you even ask. AT&T connecting changes everything terms and conditions apply visit AT&T dot com slash guarantee for details. A rare disease diagnosis can change your life but it doesn't have to define your future in season seven of untold stories life with a severe autoimmune condition host Martin Hackett continues the conversation with people living with MG CIDP and the broader rare disease community exploring what comes after diagnosis through stories of hope progress and connection produced by Ruby studio and partnership with our genics listen on the iHeart Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts as the fall leaves change fall in to comfort with Minky Couture with a your curled up with a good book enjoying a crisp evening outdoors we're refreshing your home for the season Minky Couture blankets are soft stylish and perfect for fall shop cozy designs an exclusive deals now at minkycouture.com use code POD 50 for a special discount experience the comfort everyone's talking about minkycouture best blanket ever winning never sounded so good what would you do if you want big at crown coins casino real people win real prizes every single day hi this is Chelsea from Dallas I just hit the jackpot one over one million five hundred is it crown coins dot com sign up in seconds intercode crown and get a free lucky wheel bonus you may win up to ten thousand sweeps coins crown coins dot com that's c_r_o_ w_n_ coins dot com no purchase needed code valve for new users on board were headed by law eighteen plus terms and addition classes this is an iHeart podcast guaranteed human