Quasi-War
Encyclopedia : Q : QU : QUA : Quasi-War
| Military history of France Military history of the United States | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conflict | Quasi-War | ||||||||||||
| Date | 1798–1800 | ||||||||||||
| Place | North American coasts | ||||||||||||
| Result | End of French Revolutionary piracy | ||||||||||||
| Battles of the Quasi-War | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
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.
France had been America's major ally in the American Revolutionary War , and without its assistance the United States may not have won independence. But the new government of Revolutionary France viewed a 1794 commercial agreement between the United States and Great Britain, known as the Jay Treaty, as a violation of France's 1778 treaties with the United States.
The French began to seize American ships trading with their British enemies and refused to receive a new United States minister when he arrived in Paris in December 1796. In his annual message to Congress at the close of 1797, President John Adams reported on France's refusal to negotiate and spoke of the need "to place our country in a suitable posture of defense." In April of 1798, President Adams informed Congress of the infamous "XYZ Affair," in which French agents demanded a large bribe for the restoration of relations with the United States.
Increased depredations by privateers from Revolutionary France required the United States Navy to protect the expanding merchant shipping of the United States. The United States Congress authorized the President to acquire, arm, and man no more than twelve vessels, of up to twenty-two guns each. Under the terms of this act, several vessels were purchased and converted into ships of war.
The Quasi-War started on July 7, 1798 when Congress rescinded treaties with France. United States Naval squadrons then sought out and attacked the French privateers.
Naval engagements
The US Navy operated with a battle fleet of roughly 30 vessels. (For a complete listing, see ) The Navy patrolled the southern coast of the United States and throughout the Caribbean, seeking out French privateers. Captain Thomas Truxtun's insistence on the highest standards of crew training paid handsome dividends as the frigate Constellation (36) captured L'Insurgente (40), and severely punished La Vengeance (54). Often, French privateers showed great audacity, as was the case with the privateer La Croyable (20), which was captured on July 7, 1798 by Delaware (20) outside of Egg Harbor, New Jersey. The Enterprise (12) captured over 20 French privateers. Experiment (12) captured the Deux Amis (8), and Diane (14). A number of American merchantmen were likewise recaptured by the Experiment. The Boston summarily pounded Le Berceau (24) into submission. Silas Talbot engineered an expedition in the Puerto Plata harbor in St. Domingo, a possession of France's ally Spain, on 11 May 1800 in which sailors and marines of the Constitution (44) under Lieutenant Isaac Hull cut out the French privateer Sandwich from the harbor and spiked the guns in the Spanish fort. Of all of the vessels operating under command of the US Navy, only one vessel was captured -- and later recaptured -- by enemy forces: Retaliation. Retaliation was the captured privateer La Croyable, recently purchased by the US Navy. Retaliation departed Norfolk on 28 October 1798 with Montezuma (20) and Norfolk (18) and cruised in the West Indies protecting American commerce. On 20 November, French frigates, L'Insurgente and Volontaire overtook Retaliation while her consorts were away on a chase and forced commanding officer Lt. William Bainbridge to surrender the hopelessly out-gunned schooner. However, even as a prisoner, the clever young American officer managed to serve his country. He saved USS Montezuma and USS Norfolk by convincing the senior French commander that those American warships were too powerful for his frigates and induced him to abandon the chase. Renamed Magicienne by the French, the schooner again came into American hands on 28 June, when a broadside from USS Merrimack forced her to haul down her colors.
Revenue cutters also assisted in capturing two others. The cutter USRC Pickering, commanded by Edward Preble, 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.
In total, the US Navy captured over 80 French ships.
Although they were fighting the same enemy, the Royal Navy and the United States Navy did not cooperate operationally, nor did they share operational plans or come to mutual understandings about deployment of their forces. The British did sell the American government naval stores and munitions. And the two navies shared a system of signals by which to recognize each other's warships at sea and allowed merchantmen of their respective nations to join their convoys.
Conclusion of hostilities
By October 1800, aggressiveness of the cruisers of the United States Navy, as well as those of the Royal Navy, combined with a more conciliatory diplomatic stance by the French toward America, produced a reduction in the activity of the French privateers and warships. In mid-December 1800 news reached Washington that a peace treaty with France (the Treaty of Mortefontaine, September 30, 1800) ended the Quasi-War.
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
- Nathan Miller: The US Navy: An Illustrated History. - New York: American Heritage, 1977
External link
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.