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Libya
Karamanlis
Lacking direction from the Porte (Ottoman government), Tripoli
lapsed into a period of military anarchy during which coup followed
coup and few deys survived in office more than a year. In 1711
Ahmad Karamanli, a popular khouloughli cavalry officer,
seized Tripoli and then purchased his confirmation by the sultan
as pasha-regent with property confiscated from Turkish officials
he had massacred during the coup. Although he continued to recognize
nominal Ottoman suzerainty, Ahmad (reigned 1711-45) created an
independent hereditary monarchy in Tripoli with a government that
was essentially Arab in its composition. Intelligent and resourceful
as well as ruthless, he increased his revenues from piracy, pursued
an active foreign policy with European powers, used a loyal military
establishment to win the allegiance of the tribes, and extended
his authority into Cyrenaica.
The Karamanli regime, however, declined under Ahmad's successors.
Then in 1793, a Turkish officer, Ali Benghul, overthrew the Karamanlis
and restored Tripoli to Ottoman rule. With the aid of the bey
of Tunis, Yusuf ibn Ali Karamanli (reigned 1795-1832) returned
to Tripoli and installed himself as pasha. A throwback to the
founder of the dynasty, he tamed the tribes and defied both the
Porte and British naval power to assist Napoleon Bonaparte during
his Egyptian campaign in 1799.
The effectiveness of Tripoli's corsairs had long since deteriorated,
but their reputation alone was enough to prompt European maritime
states to pay the tribute extorted by the pasha to ensure safe
passage of their shipping through Tripolitanian waters. American
merchant ships, no longer covered by British protection, were
seized by Barbary pirates in the years after United States independence,
and American crews were enslaved. In 1799 the United States agreed
to pay Yusuf US$18,000 a year in return for a promise that Tripoli-based
corsairs would not molest American ships. Similar agreements were
made at the time with the rulers of Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis.
In the years immediately after the Napoleonic wars, which ended
in 1815, the European powers forced an end to piracy and the payment
of tribute in the Barbary states. Deprived of the basis of its
economy, Tripoli was unable to pay for basic imports or to service
its foreign debt. When France and Britain pressed for payment
of debts on behalf of Tripoli's creditors, the Divan authorized
extraordinary taxes to provide the needed revenue. The imposition
of the taxes provoked an outcry in the towns and among the tribes
that quickly degenerated into civil war. With the allegiance of
the country split among rival claimants to the throne, Yusuf abdicated
in favor of his son, Ali II (reigned 1832- 35). In response to
Ali's appeal for assistance and out of fear of the European takeover
in Tripoli, the Ottoman Sultan Muhammad II sent Turkish troops,
ostensibly to put down the numerous rebellions against the pasha
and to restore order. But Ali was packed aboard a Turkish warship,
which carried him into exile, while the sultan's troops reinstated
Ottoman rule in Tripoli.
Data as of 1987
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