Barbary slave trade

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The Barbary slave trade involved the capture of an estimated 1.25 million Europeans and selling them at slave markets in the largely independent Ottoman Barbary states of North Africa during the early modern period. European civilians were captured by Barbary corsairs in slave raids on ships and by raids on coastal towns from Italy to Ireland, coasts of Spain and Portugal, as far north as Iceland and into the Eastern Mediterranean. The Ottoman Eastern Mediterranean was the scene of intense piracy. As late as the 18th century, piracy continued to be a "consistent threat to maritime traffic in the Aegean". The Barbary slave trade came to an end in the early years of the 19th century. Frustrated at the continuing costs of tribute and ransom payments, the United States and Western European allies won the First and Second Barbary Wars against the pirates, but this did not end the practice. In 1816, Britain pressured the Beylik of Tunis and the Regency of Tripoli to agree to cease the enslaving...

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