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Before 1776

1776 to 1800

1801 to 1807

1801 marked the start of the Barbary Wars in North Africa as the United States began attacking pirates along the North African coast and became embroiled in the Moroccan Civil War between the claimant kings Hicham and Slimane. The Ottoman Empire has nominal connections to the Kingdom of Morocco and was the titular possessor of the states of Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, Cyrenacia, and Fezzan though in practice those territories were run by deys who ruled in the name of the Sultan but were largely independent and often hereditary. The states were so independent that the Ottoman Sultan was often willing to turn a blind eye to European interference along the coast, especially if it was against piracy. The United States interference saw the pro-American Hicham I make headway in the Moroccan Civil War, the turning of the Bey of Tunis to a pro-American stance, the downfall of the Dey of Algiers and the establishment of the Republic of Algeria, and the replacement of the Ottoman Pasha of Tripoli with the pro-American Hamet Karamanli

However the blatant interference by the Americans brought the Ottomans into the war in 1806 and saw American gains reversed. The Bey of Tunis was deposed and executed and replaced with a Bey loyal to the Sultan, Morocco, Tripolitania, and Algeria all saw Islamist revolts favoring the Ottomans and the Sultan who was the Caliph of Islam over the Christian Americans. The United State responded by widening the war against the Ottomans sparking revolts in Greece, Egypt, and Arabia.

Despite losses in Tripolitania and Tunis and a bloody civil war in Algeria the American victory at Annaba in 1807 quieted the war down and brought the wars in Morocco and Algeria to an end. The Egyptian civil war between Muhammed Ali and the Mamluks resulted in the division of Egypt into an Ali controlled north and a Mamluk controlled south. In Asia the Saudis sacked Amman bringing the war much closer to home than anyone had expected. In late 1806 the Hospodars of Wallachia and Moldavia who were nominally loyal to the Ottoman Sultan but actually had a deep Russian streak invited the Russians to occupy their territories while the Ottomans were distracted and Napoleon was flexing his muscles in Dalmatia with the creation of the Illyrian Provinces.

With the Ottomans distracted on all sides the Americans and their allies took Tunis in December of 1807 and Tripoli in January of 1808 returning the situation to the status quo antebellum. The Ottomans became distracted by events much closer to home when Selim III closed the Bosporus to Russian shipping in response to their occupation of Wallachia and Moldavia. This led the British to flex their muscles in favor of their anti-Napoleon Russian allies and a brief conflict between the Ottomans and the British/Russians in which the British attempted to capture Constantinople but failed miserably. Still the Dardanelles Operation forced Ottoman attention on their capital at the height of the war in North Africa. Still the Ottomans refused to accept peace overtures.

In mid-1807 though the Janissaries, fed up at the various mismanagements by Selim III dethroned the Sultan and replaced him with Mustafa IV. Selim was stabbed to death by the Janissary conspirators leaving Mustafa to make peace and reorganize the Empire. Even though Mustafa achieved peace with the US, Russia, and Britain the Empire was thrown into a brief civil war with European Janissaries, led by Mustafa Bayrakdar, demanding someone “worthier” take the throne. Mustafa IV was deposed by the janissaries and replaced by the last surviving Osman in Mahmud II.

1808-Present