For years the Barbary states of North Africa had seized American merchant ships and held their crews for ransom. In 1804, after the frigate Philadelphia ran aground and its 300 sailors were imprisoned in Tripoli, an American diplomat named William Eaton proposed something audacious: instead of paying tribute, put the Pasha’s exiled older brother on the throne by force. With eight U.S. Marines, some forty European mercenaries and several hundred hired Bedouin horsemen, Eaton marched 500 miles west from Alexandria, Egypt, across the Libyan desert in fifty days...
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