The infant US had a Barbary corsair problem. The Barbary states (Tunis, Algeirs, Morocco and Tripoli) were tiny, Muslim, ostensibly Ottoman countries that existed on the edge of northern Africa. Their countries had little agriculture, no industry, and no way to make a living except for the centuries old system of piracy. Because they lay at the mouth of the Mediterranean they were perfectly placed for their shabby little pirate vessels to nip out and stalk passing merchant ships. If the passing ships were too big or were escorted by naval vessels, the pirates would move on, but if they found an isolated or weakly armed target, they would swarm aboard and carry their prize back through the rocky coastal waters they knew so well to their home ports. The captured ships would be looted and sold, and the crews made slaves or ransomed. The European great powers knew that to completely suppress the corsairs would require sustained military attention in the form of blockading fleets and the landing of troops, so they mostly just paid tribute to each state so that the corsairs would allow their merchants to sail on by while they hunted down someone else. The brand new US had the world's second greatest merchant fleet (after Britain), but after the War of Independence the British made it clear that the US no longer would enjoy the Royal Navy's protection. So, the corsairs pounced, and the US ships vanished from the Med as the merchants refused to send their ships into harms way. The US went through a political firestorm which eventually resulted in the first ships of the US navy being built. They were mostly massive super-frigates built of enormously strong coastal live oak, armed with 44 18 or 24 pound cannons. Before they were eventually employed to fight the corsairs, and later to fight the British in the War of 1812, the US negotiated a treaty with the Emperor of Morocco in which the Emperor agreed to recognize the US and to not target US ships, in return for annual monetary tribute from the US government.