The actions of the Barbary slave traders are more than merely an historical curiosity. They are the missing factor which enables us to make sense of much of the world’s history, and understanding where this period of history fits in will enable us to understand both the present and the past more easily. From the origin of the British constitution to the tendency of the American armed forces to operate in the Middle East, the anxieties over immigration from Muslim countries to the savage wars which took place between the ethnic groups which went to make up the former country of Yugoslavia, an
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