The Letters and Reports of British Consular and Diplomatic Agents in Tripoli, 1793–1832

This edition presents the official correspondence and reports of the British consular and diplomatic agents stationed in the Regency of Tripoli from 1793 to 1832, during the last substantive reign of a Qaramanli dynast, Yusuf Pasha Qaramanli (1766–1838). The correspondence and reports of Consuls Simon Lucas, William Wass Langford and Hanmer Warrington attest to the highly political role played by British consuls to ‘Barbary’. These letters and reports are published in this volume for the first time. These dispatches also emphasize the importance of Tripoli to British strategic interests and ambitions in North Africa and the Mediterranean during the early nineteenth century. As well as providing political intelligence on local and regional developments, the correspondence reveals in detail both the personal ambitions of the consuls and the offi cial interests of the British government. In so doing, the consular dispatches provide evidence of the development of an infl uential bridgehead and protected imperial presence in Tripoli in the post-Napoleonic era.