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Measuring the military decline of the Western Islamic World: Evidence from Barbary ransoms

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  • Chaney, Eric

Abstract

This paper uses data on more than 4000 captives ransomed from the Barbary corsairs to track the military power of the Ottoman Empire's most powerful North African regency over time. Results suggest that as the seventeenth century advanced, Algerian-based corsairs found it increasingly difficult to capture “hard” targets. These results do not appear to be driven by changes in ransoming preferences or by other unobserved factors and provide insights into both the timing and reasons behind the military decline of the Western Islamic World.

Suggested Citation

  • Chaney, Eric, 2015. "Measuring the military decline of the Western Islamic World: Evidence from Barbary ransoms," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 107-124.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:exehis:v:58:y:2015:i:c:p:107-124
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eeh.2015.03.002
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    Cited by:

    1. Attila Ambrus & Eric Chaney & Igor Salitskiy, 2018. "Pirates of the Mediterranean: An empirical investigation of bargaining with asymmetric information," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 9(1), pages 217-246, March.

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