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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.

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  • 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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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
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    4. Blaydes, Lisa & Chaney, Eric, 2013. "The Feudal Revolution and Europe's Rise: Political Divergence of the Christian West and the Muslim World before 1500 CE," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 107(1), pages 16-34, February.
    5. Karaman, K. Kivanç & Pamuk, Şevket, 2013. "Different Paths to the Modern State in Europe: The Interaction Between Warfare, Economic Structure, and Political Regime," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 107(3), pages 603-626, August.
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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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