To add an interesting part about history: after the US became an independent nation US merchant vessels were not under the protection of the Royal Navy. This made US ships a good target for pirates from the Barbary States who would not only steal the cargo but enslave the crew (the pirates also raided European settlements near coasts for slaves). Because the US didn't have a navy at the time they decided to pay tribute to stop the attacks. At one point the US paid a fifth of its annual budget in tribute to the pirates. This led to the creation of a permanent US Navy and to the Barbary Wars.

Now 200 years later the US Navy is a pretty powerful fighting force.

Ah, like the sentence right before that which stated they were pirates? You think I referred to north africa holding power from its pirating entities as some kind of Disney movie piracy? Anyone who has any sense of piracy in a historical context knows they thieve, pillage, kill, rape, enslave. Besides, you say it as if the north african states uniquely employed slavery, this was a time of a giant slave trade by European countries in Africa, Asia and South America, if I'd have said the colonial Netherlands controlled important trade routes and trade hubs, would you have added the snarky comment as well?