The Barbary Coast (also Barbary , Berbery , or Berber Coast ) was the name given to the coastal regions of central and western North Africa or more specifically the Maghreb and the Ottoman borderlands consisting of the regencies in Algiers , Tunis , and Tripoli , as well as the Sultanate of Morocco from the 16th to 19th centuries. The term originates from an exonym for the Berbers .
90-592: Barbary was not always a unified political entity. From the 16th century onward, it was divided into the political entities of the Regency of Algiers , Regency of Tripoli , Regency of Tunis , and the Alawi Sultanate . Major rulers and petty monarchs during the times of the Barbary states' plundering parties included the dey of Algiers , pasha of Tripoli , bey of Tunis , and the sultan of Morocco . In 1625,
180-584: A dependency because Algiers had annexed it to the Ottoman Empire, which made the appointment of its pashas a prerogative of the Algerian beylerbeys. Faced with Tunisian opposition to Algerian hegemony and its ambitions in the Constantine region , the Algerian dey took the opportunity provided by the 20 years of civil war between Murad II Bey 's sons to invade in 1694 and put a puppet bey on
270-520: A foreign policy tool to play its European counterparts against one other and hunt merchant ships, prompting European states to sign peace treaties and seek Mediterranean passes to help them secure lucrative cabotage trade. This gave the Regency's elites internal legitimacy as champions of jihad , and according to early modern European authors, international respect for the Regency's sovereignty as an established government, despite still being
360-512: A "nest of pirates". Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) noted that "Algiers exercised the jus ad bellum of a sovereign power through its corsairs". Historian Daniel Panzac stressed: Indeed, privateering was based on two fundamental priniciples: it was one of the forms of war practiced by the Maghreb against the Christian states, which conferred upon it a dimension that was at one and
450-628: A common means of commercial intermodal freight transport . A tanker is a ship designed to transport liquids in bulk. Tankers can range in size from several hundred tons , designed to serve small harbours and coastal settlements, to several hundred thousand tons, with these being designed for long-range haulage. A wide range of products are carried by tankers, including: Different products require different handling and transport, thus special types of tankers have been built, such as chemical tankers , oil tankers , and gas carriers . Among oil tankers, supertankers were designed for carrying oil around
540-409: A council of government, they took care to respect local institutions and customs under their dominion. The beylerbeys were usually strongmen who kept most of the Maghreb firmly under Ottoman control, garrisoning the main towns with troops and collecting taxes on land while relying heavily on privateering at sea. Because of their experience in fleet command, some beylerbeys became Kapudan Pasha and led
630-716: A majority on the tai'fa, amongst whom were former slaves who rose to positions of power. Renegade captain Ali Bitchin became admiral of the Algerian navy in 1621 and raided Spanish harbors. After the Ottoman sultan refused to compensate Algiers for its losses against the Venetians in Valona , Ali Bitchin refused to answer a summons from the sultan to join the Cretan war in 1645, then died quite suddenly. The 17th century
720-759: A prosperous Algiers for 25 years until he died in 1791. He built fortifications, fountains and a municipal water supply; he also strengthened the navy, kept the janissaries in check and developed trade. Algerian historian Nasreddin Saidouni reports that the dey placed in the state treasury 200,000 Algerian sequins that he had saved from his private salary, which he did not reclaim, during the Spanish attacks on Algiers. His governor of Constantine , Salah Bey , managed to re-assert Regency authority as far south as Touggourt . Algiers also maintained its military superiority over its neighbors under his rule. The dey increased
810-646: A ransom and annual tribute equal to $ 10 million over 12 years in accordance to a peace treaty with Algiers in 1795. However, Algiers was defeated in the Second Barbary War by the United States in 1815 when U.S. commodore Stephen Decatur 's squadron killed Algerian admiral Raïs Hamidou in the battle off Cape Gata on 17 June 1815, ending the Algerian threat to U.S. shipping in the Mediterranean. The new European order that emerged from
900-432: A text that defined the rights of the subjects of Algiers and of all inhabitants of the Regency of Algiers. It codified the behavior of the different army units: janissaries, gunners, chaouchs and sipahis. In the three beyliks (provinces), the beys relied on local notables since they had a limited number of janissaries. This allowed the coulouglis to become beys. Baba Mohammed ben-Osman became dey in 1766 and ruled over
990-401: A thousand European ships were captured from 1608 to 1634, with more than 25,000 people enslaved, many of whom were Dutch, German, French, Spanish and English, making the value of the spoils total about 4,752,000 pounds . Pierre Dan estimated the value of seized cargo at around 20,000,000 francs. Algiers became a thriving market in the 17th century for captives and plundered goods from all over
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#17327658117281080-482: A trading center known as the Bastion de France , which exported coral legally under its monopoly and wheat illegally. The bastion was fortified and turned into a military supply base and a center of espionage , which Algerians were displeased by. Khider Pasha destroyed the bastion in 1604. The Ottoman Porte had him assassinated and replaced by the more compliant Mohammed Koucha [ fr ] Pasha, but
1170-731: Is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo , goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade . Cargo ships are usually specially designed for the task, often being equipped with cranes and other mechanisms to load and unload, and come in all sizes. A bulk carrier is a ship used to transport bulk cargo items such as iron ore , bauxite, coal, cement, grain and similar cargo. Bulk carriers can be recognized by large box-like hatches on deck, designed to slide outboard or fold fore-and-aft to enable access for loading or discharging cargo. The dimensions of bulk carriers are often determined by
1260-575: Is in contrast to pleasure craft , which are used for personal recreation, and naval ships , which are used for military purposes. They come in myriad sizes and shapes, from six-metre (20 ft) inflatable dive boats in Hawaii, to 5,000-passenger casino vessels on the Mississippi River, to tugboats plying New York Harbor , to 300-metre (1,000 ft) oil tankers and container ships at major ports, to passenger-carrying submarines in
1350-551: Is known as the Franco-Algerian war , which ended when a 100-year peace treaty was signed between Dey Hussein Mezzo Morto and Louis XIV. Algiers entered a period of peaceful relations with Europe. The resulting decline in privateering forced Algiers to seek other sources of revenue. Dey Hadj Chabane set his sights on his Maghrebi neighbors, Tunis and Morocco . For historical reasons, Algiers considered Tunisia
1440-672: The Barbary Wars at the beginning of the 19th century, when Algiers was decisively defeated for the first time. Internal central authority weakened in Algiers due to political intrigue, failed harvests and the decline of privateering. Violent tribal revolts followed, mainly led by maraboutic orders such as the Darqawis and Tijanis . In 1830, France took advantage of this domestic turmoil to invade. The resulting French conquest of Algeria led to colonial rule until 1962. Encouraged by
1530-534: The Canary Islands . Fearful of the growing authority of the beylerbeylik , the Sublime Porte replaced it with pashas who served a three-year term starting in 1587. The Ottomans also divided the Maghreb into the three regencies of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli . Earlier pashas such as Khider Pasha [ fr ] and Kose Mustafa Pasha served for multiple terms and guaranteed stability in
1620-553: The Caribbean . Many merchant ships operate under a " flag of convenience " from a country other than the home of the vessel's owners, such as Liberia and Panama , which have more favorable maritime laws than other countries. The Greek merchant marine is the largest in the world. Today, the Greek fleet accounts for some 16 per cent of the world's tonnage ; this makes it currently the largest single international merchant fleet in
1710-670: The Coalition Wars and the Congress of Vienna did not tolerate Algerian raids and viewed them as a "barbaric relic of a previous age". In August 1816 Lord Exmouth carried out a bombardment of Algiers that ended in a British and Dutch victory, a weakened Algerian navy and the liberation of 1,200 slaves. Dey Ali Khodja , with support from the Kouloughlis and the Kabyles, disposed of the turbulent janissaries and transferred
1800-520: The Duke of Montemar 's forces recaptured the city . The pashas plotted in secret, created conflicts and instigated sedition to overthrow the unpopular deys and regain some of their lost authority. From 1710 the deys assumed the title of pasha at the initiative of Dey Baba Ali Chaouch and no longer accepted representatives from the Sublime Porte. When the Austrian Habsburg monarchy signed
1890-572: The Hafsids ; then Tripoli from the Hafsids in 1510, making other coastal cities submit to them such as Algiers, where they built an island fortress known as the Peñón of Algiers . In addition to territorial ambitions and Catholic missionary fervor, Spanish economical aims included control over the caravan trade routes from western Sudan, Tripoli and Tunis in the east and Ceuta to Melilla in
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#17327658117281980-735: The Horn of Africa from the Middle East ; the FSO Knock Nevis being the largest vessel in the world, a ULCC supertanker formerly known as Jahre Viking (Seawise Giant). It has a deadweight of 565,000 metric tons and length of about 458 meters (1,500 ft). The use of such large ships is in fact very unprofitable, due to the inability to operate them at full cargo capacity; hence, the production of supertankers has currently ceased. Today's largest oil tankers in comparison by gross tonnage are TI Europe , TI Asia , TI Oceania , which are
2070-626: The Ottoman fleet from total defeat in the battle of Lepanto in 1571. Uluç Ali's deputy Caïd Ramdan [ fr ] captured Fez in 1576 after defeating Saadian ruler Mohammed II and put Abd al-Malik on the throne as an Ottoman vassal. In 1578 his successor Hassan Veneziano led his troops deep into the Sahara to the oases of Tuat in central Algeria to respond to pleas from its inhabitants for help against Saadi-allied tribes from Tafilalt . A campaign against Morocco led by Uluç Ali
2160-465: The Peace of Passarowitz with the Ottoman Empire in 1718, Dey Ali Chaouch had Austrian ships captured despite the treaty and refused to pay compensation when an Ottoman-Austrian delegation approached him. The deys also imposed their authority on the janissaries and the raïs . The latter did not approve of treaty provisions which restricted privateering, their main source of income, and remained attached to
2250-602: The Republic of Salé in the 17th century. He conducted several raids on Spanish coasts and vanquished the Genoese fleet of Andrea Doria at Cherchell . Hayreddin also rescued over 70,000 Andalusian refugees from the Spanish inquisition and brought them to Algeria, where they contributed to the flourishing culture of the Regency. The Barbarossa brothers turned Algiers into an Islamic bastion against Catholic Spain in
2340-741: The US Marines and the US Navy in 1805 at the Battle of Derna , at Tripoli, a coastal city now in eastern Libya, in April 1805. It was part of an effort to destroy the Barbary pirates and end piracy between warring tribes by the Barbary states, which were themselves member states of the Ottoman Empire . The opening line of the Marines' Hymn refers to this action: "From the halls of Montezuma to
2430-399: The expedition to Mostaganem of the Spanish governor of Oran Count Alcaudete 's in 1558. Beylerbey Uluç Ali Pasha, who captured Tunis from Hafsid vassals of Spain in 1569 before losing it to the Christian forces under Spanish commander John of Austria in 1573, leaving 8,000 men in the Spanish presidio of La Goletta ; Uluç Ali recaptured the city in 1574, while his ships saved
2520-476: The janissary coup of 1659, the Regency became a sovereign military republic , and its rulers were thenceforth elected by the council known as the diwan rather than appointed by the Ottoman sultan previously. Despite wars over territory with Spain and the Maghrebi states in the 18th century, Mediterranean trade and diplomatic relations with European states expanded. Bureaucratisation efforts stabilized
2610-511: The 16th and 17th centuries and well into the end of the Napoleonic wars despite European naval superiority. Its institutionalised privateering dealt substantial damage to European shipping , took captives for ransom, plundered booty, hijacked ships and eventually demanded regular tribute payments. In the rich and bustling city of Algiers , the Barbary slave trade reached an apex. After
2700-771: The 16th-century Ottoman–Habsburg wars as a unique corsair state that drew revenue and political power from its maritime strength. In the 17th century, when the wars between the Spanish Habsburgs and the Ottoman Empire, Kingdom of France , Kingdom of England and Dutch Republic ended, Barbary corsairs started capturing merchant ships and their crews and goods from these states. When the Ottomans could not prevent these attacks, European powers negotiated directly with Algiers and also took military action against it. This emancipated Algiers diplomatically and increased its autonomy. The Regency held significant naval power in
2790-553: The Algerian slave market , resulting in intermittent wars followed by longlasting peace treaties whose tribute payments terms ranged from money to weapons. Under Louis XIV , France built a strong navy to fend off the corsairs who raided Corsica and were everywhere in the waters off Marseilles in the late 1650s. The country launched multiple campaigns against the Regency, first in Jijel and Collo in 1664, then several bombings of Algiers were conducted between 1682 and 1688 in what
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2880-544: The Barbarossa brothers), the Regency succeeded the Kingdom of Tlemcen as an infamous and formidable pirate base that plundered and waged maritime holy war on European Christian powers. Ottoman regents ruled as heads of a stratocracy —an autonomous military government controlled by the janissary corps —known as Garp ocakları ( lit. ' Western Garrison ' ) in Ottoman terminology. The Regency emerged in
2970-544: The Barbary", wrote Diego de Haedo [ fr ; es ; it ] , a Spanish Benedictine held captive in Algiers between 1577 and 1580. Aruj continued his conquests in western Algeria, reaching Tlemcen, but a Spanish–Zayyanid coalition cut his supply route from Algiers. Aruj was killed with his companions in 1518 when he attempted to break out during the Fall of Tlemcen . Hayreddin inherited his brother's position as sultan without opposition, although he faced threats from
3060-583: The Dutch Republic were seen as allies by the Ottoman regencies until the end of the 16th century because of their common Spanish enemy, but when James I of England and Dutch States-General opted for peace with Spain in 1604 and 1609 , respectively, and increased their shipping in the Mediterranean, Algerian and Tunisian corsairs attacked their ships. They amassed wealth from capturing slaves and goods while taking advantage of their strong fleet, maritime European weakness and Ottoman incapacity to force
3150-435: The Mediterranean as a wealthy city with over 100,000 inhabitants. The reliance on piracy and captivity served to keep Algiers financially and politically independent from Constantinople. The pashas sent by the Sublime Porte worked to multiply their wealth as quickly as possible before the end of their three-year term in office. As governance became a secondary issue, the pashas lost all influence and respect, and aversion to
3240-492: The Mediterranean. The assault's disastrous failure dealt a humiliating blow to the reorganized Spanish military. This was followed by two bombardments by Antonio Barceló in 1783 and 1784 , also ending in defeat. Led by Mohammed Kebir Bey in 1791, Algiers launched a final assault on Oran, which was retaken after negotiations between Dey Hasan III Pasha with the Spanish Count of Floridablanca . The assault marked
3330-1171: The Mediterranean. The city became a bazaar for thousands of captured Christian slaves . Algiers was known in Christian Europe as "the scourge of Christendom" and a 16th-century " rogue state ". Hayreddin's son Hasan Pasha succeeded Hasan Agha. He led campaigns against Spanish ally Saadian Morocco, decisively defeating it in Tlemcen in 1551 . He was recalled by the sultan after the French ambassador in Constantinople supported his successor Salah Rais , who would expand his rule to Berber Beni Djallab's principalities in Touggourt and Ouargla , making them tributaries. Hasan Pasha then advanced as far as Fez in January 1554 , placing Wattasid pretender Abu Hassun as an Ottoman vassal there. Salah Rais captured Spanish-held Béjaïa in 1555, and his death ignited tensions between
3420-666: The Moroccan throne was answered with several invasions by Sultan Moulay Ismail in 1678, 1692 , 1701 and 1707, all of which failed. Moulay Ismail was forced to accept the Moulouya River as his eastern border with Ottoman Algeria. By the early 18th century, Algiers established a more stable form of government. Janissary-elected deys obtained the right from the Ottoman sultan to be appointed as pashas, gaining more legitimacy. The decline in privateering, fewer janissary recruits and decreased population and slaves compelled
3510-630: The Ottoman Empire. Under Hasan Agha , Algiers repelled a naval attack from the Holy Roman Empire led by Emperor Charles V in October 1541. The victory over the Spaniards was seen as a divine mandate of the Ottoman rule. Hasan Agha subjugated Kuku in the east in 1542, extended his rule south to Biskra and gained Tlemcen's support in the west. The Spanish defeat made Algiers the center of piracy , attracting pirates from all over
3600-407: The Ottoman expansion in the Mediterranean. For most of the 16th century, the beylerbeys acted as independent sovereigns despite acknowledging the suzerainty of the Ottoman sultan, who gave them a free hand but expected Algerian ships to help enforce Ottoman foreign policy if required. However, the interests of Algiers and Constantinople eventually diverged on the matter of privateering, over which
3690-639: The Regency's government, allowing into office regents such as Mohammed ben-Osman , who maintained Algerian prestige thanks to his public and defensive works which increased revenue and fended off attacks on Algiers. British tribute payments no longer insured U.S. shipping traffic in the Mediterranean after the American Revolution , and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars provided an opportunity for frequent Algerian privateering. Increased demands for tribute from Algiers started
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3780-403: The Regency. From the mid-17th century, pashas were isolated and deprived of local support, as they were constantly torn between the corsairs' and janissaries' demands. The corsair captains were effectively outside the pashas' control, and the janissaries' loyalty to them depended on their ability to collect taxes and meet payroll. Both groups sometimes refused orders from the sultan, or even sent
3870-504: The Spanish twice, but the citizens of Jijel offered to make Aruj king after his corsairs arrived with a shipload of wheat during a famine. Answering pleas for help from its inhabitants, the brothers captured Algiers in 1516 but failed to destroy the Peñón. Aruj executed the Algerian emir , Salim Al-Tumi, then proclaimed himself Sultan of Algiers. He also repelled an attack led by the Spanish commander Don Diego de Vera, which won him
3960-537: The Spanish, Zayyanids, Hafsids and neighboring tribes. After repelling another Spanish attack in August 1519, led by Hugo of Moncada , Hayreddin pledged allegiance to the Sublime Porte to obtain Ottoman support against his foes. In October 1519, a delegation of Algerian dignitaries and ulama went to Ottoman sultan Selim I , proposing that Algiers join the Ottoman Empire. Constantinople had doubts, but
4050-426: The Sublime Porte had no control. Beylerbeys often remained in power for several years and exercised authority over Tunis and Tripoli as well. In addition, the timar system that granted fertile land to Ottoman sipahis was not applied in Algiers; instead, the beylerbeys sent tribute to Constantinople every year after paying off the expenses of the Regency. The foreign policy of Algiers aligned completely with
4140-468: The Sublime Porte increased. In 1659, Ibrahim Pasha pocketed some of the money the Ottoman sultan had sent to the corsairs as compensation for their losses in the Cretan War , which ignited a massive revolt, and the rebellious corsairs arrested and imprisoned him. Khalil Agha, commander-in-chief of the janissaries of Algiers, took advantage of the incident and seized power, accusing the pashas sent by
4230-430: The Sublime Porte of corruption and hindering the Regency's affairs with European countries. The janissaries effectively eliminated the authority of the pasha, whose position became purely ceremonial. They assigned executive authority to Khalil Agha, provided that his rule would not exceed two months, and put legislative power in the hands of the diwan council. The sultan, forced to accept the new government, stipulated that
4320-490: The allegiance of people in the northern part of central Algeria. In the central Maghreb , Aruj built a powerful Muslim state officially named the Kingdom of Algiers at the expense of its quarreling principalities. He sought the support of the maraboutic and Sufi orders, while his absolute authority was backed by Turks and Christian renegade corsairs. "Aruj [Reis] effectively began the powerful greatness of Algiers and
4410-543: The annual tribute paid by several European states such as Britain, Sweden, the Italian states and Denmark, which sent a naval campaign against Algiers under Frederik Kaas in 1770; the campaign failed, and Denmark was forced to pay heavy war compensations and send gifts to Algiers. In 1775 Irish-born admiral of the Spanish Empire Alejandro O'Reilly led an expedition to subdue pirate activity in
4500-459: The corsairs killed Agha Ali, an autocrat sovereign that alienated the diwan and whose conciliation policy with European states at the expense of privateering angered the corsairs. Janissary leaders wanted to appoint another agha of a sovereign Algiers, but given the lack of candidates, they and the corsairs resorted to a method Ali Bitchin Rais had used in 1644–45: they entrusted both the Regency and
4590-548: The death of Jewish merchant Naphtali Busnash . Public unrest, a pogrom and successive coups followed, beginning a 20-year period of instability. The Alawi Sultanate incited a massive Sufi Darqawiyya revolt in the east and west of the regency, which was quelled with difficulty by the governor of Oran, Osman Bey. Meanwhile, payment delays caused frequent janissary revolts, leading to military setbacks as Morocco took possession of Figuig in 1805, Tuat and Oujda in 1808, and Tunisia freed itself from Algerian suzerainty after
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#17327658117284680-554: The deys to expand and exploit the interior under their control, impose tributes and further trade with European states and Tunis. Determined to remove the Spanish from Oran, Algerian dey Mohammed Bektach took the opportunity afforded by the War of the Spanish Succession to send Mustapha Bouchelaghem Bey at the head of a contingent of janissaries and local volunteers to take the city. He succeeded in 1707, but in 1732
4770-468: The diwan pay the janissaries stationed there. Khalil Agha began his rule by building the Djamaa el Djedid mosque. The era of the aghas began and the pashalik became a military republic. However, the aghas who ruled Algiers since 1659 were all assassinated, which resulted in weakened authority. In 1671 Sir Edward Spragge 's English squadron destroyed seven ships anchored in the harbor at Algiers, and
4860-461: The end of almost 300 years of holy war between Algeria and Spain. At the beginning of the 19th century, Algiers was plagued by political unrest and economic problems. A series of crises rocked Algiers in the early 19th century, beginning with famine from 1803 to 1805. Algerian reliance on Jewish merchants to trade with Europe was so great that a crisis caused by crop failure led to the assassination of Dey Mustapha Pasha [ fr ] and
4950-686: The end of the 16th century, janissaries were allowed to join corsair ships. As the 17th century started, the corsairs adopted square-rigged sails and tapered hulls. Their ships became faster and less dependent on a steady supply of galley slaves . Many of the Moriscos expelled from Spain joined the corsairs, and they debilitated Spain, ravaging its mainland and its territories in Italy, where they captured people en masse . European converts to Islam, known in Europe as "renegades" and "turned Turks", made up
5040-434: The end of the Regency of Algiers. Historian John Douglas Ruedy believes that the early 18th-century "de turkification " could have led to a 19th-century nationalization of the Algerian regime, but the French conquest put an end to this evolution. Merchant ships A merchant ship , merchant vessel , trading vessel , or merchantman is a watercraft that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This
5130-404: The external prestige of the Regency. But European reactions, new treaties guaranteeing the safety of navigation and a slowdown in shipbuilding considerably reduced their activity. The raïs rebelled and killed Dey Mohamed Ben Hassan in 1724. The new dey, Baba Abdi Pasha, quickly restored order and severely punished the conspirators. He stabilised the Regency and fought corruption. The diwan
5220-576: The federal government to levy taxes and maintain a military, authorities previously absent under the Articles of Confederation. The nascent nation's first naval vessels were commissioned in 1794 to counter Algerian piracy. Subsequently, in 1801, the Pasha of Tripoli declared war on the United States, citing unpaid tribute. The first military land action overseas of the United States was executed by
5310-599: The formerly ubiquitous twelve-passenger freighters in which the transport of passengers is secondary to the carriage of freight. The type does however include many classes of ships which are designed to transport substantial numbers of passengers as well as freight. Indeed, until recently virtually all ocean liners were able to transport mail, package freight and express, and other cargo in addition to passenger luggage, and were equipped with cargo holds and derricks, kingposts, or other cargo-handling gear for that purpose. Modern cruiseferries have car decks for lorries as well as
5400-495: The great indigenous families. Although the revolt spread to neighboring towns, it ultimately failed. The Kouloughlis failed to start another coup against the janissaries, which won the janissaries sole power in Algiers. In the 16th century, France signed capitulation treaties with the Ottomans that established the Franco-Ottoman Alliance and gave the French trading privileges in Algiers. The French built
5490-479: The janissaries and the corsairs in 1556. The janissaries supported Hasan Corso , a Corsican renegade, who refused to submit to the pasha sent from Constantinople. Although the pasha murdered Hasan Corso with the corsairs' support, the janissaries killed the pasha in retribution. The subsequent instability prompted Suleiman the Magnificent to restore order by sending Hasan Pasha back to Algiers, who thwarted
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#17327658117285580-476: The janissaries revolted in 1606 and tortured him to death. Algiers and Constantinople had different views of relations with France. The janissaries organised into the diwan (military council), the effective government of Algiers by 1626 at the expense of the pashas, which began official acts with the phrase, "We, pasha and diwân of the invincible militia of Algiers". According to priest and historian Pierre Dan [ fr ] (1580–1649), "The state has only
5670-474: The janissaries, effective holders of both military and political power, and the corsairs as the Regency's economic powerhouse that would remunerate the janissaries through the deys. This made Algiers de facto independent of the Ottoman Empire. However, the deys' power was checked by the diwan, and both janissaries and corsairs ousted deys they did not like. Privateering operations were regulated by treaties with European powers. Algiers used privateering as
5760-750: The largest sailing vessels today. But even with their deadweight of 441,585 metric tons, sailing as VLCC most of the time, they do not use more than 70% of their total capacity. Apart from pipeline transport , tankers are the only method for transporting large quantities of oil, although such tankers have caused large environmental disasters when sinking close to coastal regions, causing oil spills . See Braer , Erika , Exxon Valdez , Prestige and Torrey Canyon for examples of tankers that have been involved in oil spills. Coastal trading vessels are smaller ships that carry any category of cargo along coastal, rather than trans-oceanic, routes. Coasters are shallow-hulled ships used for trade between locations on
5850-429: The name of a kingdom since, in effect, they have made it into a republic." After the battle of Lapento , the corsairs broke loose from the Sublime Porte and began to prey on ships from countries at peace with the Ottomans. Their tai'fa was the embodiment of state sponsored piracy, since the economical prosperity of Algiers depended on the corsairs' looting. Algiers started strengthening and modernizing its fleet; by
5940-496: The pashas appointed by the sultan back to Constantinople. Algiers was the headquarters of probably the largest janissary force in the empire outside Constantinople. After Veneziano, the janissary corps grew stronger and more influential, challenging the corsairs for power. In 1596, Khider Pasha led a revolt in Algiers in an effort to subdue the janissaries with help from Kabyles and coulouglis —offspring of mixed marriage between Ottoman men and local women and having blood ties to
6030-430: The pirate fleet of Algiers, by far the largest, numbered 100 ships of various sizes, carrying 8,000 to 10,000 men. The corsair industry alone accounted for 25 percent of the workforce of the city, not counting other activities of the port. The fleet only averaged 25 ships in the 1680s, but these were larger vessels than had been used since the 1620s, so the fleet still employed some 7,000 men. In addition, 2,500 men manned
6120-485: The pirate fleet of Tripoli, 3,000 in Tunis, and several thousand more in the various minor pirate bases such as Bona, Susa, Bizerta, and Salé . The corsairs were not solely natives of the cities where they were based; while many were Arabs and Berbers, there were also Turks, Greeks, Albanians, Syrians, and renegade Italians, especially Corsicans, among their number. The establishment of the U.S. Constitution in 1789 empowered
6210-741: The political disintegration of the Maghrebi Muslim states and fearing an alliance between the Moriscos (exiled Spanish Muslims) and the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate , the Spanish Empire captured several cities and established walled and garrisoned strongpoints called presidios in North Africa. The Spanish conquered the city of Oran in 1509 and took it from the Zayyanids , as well as Béjaïa from
6300-433: The ports and sea routes that they need to serve, and by the maximum width of the Panama Canal. Most lakes are too small to accommodate bulk carriers, but a large fleet of lake freighters has been plying the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway of North America for over a century. A container ship is a cargo ship that carries its cargo in standardized containers, in a technique called containerization . These ships are
6390-414: The prince and founder of Kuku, Ahmad ibn al-Kadi, and then destroyed the Peñón of Algiers in 1529. Hayreddin used its rubble to build Algiers's harbour, making it the headquarters of the Algerian corsair fleet. Hayreddin established the military structure of the Regency, formalising an institution known as the Corsairs of Algiers . It would become the model for Barbary corsairs in Tunis, Tripoli and
6480-398: The regencies to respect the Ottoman capitulations . Algiers's refusal to follow Ottoman foreign policy led European powers to negotiate treaties with it directly on trade, tribute and slave ransoms , recognizing Algerian autonomy despite its formal subordination to the Ottomans. France first established relations with Algiers in 1617, with a treaty signed in 1619 and another in 1628;
6570-414: The responsibility for its payroll to an old Dutch rais named Hadj Mohammed Trik and gave him the titles of dey (maternal uncle), doulateli (head of state) and hakem (military ruler). After 1671 the deys led the country and were supported by members of the diwan, of which the president seconded the dey and managed most state affairs. This centralized government institutionalized relations between
6660-678: The restored Kingdom of France pay off a 31-year-old debt dating from 1799 for providing supplies to the soldiers of Napoleon's campaign in Egypt . The response of French consul Pierre Deval displeased Hussein Dey, who hit him with a fly whisk and called him an "infidel". King Charles X took this incident as an opportunity to break off diplomatic relations and launch a full-scale invasion of Algeria on June 14, 1830. Algiers surrendered on July 5, and Hussein Dey went into exile in Naples , which marked
6750-412: The same island or continent. Their shallow hulls allow them to sail over reefs and other submerged navigation hazards, whereas ships designed for blue-water trade usually have much deeper hulls for better seakeeping . A passenger ship is a ship whose primary function is to carry passengers. The category does not include cargo vessels which have accommodations for limited numbers of passengers, such as
6840-592: The same time legitimate and religious; and it was exercised in a framework defined by a state strong enough to enact its rules and control their application. Peace between the Ottoman Empire and Spanish Habsburgs in 1580 did not concern their vassals, as both the Sovereign Order of Malta and the North African Regencies pursued their holy war. Their privateers were motivated by desires of vengeance, wealth and salvation . England, France and
6930-667: The seat of power and the treasury of the regency from the Djenina Palace to the Casbah citadel in 1817. The last deys of Algiers tried to nullify the consequences of the previous Algerian defeats by reviving buccaneering and resisting a British attack on Algiers in 1824, creating the illusion that Algiers could still defend itself against a divided Europe. In Napoleon 's time, Algiers benefited greatly from Mediterranean trade and France's massive food imports, much of which were bought on credit. In 1827, Hussein Dey demanded that
7020-535: The shores of Tripoli...". Regency of Algiers French Algeria (19th–20th centuries) Algerian War (1954–1962) 1990s– 2000s 2010s to present The Regency of Algiers was an early modern semi-independent Ottoman province and tributary state on the Barbary Coast of North Africa from 1516 to 1830. Founded by the privateer brothers Aruj and Hayreddin Reis (also known as
7110-525: The sultan recognized Hayreddin as pasha —a regent with the title of beylerbey ( lit. ' Prince of princes ' ) —and sent him 2,000 janissaries . Algiers officially became an eyalet (called a "regency" in European sources; some historians refer to it as an Ottoman vassal state , state-province or "Imperial state" ) under Selim's successor Suleiman I in the spring of 1521. Historian Lamnouar Merouche stresses that although Algiers
7200-921: The term "Merchant Navy" without further clarification is used to refer to the British Merchant Navy ; the United States merchant fleet is known as the United States Merchant Marine . Merchant ships' names have a prefix to indicate which kind of vessel they are: The UNCTAD review of maritime transport categorizes ships as: oil tankers, bulk (and combination) carriers, general cargo ships, container ships, and "other ships", which includes "liquefied petroleum gas carriers, liquefied natural gas carriers, parcel (chemical) tankers, specialized tankers, reefers, offshore supply, tugs, dredgers, cruise, ferries, other non-cargo". General cargo ships include "multi-purpose and project vessels and Roll-on/roll-off cargo". A cargo ship or freighter
7290-671: The throne. A vengeful Murad III Bey of Tunis allied with Morocco and started the Maghrebi war in 1700. He lost, and the Muradid dynasty was replaced by the Husainid ;dynasty , which failed to free Tunis from Algerian suzerainty in 1735 and 1756 . Tunis remained an Algerian tributary until the early 19th century. The Alawi Sultanate opposed the Ottomans. It also had ancient ambitions to expand in western Algeria—especially in Tlemcen. Algerian support for pretenders to
7380-630: The treaties mostly concerned the Bastion de France and the rights of French merchants in Algiers, but the bastion was razed a second time by Ali Bitchin in 1637, as armed incidents between French and Algerian vessels were frequent. Nonetheless, a treaty in 1640 allowed France to regain its North African commercial establishments. After attacks by the English in 1621 and the Dutch in 1624, Algerian corsairs took thousands of English and Dutch sailors to
7470-477: The wars of 1807 and 1813 . Internal financial problems led Algiers to re-engage in widespread piracy against American and European shipping in the early 19th century, taking full advantage of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars . Algerian vessels attacked American merchant ships in 1785, claiming they were no longer under British protection and asserting an Algerian right to search and seizure . American president George Washington agreed to pay
7560-455: The west, passing through Béjaïa, Algiers, Oran and Tlemcen ; the gold and slave trades funded the Spanish treasury. After operating as Hafsid-sponsored privateers from their base in the island of Djerba , Mytilenean -born brothers Aruj and Hayreddin Reis , nicknamed the Barbarossa brothers, came to North Africa at the request of Béjaïa citizens in 1512. They failed to take the city from
7650-466: The western Mediterranean, making it the capital of what would become the early modern Algerian state. The sultan called Hayreddin to the Porte to appoint him as Kapudan Pasha (admiral) in 1533. Before departing, Hayreddin named Hasan Agha his deputy in Algiers. From 1519 onwards Algerian affairs were in the hands of beylerbeys— corsair captains appointed by the Ottoman sultan to rule. Assisted by
7740-488: The world, albeit not the largest in history. During wars, merchant ships may be used as auxiliaries to the navies of their respective countries, and are called upon to deliver military personnel and materiel . The term "commercial vessel" is defined by the United States Coast Guard as any vessel (i.e. boat or ship) engaged in commercial trade or that carries passengers for hire. In English,
7830-467: Was a "golden age" for the North African corsairs. Algerian autonomy and rivalry between Christian states made the prestige and wealth of the corsairs reach its zenith as their intensified privateering significantly filled Algerian coffers. In their search for booty and slaves, corsairs traveled as far as Iceland in 1627 and Ireland in 1631. Historian Yahya Boaziz indicates that more than
7920-454: Was aborted in 1581, as Saadian ruler Al-Mansur had at first vehemently refused to serve under Ottoman sultan Murad III , but agreed to pay annual tribute afterwards. Nonetheless, the Figuig oases in the south western Maghreb were part of the Regency by 1584. Veneziano's privateers ravaged the Mediterranean and made the waters unsafe from Andalusia to Sicily . Their power reached as far as
8010-596: Was an increasingly autonomous province within the Ottoman Empire, it had at the same time all the attributes of a state. Hayreddin had to return to Jijel after a coalition of the Hafsids with the Kabyle kingdom of Kuku blockaded Algiers. He and his men used their reputation as "holy warriors" to gather support from the Kabyle tribes of Beni Abbas , who were rivals of the Kuku. Hayreddin retook Algiers in 1525 after defeating
8100-445: Was gradually weakened in favor of the dey's cabinet, known as " powers " , resulting in more stability through the implementation of a quasi- bureaucracy . Relations with Constantinople became formalised; the sultan was assured of Algerian "obedience" in return for recruiting troops from Ottoman lands, yet the dey was not bound to Ottoman foreign policy. On 3 February 1748 Dey Mohamed Ibn Bekir issued The Fundamental Pact of 1748 ,
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