Ottoman Algeria in Western Diplomatic History with ... - Bibliothèque

Netherlands (1612). Previously, France and England concluded treaties, known
as capitulations, with the Ottoman Empire in 1536 and 1579 respectively. 2 The
immediate impact of peace between those countries was the establishment of
diplomatic relations with Algiers. The war opposing Spain and its allies the
Italian states to the Ottoman Empire and Algiers, however, continued unabated
and even intensified. The great naval battles involving squadrons of galleys
disappeared after the Battle of Lepanto but gave way to more efficient
corsairing as sailing vessels were adopted by corsairs on both flanks of the
Mediterranean. Muslim and Christian corsairs continued to attack shipping of
each other and caused ravages among coastal inhabitants.
Those developments had an immediate consequence on relations with
Algiers: first, France, England, and the Netherlands could renew with trade in
the Orient and the Mediterranean but the ongoing war between Spain and its
allies on the one hand and the Ottoman Empire and its North African regencies
on the other jeopardized their merchant activities. Second, with peace
established in Europe, the north European privateers moved their activities to
the Mediterranean and offered their services to the enemies of Algiers. Many
also converted to Islam and joined the Algerian navy. 3 The consequence of this
migration of privateers was an unprecedented escalation of international
corsairing in the area.
2 Panzac, Corsaires barbaresques, p. 24-25.
3 Estimations for the 1630s, put the number of renegades to 9,500 in Algiers (about 1/9 of the native
population). Robert C. Davis, “Counting European Slaves on the Barbary Coast,” Past and Present, no.
172 (Aug., 2001), p. 115.
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