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

egion. 14 Furthermore, the Sublime Porte renewed the treaty in 1604 giving
even more privileges to France in total ignorance of Algerian interests. Clause
14 of the treaty, for example, authorized the French king to use force against
Algiers in case the treaty was not respected. 15 This caused the Pasha of Algiers
to attack the Bastion, an act for which the Sultan ordered him hanged up. 16
Despite the execution of the Pasha and a firman ordering restoration of
the Bastion and respect of the ‘rights’ of France,
disagreement between
Algiers and Constantinople could not be settled down. France then decided to
negotiate directly with Algiers. Negotiations started in 1617 but they
stalemated very soon; part of the difficulty arose from disagreement over the
return of two Algerian cannons which the Dutch renegade Simon Danser
carried away when he deserted the Algerian navy in 1607 and offered to duke
de Guise, governor of Provence. 17 Two years later, negotiations reached the
brink of rupture when the Algerian delegation was massacred in Marseille
allegedly because an Algerian Rais had captured a province ship. 18 Hostility
mounted again; nevertheless, a treaty was concluded in 1619. 19 It was the first
treaty Algiers signed with a foreign country. However, Algiers continued
rejecting the Franco-Ottoman capitulation of 1604 and the concessions which
were granted to France unwaveringly. France, keen on keeping its commercial
14 Grammont, Histoire d’Alger, p. 55.
15 Montmorency, “The Barbary States in International Law,” p. 89; also Card, Traités de la France, p.
4. For the terms of the treaty see Dan, Histoire de Barbarie, pp. 189-190.
16 Grammont, Histoire d’Alger, pp. 146-47.
17 The crisis ended only when the guns were returned in 1628. Card, Traités de la France, p. 16;
Grammont, “Les deux canons de Simon Dansa,” Revue Africaine, 23 (1879), p. 5-95; 96-133; Clissold,
Christian Renegades, p. 512.
18 Panzac, Corsaires barbaresques, p. 26.
19 Traité entre Monsieur de Guise, au nom de Louis XIII, roi de France, et les Députez du Bacha et
Milice d’Alger, 21 mars 1619 in Card, Traités de la France, pp. 11-15.
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