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

the land and language, still constituted a serious threat to Spain. For them, the
fall of Granada did not rule out the possibility of another Muslim invasion of
the peninsula:
After all, rude warriors from Africa had twice stiffened the backbone of
Iberian Muslims before the completion of the reconquest; hence
proximity and tradition argued that another invasion from North Africa
might again roll back the Christian conquests. 44
According to Gonzalvo de Cordova, general commander of the Spanish army,
the enemy had to be pursued and exterminated to the last one. Indeed, and
thanks to this strategy, he became the first European general to engage in
pursuit of a retreating enemy after victory with the aim of destroying it
completely. 45 Pedro Navarro carried this strategy to its most horrible details as
shown in the carnage that followed the fall of Oran in 1509. 46 “No mercy was
shown,” wrote the American historian William H. Prescott; “no respect for age
or sex; and the soldiery abandoned themselves to all the brutal license and
ferocity, which seem to stain religious wars above every other.” 47 This method
of systematic destruction was reiterated in other cities that could not resist
Spanish assaults, particularly in Bejaia (1510) and Jijel (1512).
44 Hess, “The Moriscos,” pp. 1-2.
45 Thanks to this strategy of systematic destruction, Gonzalvo de Cordova (1453–1515) stands among
the first founders of modern warfare. As a field commander, he had no match in the modern era until
the rise of Napoleon some 300 years later. He gave Spain an empire and an army that dominated
battlefields in Europe and the New World during 16 th and 17 th centuries.
46 Mahfoud Kaddache, L’Algérie pendant la période Ottomane (Alger: Office des Publications
Universitaires, 1992), pp. 4-5; Grammont, Histoire d’Alger, pp. 30-5.
47 Prescott, Ferdinand and Isabella, p. 278.
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