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

Netherlands were the largest providers of those strategic products for the
Algerian navy; Algiers was entirely dependent on this external market for
maintaining its fleet. Subsequently, and in a sense, the protestant countries
were paid off by a lucrative trade and advantageous treaties with Algiers.
Illustrative of this view is the remark Dey Hassan Pasha (r. 1791-1798) made to
the Americans who, dropping empty-handed on Algiers, sought to conclude a
treaty as advantageous as that of the Netherlands:
but what good did you ever do us to expect to obtain peace on the same
terms as Holland, who has been supplying us with stores for a century
when we were at war with Spain [?] 117
By early 17 th century, Algiers had become a dominant naval power in
the Mediterranean and the row-galleys were progressively abandoned as sail
and broadside technology was introduced. 118
Henceforth, fighting vessels
carried batteries of guns and used sail for cruising instead of human power.
This process of renovation was accelerated after several hundred English,
Dutch, and other European former privateers joined the Algerian navy at the
end of a wave of wars that swept Europe. 119 The renegades introduced new
knowledge like the broadside—called also the round ship—which was
introduced by the Dutch Simon Danser in 1606. 120 Another Dutch renegade,
117 As cited in James L. Cathcart, The Captives: Eleven Years a Prisoner in Algiers, compiled by his
Daughter, J. B. Newkirk (Laporte, Indiana: Herald, 1899), p. 159.
118 Earle, Pirate Wars, pp. 40-1. A broadside is a battery of guns positioned on one side of a ship that
could fire simultaneously; thus disposing of a huge fire power capacity.
119 Power rivalries and dynastic warfare turned Europe, colonies, and seas into a battleground.
Privateering flourished as the European rulers encouraged privateers to attack and harass each others’
commercial shipping.
120 G. N. Clark, “The Barbary Corsairs in the Seventeenth Century,” Cambridge Historical Journal, 8:
1 (1944), p. 27.
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