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

Europeans corsairs and slave traders in the same way as their Christian
counterparts feared capture by Algerian corsairs. 66 In 1695, for example, 24%
of the crews of the French fleet were captives and prisoners of war from the
Ottoman Empire—Algiers included, 67
and in 1720, the Muslim slaves
originating from North Africa represented 74% of the rowing slaves on the
papal galleys. 68
Capture and enslavement of Muslims led to a spiral of conflicts with the
European powers because the Algerian corsairs did likewise in order to be able
to exchange captives. 69 Accordingly, they transformed naval operations from
merely defensive to offensive expeditions that encompassed the coastal
inhabitants of southern Europe as well as far away Iceland, the British Isles, the
North Sea shores, and the Canary Islands. Subsequently, the city of Algiers,
like most European cities, became an important slave market. Algiers had its
share of slaves too; slave numbers were set at a high of 25,000 (roughly 25% of
the total population) as recorded by Haedo in the late 16 th century and Dan
about half a century later. This number was taken over and amplified many
times by travelers and European bureaucrats throughout the next century. 70 In
1675, according to d’Arvieux, the number ranged between 6,000 and 12,000.
At the end of the 18 th century, the number was believed to be as low as 500
66 Delmasso, “La peur des corsaires barbaresques,” p. 53.
67 Daniel Panzac, “La course barbaresque revisitée, XVIe-XIXe siecles,” in Michel Vergé-Franceschi
and Antoine-Marie Graziani, eds., La guerre de course en Méditerranée (1515-1830) (Paris: Presses de
l’Université Paris IV-Sorbonne, 2000), p. 31; Belhamissi, Captifs Algériens, pp. 37-38.
68 Bono Salvatore, “Achat d’esclaves Turcs pour les galères pontificales (XVI-XVIIIe siècles),” Revue
de l’Occident Musulman et de la Méditerranée, 39 (1985), p. 88, fn. 17.
69 Stella, Histoires d’esclaves, p. 36; Alain Blondy, “Le discours sur l’esclavage en Méditerranée: une
réalité occultée,” Cahiers de la Méditerranée, vol. 65, L’esclavage en Méditerranée à l’époque
moderne, 2002, par. 19. (Accessed 21 Mar. 2008). http://www.cdlm.revues.org/document37.html
70 Fontenay, “La course dans l’économie portuaire,” p. 1335.
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