Regency of Algiers

The Regency of Algiers was the corsair state that dominated the western Mediterranean for three centuries, from 1516 to 1830. It was founded by the privateer brothers Aruj and Hayreddin Reis, known to Christians as the Barbarossas, who seized Algiers and placed it under the protection of the Ottoman sultan. In return for nominal allegiance, Algiers enjoyed wide self-rule: Janissary soldiers and corsair captains formed a military republic that elected its own ruler, the dey. Its galleys raided the coasts of Spain and Italy, seized merchant ships and their crews for ransom or slavery, and forced European states to sign treaties and pay tribute for safe passage. Algiers was thus both an Ottoman frontier province and a recognised Mediterranean power, exchanging ambassadors with France, Britain and the Dutch Republic. The balance broke in the nineteenth century, when steam warships and French colonial ambition made the old corsair economy impossible. After a dispute over unpaid debts, France landed an expeditionary army in June 1830, the dey surrendered within weeks, and Algeria became the centrepiece of the French colonial empire in Africa.