The Regency of Algiers was an early modern semi-independent Ottoman frontier province and vassal state on the Barbary Coast of North Africa from 1516 to 1830. Founded by the privateer brothers Aruj and Hayreddin Reis (also known as the Barbarossa brothers), the Regency became the centre of Ottoman authority in the Maghreb and a formidable base that waged maritime holy war (Jihad) on European Christian powers. It was ruled by elected regents under a stratocracy led by Janissaries and corsairs. Although European sources often associated Algiers with piracy, Algiers maintained long-standing diplomatic ties with European states and was a recognized Mediterranean power.
The Regency emerged in the 16th-century Ottoman–Habsburg wars. As self-proclaimed ghazis gaining popular support and legitimacy from the religious leaders at the expense of hostile local emirs, the Barbarossa brothers and their successors carved a unique corsair state that drew revenue and political power from its naval warfare against Habsburg Spain. In the 17th century, when the wars between Spain and the Ottoman Empire, Kingdom of France, Kingdom of England and Dutch Republic ended, Barbary corsairs started capturing merchant ships and their crews and goods from these states. When the Ottomans could not prevent these attacks, European powers negotiated directly with Algiers and also took military action against it. These developments further reduced Ottoman control over Algiers.
The Regency held significant naval power in the 16th and 17th centuries and well into the end of the Napoleonic wars despite European naval superiority. Its institutionalized privateering dealt substantial damage to European shipping, took captives for ransom, plundered booty, hijacked ships and eventually demanded regular tribute payments. In the rich and bustling city of Algiers, the Barbary slave trade reached an apex. The Regency also expanded its hold in the interior by allowing a large degree of autonomy to the tribal communities. After the janissary coup of 1659, the Regency became a sovereign military republic, and its rulers were thenceforth elected by the council known as the diwan rather than appointed by the Ottoman sultan previously.
Despite wars over territory with Spain and the Maghrebi states in the 18th century, Mediterranean trade and diplomatic relations with European states expanded, as wheat exports secured Algerian revenues after privateering decline. Bureaucratisation efforts stabilized the Regency's government, helping figures such as Mohammed ben-Osman, who maintained Algerian prestige thanks to his public and defensive works, rise to office. Increased Algerian privateering and demands for tribute started the Barbary Wars at the beginning of the 19th century, when Algiers was decisively defeated for the first time. Internal central authority weakened in Algiers due to political intrigue, failed harvests and the decline of privateering. Violent tribal revolts followed, mainly led by maraboutic orders such as the Darqawis and Tijanis. In 1830, France took advantage of this domestic turmoil to invade. The resulting French conquest of Algeria led to colonial rule until 1962.
Names
In the historiography of the Regency of Algiers, it has been called the "Kingdom of Algiers", "Republic of Algiers", "State of Algiers", "State of the Algerians", "State of the Turks of Algiers" and "Ottoman Algeria".
The current states of Algeria, Tunisia and Libya go back to the three regencies of the 16th century: Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli. Algiers became the capital of its state and this term in the international documents applied to the territory it governed: الجزائر (El-Djazâ'ir). However a distinction was made in the spoken language between on the one hand El-Djazâ'ir, the space which was neither the Sultanate of Morocco, nor the regency of Tunis, and on the other hand, the city commonly designated by the contraction دزاير (Dzayer) or in a more classic register الجزائر العاصمة (El-Djazâ'ir El 'âçima lit. 'Algiers the Capital'). The Regency, which lasted over three centuries, formed a political entity that covered what Arab geographers designate as المغرب الأوسط (El-Maghrib El-Awsat, lit. 'Central Maghreb'), establishing the Algerian وطن الجزائر (Watan el-Djazâïr, lit. 'Country of Algiers') and the definition of its borders with its neighbors to the east and west.
In European languages, El-Djazâïr became Alger, Argel, Algiers, Algeria, etc. In English, a progressive distinction was made between Algiers, the city, and Algeria, the country, whereas in French, Algiers designated both the city and the country, under the forms of "Kingdom of Algiers" or "Republic of Algiers". Algériens (lit. 'Algerians') as a demonym is attested to in writing in French as early as 1613 and its use has been constant since that date. Meanwhile, in the English lexicology of that time, Algerian is "Algerine", which referred to the political entity that later became Algeria.
History
Establishment (1512–1533)
Encouraged by the political disintegration of the Maghrebi Muslim states and fearing an alliance between the Moriscos (exiled Spanish Muslims) and the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate, the Spanish Empire captured several cities and established walled and garrisoned strongpoints called presidios in North Africa. The Spanish conquered the city of Oran from the Zayyanids, as well as Béjaïa from the Hafsids in 1509, then Tripoli from the Hafsids in 1510, making other coastal cities submit to them, including Algiers, where they built an island fortress known as the Peñón of Algiers. In addition to territorial ambitions and Catholic missionary fervor, the gold and slave trades funded the Spanish treasury, as Spain controlled the caravan trade routes passing through the central Maghreb.
Barbarossa brothers
After operating as Hafsid-sponsored privateers from their base in the island of Djerba, Mytilene-born brothers Aruj and Hayreddin Reis, nicknamed the Barbarossa brothers, came to the central Maghreb at the request of Béjaïa citizens in 1512. They failed to take the city from the Spanish twice, but the citizens of Jijel offered to make Aruj king after his corsairs arrived with a shipload of wheat during a famine. Answering pleas for help from its inhabitants, the brothers captured Algiers in 1516 but failed to destroy the Peñón. Aruj executed the Algerian emir, Salim Al-Toumi, then proclaimed himself Sultan of Algiers. In October 1516, Aruj repelled an attack led by the Spanish commander Don Diego de Vera, which won him the allegiance of people in the northern part of central Algeria.
In the central Maghreb, Aruj built a powerful Muslim state at the expense of quarrelling principalities. He sought the support of the local religious Muslim (maraboutic and Sufi) orders, while his absolute authority was backed by his Turkish and Christian renegade corsairs. The latter were European converts to Islam, known in Europe as "turned Turks". "Aruj Reis effectively began the powerful greatness of Algiers and the Barbary", wrote Diego de Haedo, a Spanish Benedictine held captive in Algiers between 1577 and 1580.
Aruj continued his conquests in western central Maghreb. He won the Battle of Oued Djer against Spanish vassal Hamid bin Abid, the prince of Ténès, in June 1517 and took his city. While Aruj was there, a delegation arrived from Tlemcen to complain about the growing Spanish threat, exacerbated by squabbling between the Zayyanid princes over the throne. Abu Hammou III had seized power in Tlemcen and imprisoned his nephew Abu Zayan III. According to the historian Yahya Boaziz, Aruj and his troops entered Tlemcen in 1518, released Abu Zayan from prison and restored him to his throne before executing him for conspiring with the Spanish against Aruj. However, the French historian Charles-André Julien claims that Aruj took power for himself against his promise to release Abu Zayan. Meanwhile, the deposed Abu Hammou III fled to Oran to beg the Spaniards to help him retake his throne. The Spaniards chose to do so; they cut Aruj's supply route from Algiers, then began a siege of Tlemcen that lasted six months. Aruj locked himself inside the Mechouar palace for several days to avoid an increasingly hostile populace, who opened the gates for the Spanish in May 1518. Aruj attempted to flee Tlemcen, but the Spaniards pursued and killed him along with his Turkish companions.
Hayreddin inherited his brother's position as sultan without opposition, although he faced threats from the Spanish, Zayyanids, Hafsids and neighboring tribes. After repelling another Spanish attack in August 1519, led by the Spanish viceroy of Sicily Hugo of Moncada, Hayreddin pledged allegiance to the central Ottoman government, known as the Sublime Porte, to obtain Ottoman support against his foes. In October 1519, a delegation of Algerian dignitaries and Muslim jurists went to Ottoman Sultan Selim I, proposing that Algiers join the Ottoman Empire. After initial reluctance, the sultan recognized Hayreddin as pasha—a regent with the title of beylerbey (lit. 'Prince of princes')—and sent him 2,000 janissaries, who formed a privileged military corps. Algiers officially became an eyalet (lit. 'province') under Selim's successor Suleiman I in the spring of 1521. From this year onward, the Ottoman sultans appointed Algerian corsair captains as beylerbeys. In European sources, Algiers was called "the Regency". Some historians refer to Algiers in this period as an Ottoman vassal state, state-province or Kingdom-province. The historian Lamnouar Merouche stresses that Algiers had all the attributes of a state while being an integral part of the Ottoman Empire, calling it "Etat d'empire" (lit. 'Imperial state').
Hayreddin had to return to Jijel after a coalition of the Hafsids with the Kabyle kingdom of Kuku blockaded Algiers and took it in 1520. To gain legitimacy among the local tribes, he and his men used their reputation as "holy warriors". They gathered support from the Kabyle kingdom of Beni Abbas, a rival of Kuku. Hayreddin retook Algiers in 1525 after defeating the prince and founder of Kuku, Ahmad ibn al-Kadi, and then destroyed the Peñón of Algiers in 1529. Hayreddin used its rubble to build Algiers's harbour, making it the headquarters of the Algerian corsair fleet. Hayreddin established the military structure of the Regency, formalising an institution known as the taife reisi (lit. 'Corsair captains' group'). It would become the model for Barbary corsairs in Tunis, Tripoli and the Republic of Salé in the 17th century. He conducted several raids on Spanish coasts and vanquished the Genoese fleet of Andrea Doria at Cherchell in 1531. Hayreddin also rescued over 70,000 Andalusi refugees from the Spanish inquisition and brought them to Algeria, where they contributed to the flourishing culture of the Regency.
The Barbarossa brothers turned the city of Algiers into an Islamic bastion against Catholic Spain in the western Mediterranean, making it the capital of what would become the early modern Algerian state. The Sultan called Hayreddin to the Porte to appoint him as Kapudan Pasha (grand admiral of the Ottoman fleet) in 1533. Before departing, Hayreddin named Sardinian renegade Hasan Agha his deputy in Algiers.
Beylerbeylik period (1533–1587)
Since Algiers acted as the main Ottoman stronghold in the Western Mediterranean, its beylerbeys were usually strongmen who kept most of the Maghreb firmly under Ottoman control, garrisoning the main towns with troops and collecting taxes on land while relying heavily on privateering at sea. These governors came from Hayreddin’s household or related ones. Through their corsair connections, they were well integrated into the Ottoman Algerian elite, enjoyed close ties with Constantinople, where they had patrons, and effectively controlled both the corsairs and the janissaries. Algerian beylerbeys often remained in power for several years and exercised authority over Tunis and Tripoli as well. Assisted by a council of government, they took care to respect local institutions and customs under their dominion. Because of their experience in fleet command, some beylerbeys became Kapudan Pasha and led the Ottoman expansion in the Mediterranean.
For most of the 16th century, the beylerbeys acted as independent sovereigns despite acknowledging the suzerainty of the Ottoman sultan, who gave them a free hand but expected Algerian ships to help enforce Ottoman foreign policy if required. However, the interests of Algiers and Constantinople eventually diverged on the matter of privateering, over which the Sublime Porte had no control. In addition, the timar system that granted fertile land to Ottoman elite sipahi cavalrymen was not applied in Algiers; instead, the beylerbeys sent tribute to Constantinople every year after paying off the expenses of the Regency.
Algerian expansion
Under Hasan Agha, Algiers repelled a naval attack led by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in October 1541. The victory over the Spaniards was seen by the local population as a divine mandate for the Ottoman rule. Hasan Agha subjugated Kuku in the east in 1542, extended his rule south to Biskra, and gained Tlemcen's support in the west. The Spanish defeat made Algiers the center of piracy, attracting pirates from all over the Mediterranean. The city became a bazaar for thousands of captured Christian slaves. British historian Matthew Carr points out that Algiers was known in Christian Europe as "the scourge of Christendom", while he described it as "a kind of 16th-century rogue state".
The Franco-Ottoman Alliance against Spain resulted in France signing capitulation treaties with the Ottomans, allowing trading privileges in Algiers. In the meantime, Hayreddin's son Hasan Pasha succeeded Hasan Agha in 1544. An agreement between King Henri II and Hasan resulted in granting coral fishing rights and building a trading center known as the Bastion de France in the city of El Kala in eastern Algeria in 1547.