WThe Barbary pirates, sometimes called Barbary corsairs or Ottoman corsairs, were Muslim pirates and privateers who operated from North Africa, based primarily in the ports of Salé, Rabat, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. This area was known in Europe as the Barbary Coast, in reference to the Berbers. Their predation extended throughout the Mediterranean, south along West Africa's Atlantic seaboard and into the North Atlantic as far north as Iceland, but they primarily operated in the western Mediterranean. In addition to seizing merchant ships, they engaged in Razzias, raids on European coastal towns and villages, mainly in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal, but also in the British Isles, the Netherlands, and Iceland. The main purpose of their attacks was slaves for the Ottoman slave trade as well as the general Arab slavery market in North Africa and the Middle East. Slaves in Barbary could be of many ethnicities, and of many different religions, such as Christian, Jewish, or Muslim.
WThe Action of 28 November 1751 was a naval engagement off Cape St. Vincent between a squadron of two Spanish ships of the line under captain Pedro Fitz-James Stuart and an Algerine squadron of two ships of the line under corsair Mohammed Chirif, which was fought from November 28 to December 2, 1751 and resulted in a victory for the Spanish fleet. The Algerine ships had come from the port of Algiers, and were acting as corsairs, conducting commerce raiding against Christian merchant ships and enslaving their crews. This was part of the Barbary slave trade, where the Barbary states, autonomous vassals of the Ottoman Empire raided Christian settlements and merchant vessels for slaves to sell in their own cities. The corsairs targeted Spain, a Christian country, and the Spanish Navy was sent to track down the formidable Algerine force of two ships of the line, which posed a significant threat to any Christian vessels in the region. When the fleets sighted each other on November 28, 1751, they found that they were evenly matched with their opposition; both fielded two ships of the line.
WAnglo-Turkish piracy or the Anglo-Barbary piracy refers to the collaboration between Barbary pirates and English pirates against Catholic shipping during the 17th century.
WHayreddin Barbarossa, also known as Hızır Hayrettin Pasha, and simply Hızır Reis , was an Ottoman corsair and later admiral of the Ottoman Navy. Barbarossa's naval victories secured Ottoman dominance over the Mediterranean during the mid 16th century.
WThe Barbary slave trade refers to slave markets on the Barbary Coast of North Africa, which included the Ottoman provinces of Algeria, Tunisia and Tripolitania and the independent sultanate of Morocco, between the 16th and middle of the 18th century. The Ottoman provinces in North Africa were nominally under Ottoman suzerainty, but in reality they were mostly autonomous.
WThe Bastion de France was a trading post founded in the sixteenth century by French merchants of Corsican origin who had established themselves in North Africa near Annaba. It developed important commercial links with Marseille, especially in the valuable coral trade. It was demolished and rebuilt a number of times.
WThe bombardment of Algiers in 1682 was a naval operation by France against the Regency of Algiers during the French-Algerian war (1681-1688). Louis XIV sent Duquesne to bombard Algiers after the Dey declared war on France in 1681. Duquesne sailed from Toulon with a fleet of around forty vessels and reached Algiers in July 1682 after many delays caused by poor weather. Bombarded several times in August, the city suffered extensive damage. The peace which the Dey was eventually forced to seek was however never agreed, as renewed bad weather forced Duquesne to retreat to French waters.
WThe bombardment of Algiers in 1683 was a French naval operation against the Regency of Algiers during the Franco-Algerian War of 1681-88. It led to the rescue of more than 100 French prisoners, in some cases after decades of captivity, but the great majority of Christian slaves in Algiers were not liberated.
WThe bombardment of Algiers in 1688 was a military expedition ordered by Louis XIV against the Regency of Algiers in order to enforce the peace treaty of 1683 which had been violated by Algerian pirates. The squadron, comprising 31 ships and 10 bomb galiots, was commanded by Jean II d'Estrées.
WThe 2nd Bombardment of Algiers took place between 12 and 21 July 1784. A joint Spanish-Neapolitan-Maltese-Portuguese fleet commanded by the experienced Spanish Admiral Antonio Barceló bombarded the city, which was the main base of the Barbary corsairs, with the aim of forcing them to interrupt their activities. Massive damage and casualties were inflicted to the Algerians, while the loss aboard the allied fleet was low. The Dey of Algiers refused to start negotiations immediately but the fear of a third planned expedition under José de Mazarredo convinced him to negotiate a peace with the Spanish by which he was forced to cease large-scale piracy, signalling the effective end of the Barbary privateering until the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars.
WOn 18–19 December 1669, a battle took place in the waters near Cádiz between the English fourth-rate frigate Mary Rose under the command of Rear-Admiral John Kempthorne, escorting several merchantmen, and a group of seven pirate ships operating out of Algiers. The incident was recorded and drawn by the engraver Wenceslaus Hollar, with an engraving appearing in John Ogilby's Africa.
WThe Battle of Cape Palos was a naval engagement between 9 and 10 June 1758 near Cape Palos, during the Spanish-Barbary Wars. A Spanish squadron of three warships intercepted an Algerian squadron of two warships escorting a prize ship. After a prolonged fight, the Algiers flagship surrendered. His consort eluded the battle, but wrecked and the prize ship escaped. Algiers flagship sank from the damage, but there were several prisoners and Christian slaves released.
WMiguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language, and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He is best known for his novel Don Quixote, a work often cited as both the first modern novel, and one of the pinnacles of literature.
WAngelo Emo was a Venetian noble and admiral, mostly known for being the last admiral of the Republic of Venice to lead the Venetian navy to battle. He attempted to introduce reforms based on the practices of the British Royal Navy, and led raids on Moorish targets along the Barbary Coast in retaliation for corsair attacks on Venetian-flagged shipping.
WRais Hamidou or Hamidu, also called Hammida or Amidon (1773–1815) was a famous Algerian corsair. He captured many ships during his career. Hamidou died in the Battle off Cape Gata against an American squadron commanded by Stephen Decatur in 1815. The commune of Raïs Hamidou in Algiers, is named after him.
WThomas Hees was a Dutch diplomat, active in the negotiations of the States General with the corsairs of Barbary. He is mostly known through his famous portrait but also thanks to the journal which he kept during his first mission in Algiers.
WLundy is an English island in the Bristol Channel. It forms part of the district of Torridge in the county of Devon.
WThe Salé Rovers, also Sale Rovers or Salle Rovers, were a dreaded band of Barbary corsairs in the 17th century. They formed the Republic of Salé on the Moroccan coast. The most famous of the rovers was Jan Janszoon, a Dutchman who had been a pirate for Holland in the Mediterranean. He "turned Turk" after being captured by one of the Moorish states in 1618 and became known as Admiral Murat Reis.
WThe Republic of Salé was a short-lived city state at Salé, during the 17th century. Located at the mouth of the Bou Regreg river, it was founded by Moriscos from the town of Hornachos, in Western Spain. Moriscos were the descendants of Muslims who were nominally converted to Christianity, and were subject to mass deportation during the Spanish Inquisition. The Republic's main commercial activities were the Barbary slave trade and piracy during its brief existence in the 17th century. The city is now part of the Kingdom of Morocco.
WSinan Reis, also Ciphut Sinan, "Sinan the Chief", and Portuguese: Sinao o Judeo, "Sinan the Jew", was a Barbary corsair and Jewish pirate who sailed under the famed Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa.
WThe Spanish conquest of Oran and Mers el-Kebir took place from 15 June to 2 July 1732, between the Kingdom of Spain against the Ottoman protectorate of Algiers. The great Spanish expedition led by Don José Carrillo de Albornoz, Duke of Montemar and Don Francisco Javier Cornejo defeated the Ottoman-Muslim troops under the command of the Bey Hassan, and conquered the fortress-cities of Oran and Mers el-Kebir, ruled and administered by the Ottoman Empire from 1708, during the War of the Spanish Succession, when both cities, ruled by Spain, fell into the hands of the Ottoman Dey of Algiers.
WThe Turkish Abductions were a series of slave raids by Ottoman pirates that took place in Iceland between 20 June and 19 July 1627. Pirates from Algeria, under the command of Dutch pirate Murat Reis, raided the village of Grindavík on the southwestern coast, Berufjörður and Breiðdalur in the Eastern Region, and Vestmannaeyjar ; they captured an estimated 400–800 prisoners to sell into slavery.
WThe bombardments of the Beylik of Tunis were a series of Venetian naval bombardments of the capital and various cities of the Beylik of Tunis in order to force Bey Hammuda ibn Ali to stop supporting the pirates that harassed the trade routes of Venice. The campaign lasted four years, during which the Venetian fleet at the orders of Angelo Emo greatly increased in both number and power.