Regency of Algiers

The Regency of Algiers was an autonomous eyalet of the Ottoman Empire in North Africa from 1516 to 1830. It was an early modern tributary state founded by the Corsair brothers Oruç and Hayreddin Barbarossa and ruled first by viceroys, then later became a sovereign military republic. The Regency was the earliest and the most powerful of the Barbary states and had the largest navy in North Africa. Situated between the Regency of Tunis in the east, the Sharifian Sultanate of Morocco and Spanish Oran (until 1791) in the west, the Regency originally extended its borders from the Mellegue river in the east to Moulouya river in the west and from Collo to Ouargla, and had nominal authority over the Tuat as well as the country south of In Salah in the south. Towards the end of the Regency, it extended to the present eastern and western borders of Algeria. The sixteenth century witnessed the clash between the Spanish and Ottoman empires in the Mediterranean and the rise of the Algerian regency in North Africa - a unique society ruled by both heavily autonomous Turkish Janissary army corps and a multiethnic Corsair community, supported by the plunder from corsairs engaged in a holy war against Spanish Christendom. This regime, founded by Oruç Barbarossa and his younger brother Hayreddin Barbarossa, brought the entire central Magreb under its control. After the war between the two empires ended in the early 17th century, Algerian pirates who refused to recognize peace found new territories for their plunder when France, England and the United Kingdom of the Netherlands made peace with Spain. Soon the lords of Europe found themselves in an embarrassment as their merchant ships and goods were captured and their subjects enslaved, and they clamored for relief. The sultan could not force his vassals to cease their attacks, while great princes, such as the kings of France and England, were willing to deal directly with the regency. A more or less reasonable settlement was reached after a century of negotiations and wild sea operations, but by this time the pirates had expanded their piracy across the Atlantic, and by 1650 there were some 25,000 Christian slaves in Algiers. Throughout its existence, the Regency experienced several degrees of autonomy, with rulers emerging and being chosen locally. However the Regency continued to pay homage to the Ottoman sultan, recognizing his spiritual authority as the Caliph — the leader of the Islamic world.