History 2188A/B Lecture 9: Week 9 Rovers of the Barbary Coast
10 Apr 2016
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Week 9 Rovers of the Barbary Coast 3/23/2016 3:29:00 PM
Barbary coast= Algiers, Tripoli, Tunis and Morocco
• Port Sale, Sallee Rovers
• 1624, about a dozen Sale ships operated off of Nova Scotia
• pay a ransom for English fishery vessel, paying ransoms was a
theme
• Barbary corsairs plundered but sought slaves and captives
• Bey= local ruler or governor
• Beylerbeyi= chief governor “lord of lords”
• Dey= chief regional governor
• Taife raisi= captains council
o Bey’s can become Dey, all about the same thing
o they rule the states and get income mostly from pirates
o these ports become markets for plunder and sale of slaves
o leaders of Barbary states owe allegiance to Sultan, but the
sheer distance means they are left alone mostly unless their
assistance is needed in battle, vise versa (call upon capital for
support)
o Eventually the rulers are elected from the corsairs directly
▪ this means that pirating becomes piviotal in ruling and
politics
▪ very well organized and very well equipped
o These captains would make decisions of plundering, sales of
slaves, and give about 10% to the local ruler, pay a fee to
use the governors port as well
o These captains owned their own vessels
o Prefered vessel is the galley
▪ powered by rowers, rowers usually slaves
▪ additional features: spur in bow (bow), had guns
▪ not a lot of room for armourment, so guns were found
in bow and rear
▪ attack shore defenses from the sea
▪ same old hand hand to combat occurred
▪ 20-30 men per oar, 200 oars?
• Galliot
o main mast
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
o flush deck vessel, level deck, rovers on main deck
o 6-12 oars per side, not all slaves
• Galleas
o oar and sail powered
o carries heavy guns in bow and rear
o hybrid between sailing and warships
o could cause lots of damage
o oared ships still dominate here
The Battle of Lepanto, Oct 7, 1571
• Christian fleet= 1800 cannons, defeats main fleet of ottoman
empire
• Ottoman fleet= 750 cannons
• Ottoman losses= 20-25000 of 80000
o 180 to 200 of 250 vessels captured or destroyed
• underlies the importance of cannons and guns
• Christians also had muskateers, while ottomans had bows, even
soldiers have firepower
• Ottomans rebuilt their fleet, add more galleas, suffered from their
lose of navigators and experienced captains at lepanto
• then on the strategy employed by the ottomans is to use a few
smaller ships to attack the Christians larger ships
• they are mostly referred to as privateers as they had permission
from government, attack certain Christian states
• they could not attack muslim shippings
• collect only non muslim slaves
Muslim exiles pushed out of spain
• they relocate in Northern Africa and assisted by other Muslim states
raid Spain and its ships
The Brothers OF Barbarossa
• Aruj/Oruc (1474-1518) and Hizir/ Khizir (1478-1546)
o one parent was Christian the other muslim
o operates as a pirate until he is captured and made a galley
slave
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
o released as part of a piece treaty between the knights and
Egypt
o Turkey gives him a privateering licence once set free until
there is peace between the otto empire and knights
o they establish a corsair base in 1505 in Tonsia, gain a
privateering licence and they attack Italy ships
o they eventually take 2 ships, very well guarded prize,
property of the pope In rome
o their fame spreads and they are named Barbarossa= “red
Bread” (mixed parentage)
o become most successful and famous corsairs on Barbary
coast
o their little brother Ishak (1518) joins them
o eventually the Barbarossa's move their base and have a war
with spain
o Aruj loses his arm and they go on the offensive to push spain
away from their base
o Aruj does a coo makes himself ruler of Algiers
o continues war with spain
o Ishak and Aruj are killed, fought off 10000 spain for weeks
but spain break thru
o Middle brother escapes
Hizir/Khizir
• made new regional commander, sultan gives more troops
• makes many successful battles against spains to revenge his
brothers
• refortifies Algiers
• Sultan names him Khair-de Din = goodness of the faith or gift of
god
• Christian states rebuilt and come together to repel him, create
Christian Holy league to destroy H
• Andrea Doria, Christian commander (in 1538) comes against H and
H wins, establishing Barbarossa as having naval supremacy
• he dies in 1546 naturally after completing his memoirs
• these brothers defended the Barbary coast
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Muslim exiles pushed out of spain: they relocate in northern africa and assisted by other muslim states raid spain and its ships. Christian holy league to destroy h: andrea doria, christian commander (in 1538) comes against h and. H wins, establishing barbarossa as having naval supremacy: he dies in 1546 naturally after completing his memoirs, these brothers defended the barbary coast. 1798- department of the navy, 3 more frigates, protect the merchants: uss constitiution, oldest navy ship still floating. Bainbridge and crew are captured: uss phily is now used against us navy, stephen decatur boarded uss phily feb 16, 1804 and burned it down. Taking of durna: first lt. presley o"bannon, us marine corp, may 1805, us wins and the american slaves are released, sultan gave them a curved sword which is now part of the military dress. French conquest tunisia, 1881: 1807 bans more slaves from being imported but there are many states that have already legalized slaves.
