1.
French conquest of Algeria
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The French conquest of Algeria took place between 1830 and 1847. Algerian resistance forces were divided between forces under Ahmed Bey at Constantine, primarily in the east, and nationalist forces in Kabylie and the west. Treaties with the nationalists under Abd al-Qādir enabled the French to first focus on the elimination of the remaining Ottoman threat, al-Qādir continued to give stiff resistance in the west. He surrendered to French forces in 1847, the territory now known as Algeria was only partially under the Ottoman Empires control in 1830. The dey ruled the entire Regency of Algiers, but only exercised direct control in and around Algiers, with Beyliks established in a few outlying areas, including Oran and Constantine. The remainder of the territory, while nominally Ottoman, was effectively under the control of local Arab, the dey acted largely independently of the Ottoman Emperor, although he was supported by Turkish Janissary troops stationed in Algiers. The territory was bordered to the west by the Sultanate of Morocco, the western border, nominally the Tafna River, was particularly porous since there were shared tribal connections that crossed it. The Regency of Algiers, was one of the bases of the Barbary pirates and Barbary Slave Traders who attacked Christian ships and coastal settlements in the Mediterranean. Like the rest of the Barbary Coast, the Regency of Algiers lived from the trade of slaves or goods captured from Europe, America and sub-Saharan Africa. The European powers bombarded Algiers on different occasions in retaliation and the United States provoked the Barbary Wars in order to put an end to Algerine privateering against Christian shipping and he believed he would bolster patriotic sentiment and turn eyes away from his domestic policies. Algerine slave trade and piracy ceased when the French conquered Algiers. In 1795–96, the French Republic had contracted to purchase wheat for the French army from two Jewish merchants in Algiers, and Charles X was apparently uninterested in paying off the Republics debt. These merchants, who had debts to Hussein Dey, the Ottoman ruler of Algiers, devals nephew Alexandre, the consul in Bône, further angered the dey by fortifying French storehouses in Bône and La Calle against the terms of prior agreements. After a contentious meeting in which Deval refused to provide answers on 29 April 1827. Charles X used this slight against his diplomatic representative to first demand an apology from the dey, and then to initiate a blockade against the port of Algiers. The blockade lasted for three years, and was primarily to the detriment of French merchants who were unable to do business with Algiers, while Barbary pirates were still able to evade the blockade. When France in 1829 sent an ambassador to the dey with a proposal for negotiations, the French then determined that more forceful action was required. Polignac opened negotiations with Muhammad Ali of Egypt to essentially divide up North Africa, Ali, who was strongly under British influence, eventually rejected this idea
2.
Algiers
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Algiers is the capital and largest city of Algeria. In 2011, the population was estimated to be around 3,500,000. An estimate puts the population of the metropolitan city to be around 5,000,000. Algiers is located on the Mediterranean Sea and in the portion of Algeria. The casbah and the two form a triangle. A Phoenician commercial outpost called Ikosim which later developed into a small Roman town called Icosium existed on what is now the quarter of the city. The rue de la Marine follows the lines of what used to be a Roman street, Roman cemeteries existed near Bab-el-Oued and Bab Azoun. The city was given Latin rights by Emperor Vespasian, the bishops of Icosium are mentioned as late as the 5th century. The present-day city was founded in 944 by Bologhine ibn Ziri and he had earlier built his own house and a Sanhaja center at Ashir, just south of Algiers. Although his Zirid dynasty was overthrown by Roger II of Sicily in 1148, the city was wrested from the Hammadids by the Almohads in 1159, and in the 13th century came under the dominion of the Ziyanid sultans of Tlemcen. Nominally part of the sultanate of Tlemcen, Algiers had a measure of independence under amirs of its own due to Oran being the chief seaport of the Ziyanids. As early as 1302 the islet of Peñón in front of Algiers harbour had been occupied by Spaniards, thereafter, a considerable amount of trade began to flow between Algiers and Spain. However, Algiers continued to be of little importance until after the expulsion of the Moors from Spain. In 1510, following their occupation of Oran and other towns on the coast of Africa, in 1516, the amir of Algiers, Selim b. Teumi, invited the corsair brothers Aruj and Hayreddin Barbarossa to expel the Spaniards, Aruj came to Algiers, ordered the assassination of Selim, and seized the town and ousted the Spanish in the Capture of Algiers. Hayreddin, succeeding Aruj after the latter was killed in battle against the Spaniards in the Fall of Tlemcen, was the founder of the pashaluk, Algiers from this time became the chief seat of the Barbary pirates. Formally part of the Ottoman Empire but essentially free from Ottoman control, starting in the 16th century Algiers turned to piracy, repeated attempts were made by various nations to subdue the pirates that disturbed shipping in the western Mediterranean and engaged in slave raids as far north as Iceland. The United States fought two wars over Algiers attacks on shipping, among the notable people held for ransom was the future Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes, who was captive in Algiers almost five years, and who wrote two plays set in Algiers of the period
3.
Ottoman Algeria
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The regency of Algiers, is an ancient state of North Africa which, from 1515 to 1830, preceded the french conquest of Algeria. Each beylik was divided into various outan with at their head the caïds directly under the bey, to administer the interior of the country, the administration relied on the tribes said makhzen. These tribes were responsible for securing order and collect taxes on the regions of the country. It was through this system that, for three centuries, the State of Algiers extended its authority over the north of Algeria, however, society is still divided into tribes and dominated by maraboutics brotherhoods or local djouads. Several regions of the country thus only lightly recognize the authority of Algiers, throughout its history, they have formed or continue many revolts, confederations, tribal fiefs or sultanates on the confines of the regency. Around the same time, the Ottoman privateer brothers Oruç and Hayreddin—both known to Europeans as Barbarossa, or Red Beard—were operating successfully off Tunisia under the Hafsids. In 1516, Oruç moved his base of operations to Algiers and asked for the protection of the Ottoman Empire in 1517, Hayreddin succeeded him as military commander of Algiers. Oruç, Hayreddin Barbarossas brother, captured Algiers in 1516, apart from the Spanish Peñón of Algiers, before Ottoman help could arrive, the Spanish retook the city of Algiers in 1519. Barbarossa recaptured the city definitively in 1525, and in 1529 the Spanish Peñon in the capture of Algiers, Hayreddin Barbarossa established the military basis of the regency. The Ottomans provided a garrison of 2,000 Turkish troops with artillery. He left Hasan Agha in command as his deputy when he had to leave for Constantinople in 1533, the son of Barbarossa, Hasan Pashan was in 1544, when his father retired, the first governor of the Regency to be directly appointed by the Ottoman Empire. He took the title of beylerbey, Algiers became a base in the war against Spain, and also in the Ottoman conflicts with Morocco. Beylerbeys continued to be nominated for unlimited tenures until 1587, at this time, the Ottoman Empire set up a regular Ottoman administration in Algiers and its dependencies, headed by Pashas, with 3 year terms to help considate Ottoman power in the Maghreb. In the early 17th century, Algiers also became, along with other North African ports such as Tunis, there were as many as 8,000 renegades in the city in 1634. Hayreddin Barbarossa is credited with tearing down the Peñón of Algiers, Spain, Denmark, France, England, all led naval bombardments against Algiers. Abraham Duquesne fought the Barbary pirates in 1681 and bombarded Algiers between 1682 and 1683, to help Christian captives, in the mid-1700s Dano-Norwegian trade in the Mediterranean expanded. In order to protect the business against piracy, Denmark-Norway had secured a peace deal with the states of Barbary Coast. It involved paying a tribute to the individual rulers and additionally to the States
4.
Bourbon Restoration
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The Bourbon Restoration was the period of French history following the fall of Napoleon in 1814 until the July Revolution of 1830. The brothers of executed Louis XVI of France reigned in highly conservative fashion, and they were nonetheless unable to reverse most of the changes made by the French Revolution and Napoleon. At the Congress of Vienna they were treated respectfully, but had to give up all the gains made since 1789. King Louis XVI of the House of Bourbon had been overthrown and executed during the French Revolution, a coalition of European powers defeated Napoleon in the War of the Sixth Coalition, ended the First Empire in 1814, and restored the monarchy to the brothers of Louis XVI. The Bourbon Restoration lasted from 6 April 1814 until the uprisings of the July Revolution of 1830. There was an interlude in spring 1815—the Hundred Days—when the return of Napoleon forced the Bourbons to flee France, when Napoleon was again defeated by the Seventh Coalition they returned to power in July. During the Restoration, the new Bourbon regime was a monarchy, unlike the absolutist Ancien Régime. The period was characterized by a conservative reaction, and consequent minor but consistent occurrences of civil unrest. It also saw the reestablishment of the Catholic Church as a power in French politics. The eras of the French Revolution and Napoleon brought a series of changes to France which the Bourbon Restoration did not reverse. First of all, France became highly centralized, with all decisions made in Paris, the political geography was completely reorganized and made uniform. France was divided more than 80 departments, which have endured into the 21st century. Each department had an administrative structure, and was tightly controlled by a prefect appointed by Paris. The Catholic Church lost all its lands and buildings during the Revolution, the bishop still ruled his diocese, and communicated with the pope through the government in Paris. Bishops, priests, nuns and other people were paid salaries by the state. All the old rites and ceremonies were retained, and the government maintained the religious buildings. The Church was allowed to operate its own seminaries and to some extent local schools as well, bishops were much less powerful than before, and had no political voice. However, the Catholic Church reinvented itself and put a new emphasis on personal religiosity that gave it a hold on the psychology of the faithful, education was centralized, with the Grand Master of the University of France controlling every element of the entire educational system from Paris
5.
Kingdom of France
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The Kingdom of France was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Western Europe. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe and a great power since the Late Middle Ages and it was also an early colonial power, with possessions around the world. France originated as West Francia, the half of the Carolingian Empire. A branch of the Carolingian dynasty continued to rule until 987, the territory remained known as Francia and its ruler as rex Francorum well into the High Middle Ages. The first king calling himself Roi de France was Philip II, France continued to be ruled by the Capetians and their cadet lines—the Valois and Bourbon—until the monarchy was overthrown in 1792 during the French Revolution. France in the Middle Ages was a de-centralised, feudal monarchy, in Brittany and Catalonia the authority of the French king was barely felt. Lorraine and Provence were states of the Holy Roman Empire and not yet a part of France, during the Late Middle Ages, the Kings of England laid claim to the French throne, resulting in a series of conflicts known as the Hundred Years War. Subsequently, France sought to extend its influence into Italy, but was defeated by Spain in the ensuing Italian Wars, religiously France became divided between the Catholic majority and a Protestant minority, the Huguenots, which led to a series of civil wars, the Wars of Religion. France laid claim to large stretches of North America, known collectively as New France, Wars with Great Britain led to the loss of much of this territory by 1763. French intervention in the American Revolutionary War helped secure the independence of the new United States of America, the Kingdom of France adopted a written constitution in 1791, but the Kingdom was abolished a year later and replaced with the First French Republic. The monarchy was restored by the great powers in 1814. During the later years of the elderly Charlemagnes rule, the Vikings made advances along the northern and western perimeters of the Kingdom of the Franks, after Charlemagnes death in 814 his heirs were incapable of maintaining political unity and the empire began to crumble. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 divided the Carolingian Empire into three parts, with Charles the Bald ruling over West Francia, the nucleus of what would develop into the kingdom of France. Viking advances were allowed to increase, and their dreaded longboats were sailing up the Loire and Seine rivers and other waterways, wreaking havoc. During the reign of Charles the Simple, Normans under Rollo from Norway, were settled in an area on either side of the River Seine, downstream from Paris, that was to become Normandy. With its offshoots, the houses of Valois and Bourbon, it was to rule France for more than 800 years. Henry II inherited the Duchy of Normandy and the County of Anjou, and married Frances newly divorced ex-queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, after the French victory at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214, the English monarchs maintained power only in southwestern Duchy of Guyenne. The death of Charles IV of France in 1328 without male heirs ended the main Capetian line, under Salic law the crown could not pass through a woman, so the throne passed to Philip VI, son of Charles of Valois
6.
Hussein Dey
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Hussein Dey, was the last of the Ottoman provincial rulers of the Regency of Algiers. Husseyn Dey succeeded Ali V ben Ahmed as Ottoman provincial ruler, or dey, in order to reassure the Europeans he enacted some liberal measures such as freeing hostages and ensuring freedom of religion for the Jews. This eventually lead to the French conquest of Algeria, in the 1790s, France had contracted to purchase wheat for the French army from two Jewish merchants in Algiers, Messrs. Bacri and Boushnak, and was in arrears paying them and these merchants had themselves debts to the dey and claimed inability to pay those debts until France paid its debts to them. Devals nephew Alexandre, the consul in Bône, further angered the dey by fortifying French storehouses in Bône, after a contentious meeting in which Deval refused to provide satisfactory answers on 29 April 1827, the dey struck Deval with his fly whisk. Charles X used this slight against his diplomatic representative to first demand an apology from the dey,34000 French soldiers landed at Sidi Ferruch 27 kilometres west of Algiers on June 14,1830 and entered Algiers on 5 July after a three-week campaign against the Ottoman forces. Hussein Dey agreed to surrender in exchange for his freedom and the offer to retain possession of his personal wealth and this marked the end of 313 years of Ottoman rule of the territory and the start of French rule in Algeria. On July 15,1830, five days after his surrender to the French, Husseyn Dey left Algiers with his family, his harem and his personal fortune on the French ship Jeanne dArc. His request for permission to live in France having been refused by Charles X and he stayed in Italy for three years and died in Alexandria in 1838. A suburb of the city of Algiers has been named after Hussein Dey, the top tier football team NA Hussein Dey is based here
7.
Janissaries
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The Janissaries were elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman Sultans household troops, bodyguards and the first standing army in Europe. The corps was most likely established during the reign of Murad I and they began as an elite corps of slaves made up of conscripted young Christian boys, and became famed for internal cohesion cemented by strict discipline and order. Unlike typical slaves, they were paid regular salaries, forbidden to marry or engage in trade, their complete loyalty to the Sultan was expected. By the seventeenth century, due to a increase in the size of the Ottoman standing army. Civilians bought their way into the corps in order to benefit from the socioeconomic status it conferred upon them. Consequently, the corps gradually lost its character, undergoing a process which has been described as civilianization. The corps was abolished by Sultan Mahmud II in 1826 in the Auspicious Incident in which 6,000 or more were executed, the formation of the Janissaries has been dated to the reign of Murad I, the third ruler of the Ottoman Empire. From the 1380s to 1648, the Janissaries were gathered through the system which was abolished in 1638. This was the taking of non-Muslim boys, notably Anatolian and Balkan Christians, Jews were never subject to devşirme, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, in early days, all Christians were enrolled indiscriminately. Later, those from Albania, Bosnia, and Bulgaria were preferred, the Janissaries were kapıkulları, door servants or slaves of the Porte, neither freemen nor ordinary slaves. They were subjected to strict discipline, but were paid salaries and pensions upon retirement, as such, they became one of the ruling classes of the Ottoman Empire, rivalling the Turkish aristocracy. The brightest of the Janissaries were sent to the palace institution, through a system of meritocracy, the Janissaries held enormous power, stopping all efforts at reform of the military. These boys were taken from their parents and given to Turkish families in the provinces to learn Turkish language and customs. The recruits were indoctrinated into Islam, forced into circumcision and supervised 24 hours a day by eunuchs and they were subjected to severe discipline, being prohibited from growing a beard, taking up a skill other than soldiering, and marrying. As a result, the Janissaries were extremely well-disciplined troops, and became members of the askeri class, most were non-Muslims, because it was not permissible to enslave a Muslim. The Janissary system was introduced in the 14th century, the Janissary Corps was a trained and loyal group of slaves to the sultan. In the late 16th century, a sultan gave in to the pressures of the Corps and permitted Janissary children to members of the Corps. They also became rent-seeking and sought protection of their special rights, according to paintings of the era, they were also permitted to grow beards
8.
Moors
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Moors are not a distinct or self-defined people, and mainstream scholars observed in 1911 that The term Moors has no real ethnological value. Medieval and early modern Europeans variously applied the name to Arabs, Berber North Africans and Muslim Europeans. The term has also used in Europe in a broader, somewhat derogatory sense to refer to Muslims in general, especially those of Arab or Berber descent. During the colonial era, the Portuguese introduced the names Ceylon Moors and Indian Moors in Sri Lanka, in 711, troops mostly formed by Moors from North Africa led the Umayyad conquest of Hispania. The Iberian peninsula then came to be known in classical Arabic as Al-Andalus, in 827, the Moors occupied Mazara on Sicily, developing it as a port. They eventually consolidated the rest of the island and some of southern Italy, in 1224 the Muslims were expelled from Sicily to the settlement of Lucera, which was destroyed by European Christians in 1300. The fall of Granada in 1492 marked the end of Muslim rule in Iberia, the Berber tribes of the region were noted in Classical literature as Mauri, which was subsequently rendered as Moors in English and in related variations in other European languages. Mauri is recorded as the name by Strabo in the early 1st century. This appellation was also adopted into Latin, whereas the Greek name for the tribe was Maurusii, in medieval Romance languages, variations of the Latin word for the Moors developed different applications and connotations. During the context of the Crusades and the Reconquista, the term Moors included the suggestion of infidels. Apart from these associations and context, Moor and Moorish designate a specific ethnic group speaking Hassaniya Arabic. They inhabit Mauritania and parts of Algeria, Western Sahara, Tunisia, Morocco, Niger, in Niger and Mali, these peoples are also known as the Azawagh Arabs, after the Azawagh region of the Sahara. Some authors have pointed out that in modern colloquial Spanish use of the term moro is derogatory for Moroccans in particular, however, this designation has gained more acceptance in the south. In the Philippines, a former Spanish colony, many modern Filipinos call the large, local Muslim minority concentrated in Mindanao, the word is a catch-all term, as Moro may come from several distinct ethno-linguistic groups such as the Maranao people. The term was introduced by Spanish colonisers, and has since been appropriated by Filipino Muslims as an endonym, moreno can mean dark-skinned in Spain, Portugal, Brazil, and the Philippines. Also in Spanish, morapio is a name for wine, especially that which has not been baptized or mixed with water. Among Spanish speakers, moro came to have a broader meaning, Moro refers to all things dark, as in Moor, moreno, etc. It was also used as a nickname, for instance, the Milanese Duke Ludovico Sforza was called Il Moro because of his dark complexion, in Portugal, mouro may refer to supernatural beings known as enchanted moura, where moor implies alien and non-Christian
9.
Arabs
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Arabs are an ethnic group inhabiting the Arab world. They primarily live in the Arab states in Western Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Arabs are first mentioned in the mid-ninth century BCE as a tribal people dwelling in the central Arabian Peninsula. The Arabs appear to have been under the vassalage of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, tradition holds that Arabs descend from Ishmael, the son of Abraham. The Arabian Desert is the birthplace of Arab, there are other Arab groups as well that spread in the land and existed for millennia. Before the expansion of the Caliphate, Arab referred to any of the largely nomadic Semitic people from the northern to the central Arabian Peninsula and Syrian Desert. Presently, Arab refers to a number of people whose native regions form the Arab world due to spread of Arabs throughout the region during the early Arab conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries. The Arabs forged the Rashidun, Umayyad and the Abbasid caliphates, whose borders reached southern France in the west, China in the east, Anatolia in the north, and this was one of the largest land empires in history. The Great Arab Revolt has had as big an impact on the modern Middle East as the World War I, the war signaled the end of the Ottoman Empire. They are modern states and became significant as distinct political entities after the fall and defeat, following adoption of the Alexandria Protocol in 1944, the Arab League was founded on 22 March 1945. The Charter of the Arab League endorsed the principle of an Arab homeland whilst respecting the sovereignty of its member states. Beyond the boundaries of the League of Arab States, Arabs can also be found in the global diaspora, the ties that bind Arabs are ethnic, linguistic, cultural, historical, identical, nationalist, geographical and political. The Arabs have their own customs, language, architecture, art, literature, music, dance, media, cuisine, dress, society, sports, the total number of Arabs are an estimated 450 million. This makes them the second largest ethnic group after the Han Chinese. Arabs are a group in terms of religious affiliations and practices. In the pre-Islamic era, most Arabs followed polytheistic religions, some tribes had adopted Christianity or Judaism, and a few individuals, the hanifs, apparently observed monotheism. Today, Arabs are mainly adherents of Islam, with sizable Christian minorities, Arab Muslims primarily belong to the Sunni, Shiite, Ibadi, Alawite, Druze and Ismaili denominations. Arab Christians generally follow one of the Eastern Christian Churches, such as the Maronite, Coptic Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, or Chaldean churches. Listed among the booty captured by the army of king Shalmaneser III of Assyria in the Battle of Qarqar are 1000 camels of Gi-in-di-buu the ar-ba-a-a or Gindibu belonging to the Arab
10.
Berbers
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Berbers or Amazighen are an ethnic group indigenous to North Africa. They are distributed in an area stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Siwa Oasis in Egypt, historically, they spoke Berber languages, which together form the Berber branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. The majority of Berbers are predominantly Sunni Muslim, the Berber identity is usually wider than language and ethnicity, and encompasses the entire history and geography of North Africa. Berbers are not an entirely homogeneous ethnicity and they encompass a range of phenotypes, societies and ancestries, the unifying forces for the Berber people may be their shared language, or a collective identification with Berber heritage and history. There are some twenty-five to thirty million Berber speakers in North Africa, the number of ethnic Berbers is far greater, as a large part of the Berbers have acquired other languages over the course of many decades or centuries, and no longer speak Berber today. The majority of North Africas population is believed to be Berber in origin, Berbers call themselves some variant of the word i-Mazigh-en, possibly meaning free people or noble men. The name likely had its ancient parallel in the Roman and Greek names for Berbers, dihya or Kahina was a religious and military leader who led a fierce Berber resistance against the Arab-Muslim expansion in Northwest Africa. Kusaila was a leader of the Awraba tribe of the Berber people. A history by a Roman consul in Africa made the first reference of the barbarian to describe Numidia. The use of the term Berber spread in the following the arrival of the Vandals during their major invasions. The English term was introduced in the 19th century, replacing the earlier Barbary, for the historian Abraham Isaac Laredo the name Amazigh could be derived from the name of the ancestor Mezeg which is the translation of biblical ancestor Dedan son of Sheba in the Targum. According to Leo Africanus, Amazigh meant free man, though this has been disputed, further, it also has a cognate in the Tuareg word Amajegh, meaning noble. The Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines mentioned various tribes with similar names living in Greater Libya in the areas where Berbers were later found, later tribal names differ from the classical sources, but are probably still related to the modern Amazigh. The Meshwesh tribe among them represents the first thus identified from the field, all those names are similar and perhaps foreign renditions of the name used by the Berbers in general for themselves, Imazighen. The Maghreb region in northwestern Africa is believed to have been inhabited by Berbers from at least 10,000 BC, local cave paintings, which have been dated to twelve millennia before present, have been found in the Tassili nAjjer region of southern Algeria. Other rock art has been observed in Tadrart Acacus in the Libyan desert, a Neolithic society, marked by domestication and subsistence agriculture, developed in the Saharan and Mediterranean region of northern Africa between 6000 and 2000 BC. This type of life, richly depicted in the Tassili nAjjer cave paintings of southeastern Algeria, prehistorical Tifinagh scripts were also found in the Oran region. During the pre-Roman era, several independent states existed before the king Masinissa unified the people of Numidia
11.
Siege of Constantine
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The 1837 Siege of Constantine was decided by Louis Philippe I and the head of his government, Count Molé in the summer of 1837. At the time, during the consolidation of the July Monarchy and recovery economic prosperity, the eldest considered that it was his right, while the second, who participated in the unsuccessful expedition of the previous year, was keen to avenge this humiliation. Ultimately it was the prince who participated. The army met in the camp Merdjez-Hammar, established on the banks of the Seybouse in Guelma Province, placed under the command of the Governor-General, General Damrémont, the army was formed in four brigades. The 1st Brigade in the vanguard was commanded by the Duke of Nemours, General Valée commanded the artillery and General Rohault de Fleury the engineers. The French Army went from Bône on October 1, the siege started on October 10. On October 12, the assault was begun by General Damrémont, who that evening was struck by a bullet, and completed by his successor. The latter was raised to the rank of Marshal of France on November 11, the information in this article is based on that in its French equivalent
12.
Battle of Mazagran
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The Battle of Mazagran was a combat between Arab and Berber forces against French troops during the French conquest of Algeria. The small French contingent, holed up in a fortification at Mazagran, near the city of Mostaganem. Unaware that the French defenders were running short of gunpowder, Abdal-Qādirs troops withdrew after several days of ineffectual activity, while the standoff was a relatively minor affair, the French press touted the event as a great success. Captain Lelièvre was rewarded for his success, and a medal was struck commemorating the action, the battle of Mazagran became the anniversary of the Battalions of Light Infantry of Africa, a French penal military unit. They arrived at the fort on 1 February, which was fortified with a single 4-pound gun, one barrel of gunpowder, other sources place the arrival of these forces on 2 February, with attack commencing the next day. The duration of the battle is reported to be three or four days. Khamis force, numbering anywhere from ten to twenty thousand consisted primarily of cavalry, the army had two eight-pound guns, but was apparently not able to use them effectively. For about two days, the battle raged around the fort, but the garrison was able to repulse all of the attacks. There was then a break in the fighting, so Lelièvre inventoried the remaining supplies and he proposed to his men to continue fighting until the ammunition was exhausted, and then to blow up the barrel of gunpowder as their last stand. This proposal was agreed to by his men, and the battle was once again joined. The battle persisted for two days, until Dubuessil finally sent a relief column, prompting the Algerians to withdraw. Newspapers in Paris were filled with news of the battle, a copy of the fort at Mazagran was erected on the Champs Elysées, and all kinds of merchandise was produced that commemorated the event. Lelièvre and six other soldiers received the Légion dhonneur, Lelièvre also received a promotion as a reward for leading the spirited defence. The French government issued a medal celebrating the victory. These accusations received limited coverage in the French press, the French government did not apparently respond and he reported that Lelièvre was embarrassed over the attention and honours he had received, and eventually requested a transfer out of his regiment. A later French analysis of the affair placed the Arab strength at between five and six hundred
13.
Battle of the Smala
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The Battle of the Smala was fought in 1843 between France and Algerian resistance fighters during the French conquest of Algeria. The French, led by Henri dOrleans, duke of Aumale, raided the encampment of Algerian resistance leader Abd al-Qadir on 16 May 1843, the 500 French cavalrymen surprised the camp defenders, who fired a single volley before scattering. More than 3,000 of al-Qadirs followers were captured, as were many of his possessions, including his warchest, three days later, another 2,500 followers were captured. Al-Qadir fled to Morocco later that year, triggering French pressure on Morocco and he was eventually captured in 1847, ending major Algerian resistance to the French colonial occupation. The Tricolor on the Atlas The life of Abdel Kader
14.
Battle of Sidi Brahim
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The French force was made up of the light infantry troops of the 8th Infantry Battalion and the second squadron of the 2nd Regiment of Hussars. The encounter was unplanned and poorly commanded by Montagnac, and went badly for the French troops, after a siege lasting many days, without food or water and short of munitions, they were reduced to cutting up their musket balls in order to keep firing. When the remaining 80 survivors completely ran out of munitions, they managed to break through the lines with a bayonet charge. Among the dead was Montagnac himself, the remains of the soldiers killed at Sidi Brahim were gathered at Djemmaa Ghazaouet in the Tombeau des Braves then reburied at the Musée des Chasseurs at the old fort in Vincennes in 1965. The extreme bravery shown by the battalion led to its being nicknamed the battalion of Sidi-Brahim, however, according to Gilles Manceron, the soldiers were led in quite an inconsiderate manner by Colonel de Montagnac whose writings boast, with no remorse, of several war crimes. The expression faire Sidi Brahim became a motto of the chasseurs, during the First World War, the 7th Battalion of Chasseurs Alpins took a German pass for several days and, lacking munitions, managed to repulse the German attack with stones. There the chasseurs won the nickname schwarzen Teufel, which became blue devils. The insignia of the 7th is a devil in a hunting horn
15.
Charles X of France
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Charles X was King of France from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. For most of his life he was known as the Count of Artois, an uncle of the uncrowned King Louis XVII, and younger brother to reigning Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him. His rule of almost six years ended in the July Revolution of 1830, which resulted in his abdication, exiled once again, Charles died in 1836 in Gorizia, then part of the Austrian Empire. He was the last of the French rulers from the branch of the House of Bourbon. Charles Philippe of France was born in 1757, the youngest son of the Dauphin Louis and his wife, Charles was created Count of Artois at birth by his grandfather, the reigning King Louis XV. As the youngest male in the family, Charles seemed unlikely ever to become king and his eldest brother, Louis, Duke of Burgundy, died unexpectedly in 1761, which moved Charles up one place in the line of succession. He was raised in childhood by Madame de Marsan, the Governess of the Children of France. At the death of his father in 1765, Charless oldest surviving brother, Louis Auguste and their mother Marie Josèphe, who never recovered from the loss of her husband, died in March 1767 from tuberculosis. This left Charles an orphan at the age of nine, along with his siblings Louis Auguste, Louis Stanislas, Count of Provence, Clotilde, Louis XV fell ill on 27 April 1774 and died on 10 May of smallpox at the age of 64. His grandson Louis-Auguste succeeded him as King Louis XVI of France, in November 1773, Charles married Marie Thérèse of Savoy. The marriage, unlike that of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, was consummated almost immediately, in 1775, Marie Thérèse gave birth to a boy, Louis Antoine, who was created Duke of Angoulême by Louis XVI. Three years later, in 1778, Charles second son, Charles Ferdinand, was born, in the same year Queen Marie Antoinette gave birth to her first child, Marie Thérèse, quelling all rumours that she could not bear children. Charles was thought of as the most attractive member of his family and his wife was considered quite ugly by most contemporaries, and he looked for company in numerous extramarital affairs. According to the Count of Hézecques, few beauties were cruel to him, later, he embarked upon a lifelong love affair with the beautiful Louise de Polastron, the sister-in-law of Marie Antoinettes closest companion, the Duchess of Polignac. Charles also struck up a friendship with Marie Antoinette herself. The closeness of the relationship was such that he was accused by Parisian rumour mongers of having seduced her. As part of Marie Antoinettes social set, Charles often appeared opposite her in the theatre of her favourite royal retreat. They were both said to be very talented amateur actors, Marie Antoinette played milkmaids, shepherdesses, and country ladies, whereas Charles played lovers, valets, and farmers
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Ottoman Empire
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
17.
Hayreddin Barbarossa
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Hayreddin Barbarossa, or Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha, born Khizr or Khidr, was an Ottoman admiral of the fleet who was born in the island of Lesbos and died in Constantinople, the Ottoman capital. Barbarossas naval victories secured Ottoman dominance over the Mediterranean during the mid 16th century, Hayreddin was an honorary name given to him by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. He became known as Barbarossa in Europe, a name he inherited from his elder brother Oruç Reis after Oruç was killed in a battle with the Spanish in Algeria. Oruç was also known as Baba Oruç, which sounded like Barbarossa to the Europeans, and since Oruç did have a red beard, in a process of linguistic reborrowing, the nickname then stuck back to Hayreddins native Turkish name, in the form Barbaros. His mother was a widow of a Greek Orthodox priest and his parents were married and had two daughters and four sons, Ishak, Oruç, Khizr and Ilyas. Yakup took part in the Ottoman conquest of Lesbos in 1462 from the Genoese Gattilusio dynasty and he became an established potter and purchased a boat to trade his products. The four sons helped their father with his business, but not much is known about the daughters, at first Oruç helped with the boat, while Khizr helped with pottery. All four brothers became seamen, engaged in affairs and international sea trade. The first brother to become involved in seamanship was Oruç, who was joined by his brother Ilyas, later, obtaining his own ship, Khizr also began his career at sea. The brothers initially worked as sailors, but then turned privateers in the Mediterranean to counteract the privateering of the Knights Hospitaller who were based in the island of Rhodes, Oruç and Ilyas operated in the Levant, between Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt. Khizr operated in the Aegean Sea and based his operations mostly in Thessaloniki, Ishak, the eldest, remained on Mytilene and was involved with the financial affairs of the family business. Oruç was a very successful seaman and he also learned to speak Italian, Spanish, French, Greek and Arabic in the early years of his career. While returning from an expedition in Tripoli, Lebanon, with his younger brother Ilyas. Ilyas was killed in the fight, and Oruç was wounded and their fathers boat was captured, and Oruç was taken as a prisoner and detained in the Knights castle at Bodrum for nearly three years. Upon learning the location of his brother, Khizr went to Bodrum, on his way back to Lesbos, he stopped at Euboea and captured three galleons and another ship. After passing the winter in Cairo, he set sail from Alexandria and frequently operated along the coasts of Liguria, in 1503, Oruç managed to seize three more ships and made the island of Djerba his new base, thus moving his operations to the Western Mediterranean. They were granted this right with the condition of leaving one-third of their gains to the sultan, Oruç, in command of small galliots, captured two much larger Papal galleys near the island of Elba. Later, near Lipari, the two brothers captured a Sicilian warship, the Cavalleria, with 380 Spanish soldiers and 60 Spanish knights from Aragon on board, in 1505, they raided the coasts of Calabria
