Ottoman Algeria in Western Diplomatic History with ... - Bibliothèque

and commerce but also on official state visits. 82 Corsairing entered a phase of
official diplomatic usage. Henceforth, the Algerian Ri’yas on corsairing
campaigns carried passports, just like their European counterparts, delivered by
the European diplomatic missions at Algiers which protected them against
privateers’ attacks as well as pursuits of foreign nations’ cruisers. 83
The
passports also served as a basis for consuls’ intervention to arbitrate cases of
litigation over prizes. 84
Overall, between 1619 and 1830, Algiers negotiated and concluded
more than sixty treaties of peace and commerce with most of the European
countries. Twelve of those treaties were signed for the first time, eleven were
renegotiated, and the rest were renewed treaties as shown in Table 4 (Treaties
of Peace and Commerce). Spain, however, remained an exception. In 1785,
after almost 300 years of warfare and enmity, Algiers and Spain moved to
make peace but Spain faced a constitutional obstacle: the monarch could not
conclude peace with the ‘infidels’ because of the prohibitive coronation clause
fashioned after the will of Isabella. The impediment could only be overcome by
concluding a ‘Truce to Last One Hundred Years’ because a truce implies a
limited cessation of hostilities, not peace. 85
It would be interesting to consider
each treaty separately; however, detailed study does not seem to add any more
arguments than those already stated as forming the ingredients of this long
diplomatic relationship between Algiers and the western countries.
82 Matar, “Britain and Barbary,” p. 33; Panzac, “La course barbaresque revisitée,” p. 33.
83 Panzac, Corsaires barbaresques, p. 35.
84 Devoulx, “Marine d’Alger,” pp. 394-96.
85 Cathcart, The Captives, p. 2; Barnby, Prisoners of Algiers, p. 38.
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