Algeria:
History
In Antiquity Algeria was known as
Numidia kingdom and its people were called
Numidians. The kingdom of Numidia had early relation with
Carthaginians,
Romans and
Ancient Greeks and the region was known as fertile area and its inhabitants were known as having a very fine cavalry.
Massinissa the most famous king of
Numidia
Author
Terrence McKenna has hypothesised Algeria as the source of the myth of the Garden of Eden and the birth of humanity.
[12] Before the warming brought on by the
Holocene Climatic Optimum around 7,000 years ago, the region contained vast grasslands which, along with the representations of cattle in the
Tassili Plateau art, suggests the existence of early forms of pastoral agriculture. This would seem to be a logical precursor to the crop-based agriculture that developed in the Middle East in the
agricultural revolution thousands of years later.
The ancient paintings are also a clear indication of a form of shamanism or religion based on the use of psychedelic mushrooms. This is another reason why the region was proposed by McKenna as the cradle of culture and civilization, as the visions induced by these mushrooms give a powerful impulse towards art, painting and the sense of contact with the supernatural that is the basis of religious belief.
[12]
The indigenous peoples of
northern Africa eventually coalesced into a distinct native population, the
Berbers.
[13]
After 1000 BCE, the
Carthaginians began establishing settlements along the coast. The Berbers seized the opportunity offered by the
Punic Wars to become independent of Carthage, and Berber kingdoms began to emerge, most notably Numidia.
In 200 BCE, they were once again taken over, this time by the
Roman Republic. When the
Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476 AD, Berbers became independent again in many regions, while the
Vandals took control over other areas, where they remained until expelled by the
Byzantine general
Belisarius under the direction of
Emperor Justinian I. The Byzantine Empire then retained a precarious grip on the east of the country until the coming of the
Arabs in the eighth century.
[edit] Middle Ages
Berber people controlled much of the
Maghreb region throughout the Middle Ages. The Berbers were made up of several tribes. The two main branches were Botr and Barnès, who were themselves divided into tribes, and again into sub-tribes. Each region of the Maghreb contained several tribes (for example,
Sanhadja,
Houaras,
Zenata,
Masmouda,
Kutama,
Awarba, and
Berghwata). All these tribes had independence and made territorial decisions.
[14]
Several Berber dynasties emerged during the Middle Ages in the Maghreb, Sudan, Andalusia, Italy, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Egypt, and other nearby lands.
The Muslim Arab armies arrived in Algeria in the mid-7th century, they conquered Algeria from its former Berber rulers and the
Byzantines. After the fall of the
Umayyad Arab Dynasty 751, numerous local dynasties emerged. Amongst those dynasties were the
Aghlabids,
Almohads,
Abdalwadid,
Zirids,
Rustamids,
Hammadids,
Almoravids, and the
Fatimids.
Having converted the
Kutama of
Kabylie to its cause, the
Shia Fatimids overthrew the
Rustamids, and conquered Egypt, leaving Algeria and Tunisia to their
Zirid vassals. When the latter rebelled, the Shia Fatimids sent in the
Banu Hilal, a populous Arab tribe, to weaken them.
[edit] Spanish enclaves
The Spanish expansionist policy in North Africa began with the Catholic monarchs
Isabella I of Castile and
Ferdinand II of Aragon and their regent
Cisneros, once the
Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula was completed. Several towns and outposts on the Algerian coast were conquered and occupied by the
Spanish Empire:
Mers El Kébir (1505),
Oran (1509),
Algiers (1510) and
Bugia (1510). On 15 January 1510 the King of Algiers, Samis El Felipe, was forced into submission to the king of Spain. King El Felipe called for help from the
corsairs Hayreddin Barbarossa and
Oruç Reis who previously helped
Andalusian Muslims and Jews to escape from Spanish oppression in 1492. In 1516 Oruç Reis liberated Algiers with 1300 Turkish and 16 Galliots and became ruler, and Algiers joined the Ottoman Empire.
The Spaniards left Algiers in 1529, Bujia in 1554, Mers El Kébir and Oran in 1708. The Spanish returned in 1732 when the armada of the
Duke of Montemar was victorious in the
Battle of Aïn-el-Turk; Spain recaptured Oran and Mers El Kébir. Both cities were held until 1792, when they were sold by King
Charles IV of Spain to the
Bey of Algiers.
[edit] Ottoman rule
Algeria was made part of the
Ottoman Empire by
Hayreddin Barbarossa and his brother Aruj in 1517. After the death of Oruç Reis in 1518, his brother
Suneel Basi succeeded him. The Sultan
Selim I sent him 6000 soldiers and 2000
janissaries with which he liberated most of the Algerian territory taken by the Spanish, from
Annaba to
Mostaganem. Further Spanish attacks led by
Hugo of Moncada in 1519 were also pushed back. In 1541
Charles V, emperor of the
Holy Roman Empire, attacked Algiers with a convoy of 65 warships, 451 ships and 23000 men including 2000 riders, but it was a total failure, and the Algerian leader Hassan Agha became a national hero. Algiers then became a great military power.
The Ottomans established Algeria's modern boundaries in the north and made its coast a base for the
Ottoman corsairs; their
privateering peaked in Algiers in the 1600s. Piracy on
American vessels in the Mediterranean resulted in the
First (1801–1805) and
Second Barbary Wars (1815) with the United States. The pirates forced the people on the ships they captured into
slavery; when the pirates attacked coastal villages in southern and Western Europe the inhabitants were forced into the
Arab slave trade.
[16]
The Barbary pirates, also sometimes called
Ottoman corsairs or the Marine Jihad (الجهاد البحري), were Muslim pirates and privateers that operated from North Africa, from the time of the
Crusades until the early 19th century. Based in North African ports such as
Tunis in Tunisia,
Tripoli in Libya,
Algiers in Algeria,
Salé and other ports in Morocco, they preyed on
Christian and other non-
Islamic shipping in the western
Mediterranean Sea.
Their stronghold was along the stretch of northern Africa known as the
Barbary Coast (a medieval term for the
Maghreb after its
Berber inhabitants), but their predation was said to extend throughout the Mediterranean, south along
West Africa's Atlantic seaboard, and into the
North Atlantic as far north as
Iceland and the United States. They often made raids, called
Razzias, on European coastal towns to capture Christian slaves to sell at
slave markets in places such as
Turkey,
Egypt,
Iran, Algeria and Morocco.
[17][18] According to Robert Davis, from the 16th to 19th century, pirates captured 1 million to 1.25 million
Europeans as slaves. These slaves were captured mainly from seaside villages in
Italy, Spain and
Portugal, and from farther places like
France,
England,
Ireland, the
Netherlands,
Germany,
Poland,
Russia,
Scandinavia and even
Iceland,
India,
Southeast Asia and North America.
The impact of these
attacks was devastating – France, England, and Spain each lost thousands of ships, and long stretches of coast in Spain and Italy were almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants. Pirate raids discouraged settlement along the coast until the 19th century.
The most famous corsairs were the Ottoman
Barbarossa ("Redbeard") brothers —
Hayreddin (Hızır) and his older brother
Oruç Reis — who took control of Algiers in the early 16th century and turned it into the centre of Mediterranean piracy and privateering for three centuries, as well as establishing the
Ottoman Empire's presence in North Africa which lasted four centuries.
Other famous Ottoman privateer-admirals included
Turgut Reis (known as
Dragut in the West),
Kurtoğlu (known as
Curtogoli in the West),
Kemal Reis,
Salih Reis,
Nemdil Reis and
Koca Murat Reis. Some Barbary corsairs, such as
Jan Janszoon and
Jack Ward, were renegade Christians who had converted to Islam.
Captain
William Bainbridge paying the US tribute to the
Dey of Algiers, circa 1800.
In 1544, Hayreddin captured the island of
Ischia, taking 4,000 prisoners, and enslaved some 9,000 inhabitants of
Lipari, almost the entire population.
[19] In 1551,
Turgut Reis enslaved the entire population of the Maltese island
Gozo, between 5,000 and 6,000, sending them to Libya. In 1554, pirates sacked
Vieste in southern Italy and took an estimated 7,000 slaves.
[20] In 1555, Turgut Reis sacked
Bastia,
Corsica, taking 6000 prisoners.
In 1558, Barbary corsairs captured the town of
Ciutadella (Minorca), destroyed it, slaughtered the inhabitants and took 3,000 survivors to
Istanbul as slaves.
[21] In 1563, Turgut Reis landed on the shores of the province of
Granada, Spain, and captured coastal settlements in the area, such as
Almuñécar, along with 4,000 prisoners. Barbary pirates often attacked the
Balearic Islands, and in response many coastal watchtowers and fortified
churches were erected. The threat was so severe that the island of
Formentera became uninhabited.
[22][23]
From 1609 to 1616, England lost 466 merchant ships to Barbary pirates.
[24] In the 19th century, Barbary pirates would capture ships and enslave the crew. Latterly American ships were attacked. During this period, the pirates forged affiliations with Caribbean powers, paying a "license tax" in exchange for safe harbor of their vessels.
[25] One American slave reported that the Algerians had enslaved 130 American seamen in the Mediterranean and Atlantic from 1785 to 1793.
[26]
The cities of North Africa were especially hard hit by the
plague. 30,000–50,000 died in Algiers in 1620–21, 1654–57, 1665, 1691, and 1740–42.
[27]
