| Publication |
2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
In the 15th and the 16th centuries, the Barbary coast, a strip of North
Africa, known because of the Berbers, came under the scanner of
the two principal players in the Mediterranean at that time: namely,
Spain in the west and Turkey in the east. This rivalry lasted for much
of the 16
th
century but was subtly won in a fairly unorthodox manner
by the Turks who allowed Turkish pirates or corsairs to establish
themselves along the coast; the territories seized by the corsairs were
then given a formal status as protectorates of the Ottoman Empire.
The first such pirate established himself on the coast of modern-day
Algeria in 1512, followed by others (in what is today's Libya) in 1551;
Khair-ed-Din (popularly known as Barbarossa took over Tunisia,
very briefly in 1534, but the territories were recovered for Spain
in 1535 and finally brought under Ottoman control in 1574. P
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