Barbary Pirates Hideouts, Barbarossa Brothers, Ottoman Navy
The Pirate's Realm
The North African ports of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli among others in the Mediterranean were the havens of the Barbary pirates (Barbary Corsairs), whose most successful period was for about 150 years from the late 1400's onward.
Barbary Pirates in Africa
North Africa - Mediterranean
Barbary pirates ‘dressed’ in privateering clothes as a unique blend of religious warfare, local economics, and Ottoman naval defense. The cities were perched on the edge of an unproductive desert, and residents naturally looked to the sea for their resources.
The local leaders who were loyal to the Ottoman ruler worked hand-in-hand with the corsairs to the point that they eventually came to be elected from among them, and the pirates of the Mediterranean affected nearly every part of society.
Barbary pirates usually enjoyed longer careers and life spans, if not for any other reason than their protected status courtesy of the Ottoman Empire.
The Barbarossa brothers' career lasted some fifty years in the early 1500's as they progressively moved their base further west during their increasingly harsh attacks against the Spanish.
They each had a turn at being the Sultan of Algiers while they were securing Ottoman control of the Mediterranean, and the younger Hizir was an Otttoman commander when he died in 1547.
Murat Rais enjoyed a very long run at piracy, and was even named "Captain of the Sea" by the Sultan of Algiers. He was notorious for his attacks on Christian targets on land or sea and was reportedly around 100 years old when he was killed in 1638 during an Ottoman siege of Vlore in Albania.
Corruption slowly spread in the Ottoman Empire after the death of Sulayman the Magnificent in 1566, and the resulting loss of military power, territory, and economic stability led to a long period of decline until the empire was called the "Sick Man of Europe" by the early 1800's.
There was at that time a brief resurgence of piracy in the region, which was suppressed through the coordinated attacks of European and US powers.
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...of the earliest victories two centuries ago by the fledgling American Republic were over the Barbary pirates of North Africa, and the US has...
- America, the Barbary Pirates, and Obama's Abuse of History
1 Jul 2009 at 8:52am
...the other Muslim Barbary States of North Africa claimed the Mediterranean Sea as their own. Pirates operating freely out of North African ports...
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30 Jun 2009 at 11:05am
Zacks' The Pirate Coast for an account of early U.S. travails with the Barbary Pirates of North Africa, which included ransoming of hostages...
- Reparations For Slavery - WE DEMAND ALL MIDDLE EAST OIL
28 Jun 2009 at 5:15am
...of slaves himself, has pointed out more Europeans were enslaved and taken to North Africa by Barbary Coast pirates alone than there were...
- The Pirate Returns: Historical Models, East Asia and the War against...
27 Jun 2009 at 9:20am
...the first time that a US merchant vessel has been taken by pirates since the war against the Barbary corsairs of North Africa ended almost two...
Barbary Pirates Hideouts, Barbarossa Brothers, Ottoman Navy
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