The Barbary Regencies and Corsair Activity in the Mediterranean from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century: From the Community of Origin to Evolutionary Divergence
Journal of Mediterranean Studies, 2002
Abstract: The Barbary Regencies were intimately linked to the domination of maritime routes. From... more Abstract: The Barbary Regencies were intimately linked to the domination of maritime routes. From the middle of the sixteenth century onwards, European powers signed a number of conventions, which they called treaties, and thus gave the Barbary authorities the stature of states. The accommodating attitude of the Europeans gave them considerably greater dividends in the field of commerce, but the Regencies regarded it as a sign of weakness. Braudel has said that for the latter end of the period which he studied, corsairing was a lesser form of war. But in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, European commerce had once more taken over the maritime routes and corsair activity was therefore no more than what we could call a lesser form of economic activity. However, one must note that each of the three Regencies was distinguishable by a set of special characteristics. While Tunis grabbed the opportunity to open up to commerce and thus became an essential space between the two Medit...
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Papers by Alain Blondy