Algiers, formally part of the Ottoman Empire…
May 1774 CE
Algiers, formally part of the Ottoman Empire but essentially free from Ottoman control, had turned to piracy and ransoming starting in the seventeenth century
Piracy has become the primary economic activity due to its location on the periphery of both the Ottoman and European economic spheres, and depending for its existence on a Mediterranean that is increasingly controlled by European shipping, backed by European navies.
The pirates disturb shipping in the western Mediterranean and engaged in slave raids as far north as Iceland, and various nations have made repeated attempts have been made by to subdue them.
Jews in Algiers escape the attack of the Spanish army in 1774.