Mers-el-Kébir, originally a Roman port called Portus…
1505 CE
Mers-el-Kébir, originally a Roman port called Portus Divinus, had become an Almohad naval arsenal in the twelfth century, had fallen under the rulers of the Kingdom of Tlemcen in the fifteenth century, and eventually became a center of pirate activity around 1492.
It had since been occupied variously by the Ottoman Turks and Portuguese.
Cardinal Cisneros, whose religious zeal coincides with Ferdinand's prospect for political and material gain, personally equips the Spanish expedition that captures it in 1505.
Called by the Spaniards Mazalquivir, it is to serve as the base for the capture of neighboring Oran, just four miles (6.4 kilometers) to the west.
Locations
Groups
Arab people
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Berber people (also called Amazigh people or Imazighen, "free men", singular Amazigh)
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Islam
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Christians, Roman Catholic
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Aragón, Kingdom of
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Aragon, Crown of
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Castile, Crown of
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Tlemcen, Kingdom of
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Tunis, Sultanate of (Hafsid Kingdom)
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Portugal, Avizan (Joannine) Kingdom of
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Portuguese Empire
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Ottoman Empire
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Morocco, Wattasid Sultanate of
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