Abd al-Rahman of Morocco
Sultan of Morocco
1778 CE to 1859 CE
Moulay Abd al-Rahman ibn Hisham (Marrakesh, 1778 – Meknes, 28 August 1859) is the sultan of Morocco from 1822 to 1859.
He is a member of the Alaouite dynasty.
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France’s King Louis-Philippe, wishing to avoid a conflict with Morocco, dispatches an extraordinary mission to the Sultan in February 1832, mixed with displays of military might, sending war ships to the bay of Tangiers.
An embassy is sent to Abd al-Rahman, headed by count de Mornay and including the painter Eugène Delacroix.
The Sultan, however, refuses French demands to evacuate Tlemcen.
Reinforcements pour into Algeria after 1840 until Marshal Thomas Robert Bugeaud has at his disposal one hundred and eight thousand men, one-third of the French army.
Bugeaud's strategy is to destroy Abdelkader's bases, then to starve the population by destroying its means of subsistence—crops, orchards, and herds.
On several occasions, French troops burn or asphyxiated noncombatants hiding from the terror in caves.
One by one, the amir's strongholds fall to the French, and many of his ablest commanders are killed or captured so that by 1843 the Muslim state has collapsed.
Abdelkader takes refuge with his ally, the sultan of Morocco, Abd al-Rahman II, and launches raids into Algeria.
However, Abdelkader is obliged to surrender to the commander of Oran Province, General Louis de Lamoriciere, at the end of 1847.
Abdelkader is promised safe conduct to Egypt or Palestine if his followers lay down their arms and keep the peace.
He accepts these conditions, but the minister of war—who years earlier as general in Algeria had been badly defeated by Abdelkader—has him consigned to prison in France.
The fighting in Algeria, renewed in late 1839, had remained bogged down until General Thomas Robert Bugeaud returned to Algeria, this time as governor-general, in February 1841.
Abdelkader had originally been encouraged to hear that Bugeaud, the promoter of the Treaty of Tafna, was returning; but this time Bugeaud's tactics are radically different.
This time, his approach is one of annihilation, with the conquest of Algeria as the endgame.
Abdelkader is effective at using guerrilla warfare and for a decade, up until 1842, scores many victories.
He often signs tactical truces with the French, but these do not last.
His power base is in the western part of Algeria, where he is successful in uniting the tribes against the French.
He is noted for his chivalry; on one occasion he releases his French captives simply because he has insufficient food to feed them.
Throughout this period, Abdelkader demonstrates political and military leadership and acts as a capable administrator and a persuasive orator.
His fervent faith in the doctrines of Islam is unquestioned.
Until the beginning of 1842 the struggle has gone in his favor; however, the resistance is put down by Marshal Bugeaud, due to Bugeaud's adaptation to the guerilla tactics employed by Abdelkader.
Abdelkader strikes fast and disappear into the terrain with light infantry; however, the French increase their mobility.
The French armies brutally suppress the native population and practice a scorched earth policy in the countryside to force the residents to starve so as to desert their leader.
By 1841, his fortifications had all but been destroyed and he had been forced to wander the interior of the Oran.
In 1842, he had lost control of Tlemcen and his lines of communications with Morocco were not effective.
He is able to cross the border into Morocco for a respite, but the French defeat the Moroccans at the Battle of Isly.
Bugeaud, attempting to complete the French conquest of Algeria, had instigated the battle without a declaration of war in order to force negotiations concerning Moroccan support for the Algerian resistance leader to conclude on terms favorable to the French.
Bugeaud, who recovers the Moroccan commander's tent and umbrella (equivalent to capturing a military standard in European warfare), is made Duke of Isly for his victory.
The Bombardment of Mogador starts the day following the Battle of Isly.
Louis Édouard Bouët had carried out a reconnaissance of the bay of Mogador and established a plan of attack in July 1840.
On August 15, 1844, Bouët is attached to the expedition commanded by the Prince de Joinville, which takes Mogador using the information that had been collected by Bouët.
His reward is to take the trophies back to France, together with a promotion to Captain.
The encounter had been unplanned and poorly commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Lucien de Montagnac, and went badly for the French troops.
After a first encounter, the French's numbers had been reduced from four hundred and fifty to eighty-two chasseurs and hussars against hundreds of Algerians (Abd-el-Qader's never massed more than about five hundred horsemen for pitched battle).
Cornered, the chasseurs of the carabinier company had taken refuge in a marabout, from which they had repulsed all assaults.
After a siege lasting many days, without food or water and short of munitions, they had been reduced to cutting up their musket balls in order to keep firing.
Emir Abdelkader had captured captain adjutant major Dutertre and had had him taken under guard to the front of the marabout to demand the chasseurs' surrender, but instead he used his time there to exhort the survivors to fight to the death, for which Abdelkader beheaded him.
Abdelkader then demanded that the French bugler sound the retreat, but he instead sounded the charge, while one chasseur replied to another of Abdelkader's other demands for their surrender with the word, Merde! (Shit) (in reference to Cambronne's answer at Waterloo).
When the remaining eighty survivors completely run out of munitions, they manage to break through the enemy lines with a bayonet charge, but only sixteen of them manage to rejoin the French lines (five of whom will die some days later).
Among the dead is Montagnac himself.
His failure to get support from eastern tribes, apart from the Berbers of western Kabylie, had contributed to the quelling of the rebellion, and a decree from Abd al-Rahman of Morocco following the Treaty of Tangiers had outlawed the Emir from his entire kingdom.
On December 21, 1847, Abdelkader surrenders to General Louis de Lamoricière in exchange for the promise that he will be allowed to go to Alexandria or Acre.
His request is granted, and two days later his surrender is made official to the French Governor-General of Algeria, Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale, to whom Abdelkader symbolically hands his war-horse.
Ultimately, however, the French government will refuse to honor Lamoricière's promise: Abdelkader will be shipped to France and, instead of being allowed to carry on to the East, end up being kept in captivity.