The 1830 expedition was not the first French intervention against Algiers. Throughout the second half of the 17th century, recurrent attacks by the royal navy attempted to punish the white city for its course in the Mediterranean.
First by systematically attacking the Barbary ships in order to make as many “Turkish” slaves as possible on the Marseilles galleys. Then, by trying – in vain – to settle on the coast, in Gigeri (now Jijel). Finally, by seeking to impress the dey with the bombardments which, in 1682 and 1683 then in 1688, pounded the city and the port.
Without succeeding in destroying Algiers, nor even in stopping the Barbary race in the western Mediterranean, even if after 1690, the raïs took practically no more Christian slaves.
The story of this Franco-Algerian war, distorted by the propaganda of the time and obscured by the expedition of 1830, has remained largely unknown. It is placed here in the economic and political context of the moment, showing that before settling there in the 19th century, France had long sought to be master of Algiers.
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