The Bombardment of Algiers followed the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Algiers was a principal base for Barbary piracy, yet Britain had tolerated its activities while Algerian supplies helped sustain Gibraltar during the war with France. After the war ended in 1815, that reason for accommodation lost its force. Piracy and the enslavement of European Christians close to Europe became grounds for intervention. The moral irony is explicit, given the other forms of slavery continuing elsewhere in the world. Lord Exmouth, Edward Pellew, was sent in command of the fleet.
Chapter · 26:38-27:51
Why Britain turned its fleet against Algiers
Place the 1816 bombardment in the change from wartime accommodation with Algiers to post-Napoleonic coercion against piracy and enslavement.