France Takes Algiers and Begins 132 Years of Rule

In the late 1820s, relations between the Bourbon monarchy of France and the Ottoman Regency of Algiers deteriorated rapidly. The long-standing diplomatic grievance originated in an unsettled debt dating back to 1799, when French forces had purchased grain during Napoleon's campaign in Egypt. During an audience in April 1827 regarding these unpaid accounts, the ruler of Algiers, Hussein Dey, struck (by some accounts only tapped) the French consul Pierre Deval with a fly whisk during a heated argument. The government of King Charles X used this incident to impose a naval blockade on the port of Algiers. The blockade continued for three years without producing Algerian capitulation, largely harming French commercial interests instead. After Algerian coastal artillery fired upon a French vessel delivering an envoy for negotiations in 1829, the French administration resolved to launch an armed expedition.

Domestic politics heavily influenced the decision to wage war. Charles X faced intense domestic unpopularity and mounting political unrest in France, and historians have argued that the crown hoped a victory abroad would rally public support and divert attention from political crises at home. The military command of the venture was split between Admiral Guy-Victor Duperre, who oversaw the naval armada despite expressing serious doubts about the safety of the mission, and Louis Auguste Victor de Ghaisne, comte de Bourmont, who led the ground forces. On 25 May 1830, a large invasion fleet of more than a hundred warships departed Toulon, carrying an expeditionary army that sources number at roughly 34,000 to 37,000 soldiers to the North African coast.