page_title: Bombardment of Algiers (1783)
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Bombardment of Algiers (1783) / Background
caption_attribution_description: Depicted person&#58; &#32;Antonio Barceló (1717–1797).
context_page_description: The Bombardment of Algiers in August 1783 was a failed attempt by Spain to put an end to Algerine privateering against Spanish shipping. A Spanish fleet of 70, sailing under Rear admiral Antonio Barceló, bombarded the city eight times between August 4–8 but inflicted only minor damages to the Algerine military. Both Spaniards and Algerines fought poorly, but Barceló, blaming unfavorable weather conditions, gave the order to withdraw. His expedition was judged a failure at the Spanish court, being described as a "festival of fireworks too costly and long for how little it entertained the Moors and how it was used by whomever paid for it".
context_section_description: In 1775, a Spanish fleet of 51 ships under Don Pedro de Castejón escorted a landing force of 20,000 infantry, 800 cavalry, and 900 artillerymen in 450 transports against the most persistent of the Barbary raiders, the city of Algiers. The expedition of Count Alexander O'Reilly (an Irish soldier in the Spanish army) punished the Barbary port and inflicted 5,000 casualties on the Algerians, but took severe losses in return, amounting to 27 officers and about 500 enlisted men killed and 191 officers and over 2,000 enlisted men wounded.
  The Algerine privateering against Spanish vessels increased following the disastrous invasion of Algiers in 1775. Spain tried to reach a peace agreement with the Ottoman Regency with the aim of securing their commercial traffic along the Mediterranean. Don Juan de Bouligny was sent to Constantinople in 1782 and managed to obtain a friendship and commercial agreement with Sultan Abdul Hamid I. The Regency, nevertheless, denied to accept the treaty. The Dey, influenced by several of his officers, the fasnachi, the treasurer, the focha, the Codgia of the cavalry and the Aga of the infantry, opted for war, ignoring the recommendations of his naval officers. The Spanish chief minister, the Count of Floridablanca, then tried in vain to bribe the Dey with gold to open negotiations for peace.
  King Charles III, feeling that the national pride of Spain had been offended by the Algerines, resolved to punish them by bombarding their town. Rear admiral Antonio Barceló was appointed to carry out the attack. Though he was by far the most capable naval officer of Spain and one of the few who had risen through the ranks by merit, Barceló's designation was coldly received both by the Spanish court and military. The Rear admiral was old and illiterate and of humble extraction, which, together with his naval victories, earned him the envy of most the senior Spanish officers.
caption: Portrait of Antonio Barceló. 1848 copy from an 18th-century original that was at Palma de Mallorca's Town Hall.
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