Les interprètes de la diplomatie en Méditerranée. Traiter à Alger (1670-1680) / Diplomatic Brokers in the Mediterranean. Dealing with Algiers (1670-1680) (original) (raw)

2013, Jocelyne Dakhlia et Wolfgang Kaiser (ed.), 'Les Musulmans dans l’histoire de l’Europe, tome 2. Passages et contacts en Méditerranée', Paris, Albin Michel, 2013, p. 371-410.

This paper aims to study the treaties of peace and trade ratified between Christian European States and North African Ottoman Regencies. Based on law of nations, on consular correspondence, diaries and gazettes, it describes the concurrence of diplomatic and political mediators in 1670s Algiers, during the Franco-Dutch War and after. This paper focuses both on French consul Laurent d’Arvieux and Dutch envoy Thomas Hees. An Arab and Ottoman Turkish speaker, d’Arvieux was sent to Algiers by Colbert to defend French interests (of the “Bastion de France”) and to negotiate, with dey Hâj Muhammad and his nephew Bâbâ Hasan, the maintenance of peace between France and Algiers. The relations between d’Arvieux and Algerian “Powers” turned sour and I analyze the several points of disagreement. The stay of d’Arvieux in Algiers is compared with Thomas Hees’s journey in Algiers, who managed, with the assistance of a Jewish middleman, Jacob de Paz, to conclude a treaty of peace and trade with the local “Powers.” A third European emissary is also scrutinized to understand the stakes of Algerian and Ottoman diplomacy, namely the English consul Samuel Martin, who met both d’Arvieux and Hees. Those French, Dutch and English negotiations in Algiers reveal the crucial importance of North Africa in the early modern Mediterranean diplomacy.