DANIELPANZAC, Les Corsaires barbaresques: La Fin d'une Épopée 1800–1820, Méditerranée (Paris: CNRS Éditions, 1999). Pp. 311. Fr 160.

Abstract

Daniel Panzac's newest book is both refreshing and sad. It is refreshing because, so often, books on Mediterranean commerce tend to paint a picture of the eternal sea, where ships ply their trade in 1700 much as they had in 900. Panzac's book is a story instead of abrupt shifts and the ability of individuals—in this case, Muslim North Africans—to respond to new commercial opportunities by venturing into previously untested waters. It is a sad book because it documents, in great detail, the ultimate exclusion of this same group of people from the ports of southern Europe, particularly Marseilles. This exclusion was one of the reasons that the North Africans returned to piracy. The French, of course, used the extirpation of piracy as one of the main justifications for their invasion and subsequent occupation of Algeria in 1830.