Conquest of Oran | |||||||
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Cisneros entering Oran, by Juan de Borgoña. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Spanish Empire | Kingdom of Tlemcen | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Cardinal Cisneros Pedro Navarro | |||||||
Strength | |||||||
8,000–12,000 infantrymen 3,000–4,000 cavalrymen 80 ships 10 galleys | 12,000 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Less than 30 | 4,000 |
The conquest of Oran by the Spanish Empire took place on May 1509, when an army led by Pedro Navarro on behalf of the Cardinal Cisneros seized the North African city, which was controlled by the Kingdom of Tlemcen (Zayyanid dynasty).
In 1505, the Spanish captured the city of Mers-El-Kébir after a successful expedition against the Zayyanids. In 1507, the Zayyanids ambushed the city of Mers-el-Kébir, with about 11,000 cavalry, gaining a decisive victory against the Spanish forces. [1]
Preparations for the expedition began in September 1508. The Crown invested 39.6 million maravedis in the expedition. In comparison, the armada to Castilla del Oro in 1514 would cost 14 million and the armada of Maluco led by Hernando de Magallanes cost 8.35 million. [2]
A fleet left port from Cartagena on 16 May and sailed towards Mers el-Kebir, a city located near Oran and already (since 1505) under Spanish control. [3] The fleet had 80 naos and 10 galleys, plus additional small boats. They carried around 8000–12,000 infantry-men and 3000-4000 cavalry-men. [3] The army spent the night of 17 May in Mers el Kebir. [3] The Christians stormed the city of Oran, then part of the Kingdom of Tlemcen, combining the use of the fleet with a ground assault on 18 May. After breaking through the walls of the city the casualties numbered less than 30 on the assaulting side, while the 12,000 defenders suffered 4,000 casualties. [4]
On 20 May, Cisneros entered the city, already conquered. [5]
The city remained a part of the Spanish Empire until 1708, when it was seized by the Ottoman Dey of Algiers taking advantage of the War of the Spanish Succession. The city was conquered again by the Spanish in 1732. After the 1790 Oran earthquake, they abandoned Oran and Mers el-Kebir in 1792.
Battle of Mers-el-Kébir or Mers-el-Kébir expedition may refer to:
Mers El Kébir is a port on the Mediterranean Sea, near Oran in Oran Province, northwest Algeria. It is famous for the attack on the French fleet in 1940, in the Second World War.
Pedro Navarro, Count of Oliveto was a Navarrese military engineer and general who participated in the War of the League of Cambrai. At the Battle of Ravenna in 1512 he commanded the Spanish and Papal infantry, but was captured by the French. In the service of Francis I of France, he would supervise the French crossing of the Alps before the Battle of Novara in 1513.
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The sieges of Oran and Mers El Kébir of 1563 represented a major Hispano-Algerian episode in the larger Ottoman-Habsburg wars of the Mediterranean. Between April and June 1563 the Regency of Algiers launched a major military campaign to retake the Spanish military-bases of Oran and Mers el Kébir on the North African coast, occupied by Spain since 1505. The Kingdom of Algiers, the Principalities of Kabyle, and other vassal tribes combined forces as one army under Hasan Pasha, son of Hayreddin Barbarossa, and Jafar Catania. The Spanish commander brothers, Alonso de Córdoba Count of Alcaudete and Martín de Córdoba, managed to hold the strongholds of Oran and Mers El Kébir, respectively, until the relief fleet of Francisco de Mendoza arrived to successfully defeat the offensive.
The 2nd Bombardment of Algiers took place between 12 and 21 July 1784. A joint Spanish-Neapolitan-Maltese-Portuguese fleet commanded by the Spanish Admiral Antonio Barceló bombarded the city, which was the main base of the Barbary corsairs, with the aim of forcing them to interrupt their activities. The second bombardment followed a similarly failed expedition the preceding year.
The Expedition of Mostaganem occurred in 1558, when Spanish forces attempted to capture the city of Mostaganem. The expedition was supposed to be a decisive step in the conquest of the Ottoman base of Algiers, but it ended in failure, and has been called a "disaster".
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".
The Spanish conquest of Oran and Mers el-Kebir took place from 15 June to 2 July 1732, between the Kingdom of Spain and the Deylik of Algiers. The great Spanish expedition led by Don José Carrillo de Albornoz, Duke of Montemar and Don Francisco Javier Cornejo defeated the Algerian troops under the command of the Bey of the Beylik of Oran, Mustapha Bouchelaghem, and the Wali of Oran, Hassan. It successfully conquered the fortress-cities of Oran and Mers el-Kebir, ruled and administered by Algiers from 1708, during the War of the Spanish Succession, when both cities were conquered by the aforementioned Bouchelaghem, who was the governor of the western regions of Algiers.
The Kingdom of Tlemcen or Zayyanid Kingdom of Tlemcen was a kingdom ruled by the Berber Zayyanid dynasty in what is now the northwest of Algeria. Its territory stretched from Tlemcen to the Chelif bend and Algiers, and at its zenith reached Sijilmasa and the Moulouya River in the west, Tuat to the south and the Soummam in the east.
Abu Abdallah V was a Sultan of the Kingdom of Tlemcen in Algeria. He was a son of Abu Abdallah IV. In the beginning of his reign the Oran Fatwa were made during his reign he defeated spain in the battle of Mers-el-Kebir (1507) and lost Oran in 1509, he also according some sources had to be vassal of Aragon in 1512 which will be ended by the failed expedition to Tlemcen by Spain and indefinitively ended by the ruler Abu Zayyan IV and his struggle against Spain in Tlemcen and his brother allied to them in June 1543 by the support of Iznassen tribe.
The European enclaves in North Africa were towns, fortifications and trading posts on the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of western North Africa, obtained by various European powers in the period before they had the military capacity to occupy the interior. The earliest medieval enclaves were established in the 11th century CE by the Italian Kingdom of Sicily and Maritime republics; Spain and Portugal were the main European powers involved; both France and, briefly, England also had a presence. Most of these enclaves had been evacuated by the late 18th century, and today only the Spanish possessions of Ceuta, Melilla, and the Plazas de soberanía remain.
The Capture of Mers-el-Kébir on 13 September 1505 was the first campaign carried out by the Spanish Empire in its war against the Zayyanid Kingdom of Tlemcen. Mers-el-Kébir was a roadstead open to the southwest winds, and a refuge for corsairs. The port was protected by a strong and well-armed castle, and it had already been unsuccessfully attacked by Portuguese troops in 1496 and 1501.
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Mustapha Bouchelaghem, also known as Bey Bouchelaghem was the Bey of the Western Beylik from 1686 to 1734/37.
Spanish Oran was a territory of the Spanish Empire as a result of the Conquest of Oran.