Bombing of Tripoli (1728)
Reverse of a French bronze coin commemorating the bombing of Tunis and Tripoli (1728)
| date | July 20th bis 26. July 1728 |
|---|---|
| place | Tripoli |
| output | draw |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
Tripoli reign |
|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 2 ships of the line, 4 frigates, 3 bombards, 2 small galleys, 2 pinasses |
few usable cannons |
| losses | |
|
no |
7 civilian casualties |
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The six-day bombing of Tripoli by a French fleet in July 1728 was part of the wars against piracy in Northwest Africa .
Between 1655 and 1727 French, English and Dutch ships appeared ten times before Tripoli and bombarded the city in order to force the surrender of numerous ships and prisoners kidnapped by Tripolitan corsairs . Since 1711, when the Kuloghli officer Ahmed Pascha Karamanli came to power in the Ottoman province of Tripoli, the attacks had increased again.
To force reparations and compensations, the French captain Étienne Nicolas de Grandpré (1661–1731) was in July 1728 with the two ships of the line Saint-Esprit and Léopard , the four frigates Tigre , l'Alcyon , Grafton and l'Astrée , the Fleute His and three bombards first appeared in front of Tunis and then on July 19, 1728 also in front of Tripoli. Unlike the Bey of Tunis, the Pasha of Tripoli, Ahmad Pascha, rejected the French demands, whereupon de Grandpré opened fire on the city and the Tripolitan fleet in the port.
For six days, a total of 2,000 projectiles fell on the city, reducing it to ashes. When the French ships ran out of ammunition, water and food, they sailed back to Toulon without having achieved anything. It was not until a French fleet blocked the port of Tripoli in January 1729 that Ahmad Pasha agreed to a payment of 100,000 livres and the release of the Christian prisoners. But already in 1731 a French fleet had to appear again, this time under the command of René Duguay-Trouin, in front of Tripoli, Tunis and Algiers to take action against the persistent pirates.
On the obverse of a French commemorative coin struck in 1728, France's “all-Christian king” (a title given to French kings by the Pope in the 15th century) Louis XV. as the “King of Christianity”, on the reverse it was the pagan god Neptune who was credited with the victory over Tunis and Tripoli.
literature
- Burchard Brentjes: The Moors - Islam in North Africa and Spain , page 280. Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 1989
- Tony Jaques: Dictionary of Battles and Sieges, PZ , p.1037f . Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport 2007.
- Jeremy Black: European Warfare, 1660-1815 , 58 . Yale University Press, New Heaven 1994.
- Léon Guérin: Histoire maritime de France , Volume 2, Page 215 . Andrieux, Paris 1844