Fly-whisk#Algeria incident
The hit with the flyswatter was a 1827 incident at a reception of the Algerian Dey Hussein, who served as an occasion for the French occupation of Algeria.
Prehistory
To finance his Italian campaign to Napoleon in 1796 had provided a sum of one million francs on the Paris-based trading company Bacri and Busnach, these entrepreneurs were native Algerian Jews and had more profitable transactions entered into with the French during the Egyptian campaign ( 1798-1801 ). The grain business had been exploited by the participating French intermediaries for their own benefit, the repayment of the remaining debt should now be possible with the help of the Dey finally.
After Napoleon's abdication, the Algerian creditors demanded this sum repeated from France back, but both Louis XVIII refused. and Charles X., this significant amount of money to be repaid.
The affront
On April 29, 1827 Dey Hussein was a reception on the occasion of Ramadan, which also includes the French consul Pierre Deval appeared. Dey Hussein said the consul on the horrendous debt and demanded a reason for the negative attitude of the French government. Deval then replied, " that his government would respond under any circumstances because they believe it would be useless ." In this affront towards Dey Hussein replied the consul three blows with his fly whisk and pointed him out of the building.
The events were also handed down by a German, the Rhine-Hessian doctor and adventurer Simon Friedrich Pfeiffer in his travel and biographies. Pfeiffer had been years earlier captured by Algerian pirates and lived as a body-slave in the service of an Algerian court officials, he learned the Arabic language and was able to note the further events from the Arab point of view. Pfeiffer describes the further course: The Ambassador went directly to his country house at Algiers, gathered there and he consulted with diplomats of some allied with France European countries and handed over the presidency to the ambassador of Sardinia. That same day, the ambassador was met by a surprising haven in the run- French ship. Already Pfeiffer suggested that the Ambassador had staged this diplomatic scandal targeted to provide the French a reason for future military operations. Initially, France was limited to a naval blockade of the port of Algiers and reached a directed against the Dey sentiment among the population. Through a commando of Algierer the blockade ships were eventually expelled.
After the departure of the French, the ambassador of the Sultan of Constantinople Opel with the Dey had several conversations. The Dey should put an army of 40,000 men to support the Sultan's march to end the war with Russia victorious can. Following one would " settle " with the French. The Dey misjudged his situation and had later returned all offers of the Sultan and other Arab princes.
The French government took the insult from April 29, 1827 against the honor of France as an occasion to the Barbary States after thorough logistical preparation and equipment of the army in June 1830 - in particular the Dey of Algiers, but - to declare war.
One landed on 17 June 1830 in the bay of Sidi Ferrusch, about 30 kilometers west of Algiers. The Dey had a few days later to sign the surrender and handed over to Algiers. The victorious French Pfeiffer also owed his release from slavery.
Follow
In the years that followed transformed the military operation to colonial occupation of Algeria, which ended only in 1962. With the victory over the pirates and the sea trade was secured with the Mediterranean countries.