White slavery: how pirates and nomads oppressed Europeans - A thread 
1/ When we talk about slavery, caravans of black slaves along the Mississippi appear before our eyes. And also ships with "ebony" that sail from the west coast of Africa to the New World. But history remembers how proud and freedom-loving Europeans became slaves.
2/ Slavery in North Africa
In those years, when not a single inhabitant of Spain or England had even thought to go in search of a better life in the American colonies, slavery had long flourished on the Mediterranean coast.
In those years, when not a single inhabitant of Spain or England had even thought to go in search of a better life in the American colonies, slavery had long flourished on the Mediterranean coast.
3/ In Europe, slavery disappeared in the Middle Ages, but at the same time it flourished in the world of Islam. Nomadic peoples from the Berbers (the common name of the indigenous inhabitants of North Africa who converted to Islam in the 7th century - Ed.)
4/ In the west, to the Crimean Tatars in the east, created their own states and used the usual mechanism of raiding economy. Such an economy required booty and slaves, which were regularly imported after military campaigns and pirate expeditions.
5/ The raiding economy is, according to the assumption of a number of historians, a form of existence for predominantly nomadic communities. It appeared where there were sufficiently dense masses of a sedentary population and nomads located nearby, who could quickly mobilize....
6/ ...a large and maneuverable military force. Regular robberies of sedentary neighbors made up a significant share in the economy of such peoples.
7/ The heyday of the raiding economy fell on the New Time - the 16th – 17th centuries. Piracy became one of the main crafts of the inhabitants of the Maghreb (the name given by the medieval Arabs to the countries of North Africa located to the west of Egypt. - Ed.)...
8/ Turning Muslims into a kind of Vikings. Looting became a source of wealth for the Berbers. The galleys of Algerian pirates not only pursued the Christian merchant ships at sea, but also went on large raids on settlements and cities.
9/ Their tactics were simple: to land unexpectedly near the settlement, grab the defenseless peasants and quickly sail away before the appearance of a punitive detachment.
10/ Berber Pirates: At times, Berbers assembled real pirate fleets. And then the fear of an invasion gripped even the inhabitants of large cities, the garrisons of which could not do anything with the greedy robbers.
11/ In 1544, a detachment of pirate ships from Algeria under the command of the famous Hayreddin Barbarossa marched along the coast of Calabria to Naples with fire and sword and captured about 20 thousand #Italians.
12/ The prices of slaves in the slave markets of the Maghreb fell so low that pirate sailors could exchange them only for food, but not get rich. Too many white slaves. For every major raid like the Barbarossa Expedition, there were dozens of smaller raids...
13/ The emergence of a large pirate fleet could force the entire coastal population to flee inland, leaving coastal areas deserted.
In 1566 a detachment of six thousand Ottoman pirates sailed to the Adriatic Sea and landed in Apulia.
In 1566 a detachment of six thousand Ottoman pirates sailed to the Adriatic Sea and landed in Apulia.
14/ The authorities were unable to organize the protection of the population and urged everyone to leave the coast, leaving the Turks to plunder dozens of abandoned villages up to the Serracapriolla castle, located fifteen kilometres from the coast.
15/ Many Ottoman pirates were skilled sailors. They went on long voyages and ravaged coastlines thousands of miles from their own ports. The unimaginable Turkish raid on Iceland alone in 1627 brought nearly 400 prisoners.
16/ Everyone considers England a formidable naval power, but throughout the 17th century Arab pirates swam freely in British waters and even appeared at the Thames estuary.
17/ In just three years - from 1606 to 1609 - because of the Algerian corsairs, the British and Scots lost at least 466 merchant ships.
18/ By the mid-1600s, the British were actively trading in black slaves, but at the same time British sailors from Bristol or Liverpool were becoming slaves of the Berbers.
19/ The customs of North African Muslims did not protect slaves in any way. They were considered not just wordless possessions - the slaves were Christians, that is, unfaithful. Therefore, according to the owners, they deserved any suffering.
20/ The pirates' impunity reached the point that the Berbers in the 16th century created an entire base near the Gulf of Naples, on the island of Ischia. There they waited for the right moment to attack, and they kept prisoners there before being sent to Algeria..
21/ The pirates said that it was much more convenient for them to attack cities than to plunder the countryside: small garrisons could not oppose anything to the landing of a dozen galleys, and the townspeople, locked in their houses, did not scatter and became easy prey.
22/ During pirate raids, women and children were the first victims. In addition, white-skinned Europeans were very much appreciated in the harems of the eastern rich. Fishermen were afraid to go out to sea, the peasants moved further from the coast at the first opportunity.
23/ According to modern researchers, by the beginning of the 17th century, the Italian states actually gave the coasts of Calabria and Apulia to pirates. The villages were abandoned, only robbers, smugglers and beggars lived on the shore.
24/ Most of the captured peasants ended up in the countries of the Middle East, where they remained slaves for life. As a result by the 16th century, vast and fertile lands from the Black Sea coast to Bryansk and Ryazan were completely depopulated and received the name Wild Field
25/ Gradually, both the Russians and the Italians learned to fight the devastating raids. In 1566, on the southern border of the Russian state along the Oka River, the Great Notch Line was completed. The fortification system proved to be very effective.
26/ But despite the efforts made, the raids of the Crimeans continued until the 18th century - the last one took place in 1716. Only the state organized by Peter I with a modern army was able to stop the Tatar campaigns and began to push the nomads itself.
27/ In the west, the joint efforts of the European Mediterranean powers from Spain to France were also able to stop the onslaught of Berber pirates only in the 18th century. Faced with powerful battleships and fast frigates, the corsairs were forced to retreat...
28/ ...and forget about the centuries-old craft of their ancestors.Slavery in North Africa continued, but the full-flowing stream of slaves began to gradually dry up. However, even at the beginning of the 19th century, Berber pirates still found a few victims....
29/ ...who eked out a miserable existence under the yoke of foreign owners. #Slavery #EuropeanSlaves #WhiteLivesMatter
