Editing History of Algeria (section)

=== Spanish enclaves ===
The Spanish expansionist policy in North Africa began with the Catholic Monarchs and the regent [[Cardinal Cisneros|Cisneros]], once the ''Reconquista'' in the Iberian Peninsula was finished. That way, several towns and outposts in the Algerian coast were conquered and occupied: [[Mers El Kébir]] (1505), [[Oran]] (1509), [[Algiers]] (1510) and [[Bejaia|Bugia]] (1510). The [[Spanish conquest of Oran (1509)|Spanish conquest of Oran]] was won with much bloodshed: 4,000 Algerians were massacred, and up to 8,000 were taken prisoner. For about 200 years, Oran's inhabitants were virtually held captive in their fortress walls, ravaged by famine and plague; Spanish soldiers, too, were irregularly fed and paid.<ref name=Ring>{{cite book|last1=Ring|first1=Trudy|title=Middle East and Africa: International Dictionary of Historic Places|date=2014|publisher=Routledge|page=558}}</ref>

The Spaniards left Algiers in 1529, Bujia in 1554, Mers El Kébir and Oran in 1708. The Spanish returned in 1732 when the armada of the [[José Carrillo de Albornoz, 1st Duke of Montemar|Duke of Montemar]] was victorious in the Battle of Aïn-el-Turk and [[Spanish conquest of Oran (1732)|retook Oran and Mers El Kébir]]; the Spanish massacred many Muslim soldiers.<ref>{{cite book |title=Middle East and Africa: International Dictionary of Historic Places |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge |page=559}}</ref> In 1751, a Spanish adventurer, named John Gascon, obtained permission, and vessels and fireworks, to go against Algiers, and set fire, at night, to the Algerian fleet. The plan, however, miscarried. In 1775, [[Charles III of Spain]] sent a large force to attack Algiers, under the command of [[Alejandro O'Reilly]] (who had led Spanish forces in crushing French rebellion in Louisiana), resulting in a disastrous defeat. The Algerians suffered 5,000 casualties.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Clodfelter|first1=Micheal|title=Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492-2015, 4th ed|date=2017|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0786474707|page=75}}</ref> The Spanish navy [[Bombardment of Algiers (1784)|bombarded Algiers in 1784]]; over 20,000 cannonballs were fired, much of the city and its fortifications were destroyed and most of the Algerian fleet was sunk.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jamieson |first1=Alan G. |author1-link=Alan G. Jamieson|title=Lords of the Sea: A History of the Barbary Corsairs |date=2013 |publisher=Reaktion Books |page=176}}</ref>

Oran and Mers El Kébir were held until 1792, when they were sold by the king [[Charles IV of Spain|Charles IV]] to the [[History of Ottoman Algeria|Bey of Algiers]].