Von den Ländern Africe. Algier

Title

Von den Ländern Africe. Algier

Map shows the city of Algiers from a bird's-eye view, reverse depiction of a king in knight's armour.

ca. 1550

Artist

Münster (1489-1552)

Sebastian Münster (1489–1552) was a leading Renaissance cosmographer. His most famous work, the Cosmographia (1544), was a comprehensive description of the world with 24 maps, based on research dating back to 1528. Continuously revised, the 1550 edition already included many new maps. It was the first scientific yet accessible world description published in German, illustrated with numerous woodcuts by artists such as Hans Holbein the Younger. Between 1544 and 1650, the Cosmographia appeared in 46 editions (27 in German) and was translated into several languages. Münster’s work combined the knowledge of scholars, artists, and travelers and remained influential long after his death.

Historical Description

The area of today's Algeria was originally inhabited by Berber tribes, in the east of Tuareg. From the 12th century BC The Phoenicians established trading bases on the coast and founded it in 814 BC. BC the commercial city of Carthage in what is now Tunisia, which subsequently developed into a major power in the western Mediterranean. Around the middle of the 7th century, the Arabs advanced into the Maghreb. In 697 they conquered much of today's Algeria. The population was largely Islamized. In the 11th century, the Berber dynasty of the Almoravids prevailed in what is now Algeria; it ruled the country for almost 100 years until it was replaced by the Almohads in 1147. This dynasty subsequently conquered the Maghreb and southern Spain; the empire then fell apart in the second half of the 13th century. Eastern Algeria became part of a Tunisian principality. At the beginning of the 16th century, the Spaniards tried to gain a foothold on the Algerian coast. The country then submitted to the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire in 1519 and became its vassal; Algeria, the Eyâlet Cezayir was converted to a Vilâyet within the Ottoman Empire and later. It remained under Ottoman sovereignty until 1830, but was effectively independent from 1711. Until the 19th century, Algeria successfully defended itself against attempts by the Spanish, Dutch, British and French to curb piracy.