Omar Agha

He was born on the island of Lesbos.{{Cite journal|last1=Weinert|first1=Richard P.|last2=Dupuy|first2=R. Ernest|last3=Baumer|first3=William H.|date=December 1969|title=The Little Wars of the United States: A Compact History from 1798 to 1920.|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1985162|journal=Military Affairs|volume=33|issue=3|pages=419|doi=10.2307/1985162|jstor=1985162 |issn=0026-3931}} His name was Omar ben Mohammed. He left for Algiers at an unknown date, and first became a privateer, then a janissary. He soon became Agha of the Odjak of Algiers.

He launched a war against Tunis, and led the attacks of Barbary privateers on American ships. An expedition of the US Navy led by Commodore Stephen Decatur in command of a squadron of nine ships, was conducted in 1815 against the Regency of Algiers. The episode is known as the Second Barbary War. The operation forced Dey Omar to sign a treaty ending attacks of piracy, a treaty that he denounced shortly thereafter.

The Congress of Vienna, which addressed the problem of Christian slaves from Barbary piracy, charged the United Kingdom and the Netherlands to negotiate with the Dey of Algiers and the Beys of Tunis and Tripoli. Although the latter two were agreeable, Omar Agha was not. It would take the 9-hour Bombardment of Algiers (1816) on 27 August 1816, by an Anglo-Dutch naval force commanded by British Admiral Lord Exmouth, to compel the Dey to abolish Christian slavery. However, the bombardment of Algiers did not destroy Barbary power. Despite the signing of the treaty and the release of 3,000 Christian slaves, Dey Omar set to rebuilding the city's defences, putting its Jewish inhabitants to forced labour in the place of Christian slaves.{{Cite book|title = Commander: The Life and Exploits of Britain's Greatest Frigate Captain|last = Taylor|first = Stephen|publisher = faber and faber|year = 2012|isbn = 978-0-571-27711-7|location = London|pages = [https://archive.org/details/commanderlifeexp0000tayl/page/295 295]|url = https://archive.org/details/commanderlifeexp0000tayl/page/295}} Moreover, the problem remained such that it was one of the main areas of contention at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818).

Thanks to the series of defeats at the hands of Europeans, he was strangled on September 8, 1817, and he was buried within an hour.FO 3/19, McDonell to Bathhurst, 8 September 1817 His successor was Ali ben Ahmed.{{Cite book|last=Nettement|first=Alfred (1805-1869) Auteur du texte|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k27855j|title=Histoire de la conquête d'Alger : écrite sur des documents inédits et authentiques (Nouvelle édition revue et corrigée) / par M. Alfred Nettement|date=1867|language=EN}}

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{{succession box|title=Dey of the Regency
of Algiers|before=Mohamed Kharnadji|after=Ali ben Ahmed|years=1815–1817}}

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{{Reflist}}

• Raïs Hamidou: Le dernier corsaire barbaresque d'Alger [https://books.google.com/books?id=S8vjEHMZM_cC&pg=PA192] Par Paul Desprès
• La piraterie barbaresque en Méditerranée: XVI-XIXe siècle [https://books.google.com/books?id=xcLOZOCHf4YC&pg=PA27] Par Roland Courtinat

{{Rulers of Algeria}}

{{Barbary Corsairs}}

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Category:1817 deaths

Category:Deys of Algiers

Category:1770s births

Category:Algerian people of Greek descent

Category:People from Lesbos

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