The Franco-Algerian war of 1609–1628[4] occurred because of a Dutch pirate named Simon Dansa[5] who declared his conversion to Islam and joined the Algerian navy in 1603, and then later conspired with the French consul in Algeria in an attempt to collect more wealth, so he collected his money and fled with it to France, including two of advanced bronze cannons he had been lent to him by the Pasha of Algiers.[6]
The Algerians were greatly disturbed by the incident, which made the Pasha officially declare war on the Kingdom of France after its refusal to return the two cannons and punish Simone Dansa.
During the war, France lost millions of francs and thousands of people who turned into slaves in Algeria,[7] which forced it to surrender and return the two cannons in 1628.[8]
^Meredith Martin and Gillian Weiss, "A Tale of Two Guns: Maritime Weaponry between France and Algiers", in Elisabeth A. Fraser, ed., The Mobility of People and Things in the Early Modern Mediterranean: The Art of Travel (Routledge, 2019), pp. 25–48, at 34: "Danser's 1609 theft" of a pair of bronze cannons and capture of some Turks "became the causa belli for two decades of warfare, ended only by France's return of the Algerian cannons and several captives in 1628".
