Conflicts between the Regency of Algiers and Morocco

Conflicts between the Regency of Algiers and Morocco
Troops of the Regency of Algiers, allied to the kingdom of Ait Abbes, march towards Orania
Date 1550–1795 Location Morocco, Western Algeria
Belligerents
Regency of Algiers Zayyanids        (16th century) Kingdom of Beni Abbas	Saadi dynasty        (1559–1660) Alaouite dynasty        (1559–1795) Spanish Empire

Conflicts between the Regency of Algiers and the Cherifian dynasties or Algerian-Sherifian conflicts^[1] opposed Morocco to the Ottoman Empire and its dependencies in a series of wars between the Regency of Algiers and its allied local sultanates and tribal confederations, and on the other hand, the Sharifian Saadian and Alawite dynasties that had ruled Morocco since the 16th century.

The origins of these conflicts were multiple and overlapping. The integration in 1520 into the Ottoman Empire of the state-owned enterprise of the Regency of Algiers in the central Maghreb as a new political center integrated into was at the expense of the Zayyanids of Tlemcen to its west. Recurrent conflicts at the beginning of the sixteenth century with the Regency on the one hand and the Spaniards on the other saw Tlemcen absorbed into the Regency.^[1] The weakening of the Zianides, aroused the covetousness of the Saadians who saw in it the opportunity to expand their territories to the East. Although the Regency of Algiers confirmed its control over Tlemcen and Orania, it did not have the means to launch long campaigns in the Sahara, which it delegated to various tribal confederations like the Ouled Sidi Cheikh.^[2] The Saadians were blocked to the north by the Spanish Empire but the Regency of Algiers then found a south-Saharan outlet for imperial expansion.

These conflicts and resulting treaties foreshadowed the borders and delimitations of the modern nation-states of the Maghreb.^[3]