Arabic Al-Jazāʾir French Alger
City (pop., 1998: 1,519,570), chief seaport and capital of Algeria.
Located along the Bay of Algiers and first settled by Phoenicians, it was later ruled by the Romans. It was destroyed by the Barbarossa , who expelled the Spanish and placed Algiers under the rule of the Ottoman Empire . Algiers became the major base for the Barbary Coast pirates for 300 years; their activities were finally curtailed in 1818 by an American force led by {{link=Decatur, Stephen">Stephen Decatur . The French took the city in 1830 and made it headquarters for their African colonial empire. In World War II (1939–45), it became the Allied headquarters in northern Africa and for a time the provisional capital of France. In the 1950s it was the focal point in the drive for Algeria's independence; after independence, Algiers grew as the country's political, economic, and cultural centre.