French marine artillery falls on Tripoli

[French bombardment of Tripoli]. Plan de la rade de Tripoly Barbarie et l’ordre du bombardement.

€ 6.500,00

A large, hand-drawn plan illustrating the French bombardment of Karamanli Tripoli (now Libya), indicating each of the French ships involved, the defensive positions of the city, and even the districts of Tripoli in which the bombardment was calculated to hit. In 1728, Tripoli, long an Ottoman province, was under a century of rule by the Karamanli dynasty after a Janissary rebellion. The French succeeded in levelling much of the ancient city over six days of bombardment, but never capitalized on the success of their bombardment with a land invasion. Tripoli, though heavily hit, remained in Karamanli hands until Ottoman recapture, and remained an Ottoman province until invaded by Italy in 1917.

The head of the French fleet was Étienne Nicolas de Grandpré (1661-1731), nearly seventy at the time, and a specialist in marine artillery. His adversary was Ahmed Karamanli (1711-1835), founder of the Karamanli dynasty himself, who ruled for another seventeen years.