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EUROPE AND AFRICA
Oran and Constantine and the chiefs of Titeri were under the
suzerainty of the Dey of Algiers, but enjoyed a large amount
of independence in the administration of their own lands.
The capture of the city of Algiers and the seizure of its Dey,
therefore, by no means implied the subjugation of the whole
regency. The subsequent submission of some of the chiefs
of Titeri and the occupation of the ports of Bougie, Mosta-
ganem, and Oran within the next three years failed to im-
prove the position of the French materially. For their con-
trol remained limited to the seacoast, and the French
authorities became involved in a contest with the chieftains
and tribes of the hinterland which lasted seventeen years
before the whole country was subdued, and forty years ere
it was completely pacified and ready for a civil régime.
At the start, the advantage lay with the French, as the
Arab leaders were scattered, disunited, and unprepared, but
political intrigues at home and the lack of a definite colonial
policy by those in authority (who found it difficult to obtain
any substantial support for the occupation of territory in
northern Africa) prevented them from making use of this
favorable circumstance. Meanwhile, the French forces car-
ried on a few half-hearted campaigns, and the land was given
over to anarchy and desolation, for numbers of the local
mountain chieftains took advantage of the situation to prey
upon the French outposts and on the helpless inhabitants.
The successes of the French on the coast and their tentative
attempts to push into the interior aroused the rulers of the
hinterland to concerted action, at length, through the fear of
losing their own independence. After appealing for aid in
vain to the Sultan of Morocco and Mehi-ed-Deen, a noted
sage and chief of Oran, they elected as their leader and Dey
of Algiers, Abd-el-Kader, the gifted son of Mehi-ed-Deen,
on November 21,1832; and thereafter the contest was con-
ducted with energy and skill. For the new Dey was a man
