Menacing Tides

Erik de Lange is an Assistant Professor at Utrecht University. He completed his PhD within the ERC-funded research project 'Securing Europe, Fighting Its Enemies. The Making of a Security Culture in Europe and Beyond, 1815–1914'. In 2022–2024, he was a visiting research fellow at King's College London.

• Introduction; 1. Of knights and pirates. Barbary corsairing before and during the Congress of Vienna, 1814–1815; 2. Opening fire. The Anglo-Dutch bombardment of Algiers, 1815–1816; 3. 'To give law to the world'. Contesting security, 1816–1824; 4. 'No security, except in destruction'. The French invasion of Algiers, 1827–1830; 5. Beyond the Littoral. Treaties, colonies and legacies, 1830–1856; Conclusion.

'Menacing Tides exposes the extraordinary politics that took place on the high seas of imperial competition through the 19th century. Erik de Lange offers us a thick revelatory history of the Mediterranean as a critical site in the negotiation and transformation of the modern international order.' Glenda Sluga, European University Institute