Think Forward.

French Expedition of Larache 1765 , Tale of a Moroccan Victory 2798

Maanaoui Saad, 2 y.
2 min read.
The Seven Years' war has just ended in 1763, considered to be the real 1st world war. It was a deadly and costly war that left all belligerents heavily in debt. For instance this was the main reason that lead to the American War of Independence. During this war, Moroccan pirates harassed French ships, not hesitating to attack merchant ships and lonely warships. The King of France Louis XV tried to buy peace from the Moroccan sultan Mohammed III but faced with failure in negotiations, he decided to launch a punitive expedition against the sultan. He charged the chef d'escadre du Chaffault with this expedition. Du Chaffault set sail in 1765 for the Moroccan coasts at the head of a squadron composed of 16 ships. Count De Grasse, another famous figure, was also in the party. During their journey, they surprised Moroccan pirates hiding at the mouth of the Loukkous river, they managed to destroy a brigantine and 2 other ships that the corsairs had captured the day before using a xebec. The latter managed to take refuge in Larache. The squadron arrived at Salé and began to bombard it. The Moroccans responded with heavy fire using 9 batteries, 4 in Salé-le-Vieux and 5 in Salé-le-Neuf(Rabat). The French had the technological edge, but the Moroccan steady fire prevented the french guns from being accurate. The French abandoned the idea of ​​entering the river alerted, by a nearby Swedish ship, that the Moors are in numbers and on the lookout. The King of Morocco, and his guard was also present in Rabat. Furthermore, the mouth of Bouregreg is narrow and presents an ambush risk. Du Chaffault then decides to find a Moroccan port that is easier to punish. They left for Mamora (Mehdia) but the bad weather and the presence of only one small ship in the river was not enough for the French. They decided afterwards to leave for Larache. During their misty journey, they came face to face with a Senau (img) of Swedish origin, previously captured by the privateers, which was on his way to resupply Salé with ammunition. After his capture Du chaffault sent it to Brest under good escort. In front of Larache, they saw La Sirene, a large French merchant ship taken by the Moors at Cadiz in 1764. The temptation to burn this prize was irresistible. Using a diversionary tactic, they tried to go straight to burn La Sirene but the swell prevented them from doing so. In the meantime, French ships' artillery was able to silence the batteries of Larache citadel. The citadel was built by the Portuguese in order to resist land attacks and not sea ones. Using their longboat, the French launched a 2nd and a 3rd expedition to burn Moroccan ships but with no success. They decided to launch a 4th attack, deeper this time. But the Moroccans had prepared a ruse. They left few ships near the port as baits. They deployed their skirmishers in well hidden positions on both sides of the shore. As the French longboats progressed, they were taken in enfilade by Moroccan fire. More than 4000 Moors surrounded the French and began to approach them. It was a massacre. Between 200 and 450 KIA on the French side. Many of those who tried to flee were drowned, very few managed to escape to their ships. The wounded one were finished with axes and their heads were cut off. The survivors were enslaved and sent to build Mogador(Essaouira). One of the survivors Bidé de Maurville would later write a book: "Relation de l'affaire de Larache". France will later pay a heavy price for the release of the captives. The French navy was humiliated a second time after the Seven Years' War.
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Saad M

Saad M

Interest in Economics, Geopolitics, History and Sports.


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THE MEDITATIONS - Book I.[1/3] 2121

Bluwr X Commons: Marcus Aurelius, 2 y.
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4 min read.
1. I learned from my grandfather, Verus, to use good manners, and to put restraint on anger. 2. In the famous memory of my father I had a pattern of modesty and manliness. 3. Of my mother I learned to be pious and generous; to keep myself not only from evil deeds, but even from evil thoughts; and to live with a simplicity which is far from customary among the rich. 4. I owe it to my great-grandfather that I did not attend public lectures and discussions, but had good and able teachers at home; and I owe him also the knowledge that for things of this nature a man should count no expense too great. 5. My tutor taught me not to favour either green or blue at the chariot races, nor, in the contests of gladiators, to be a supporter either of light or heavy armed. He taught me also to endure labour; not to need many things; to serve myself without troubling others; not to intermeddle in the affairs of others, and not easily to listen to slanders against them. 6. Of Diognetus I had the lesson not to busy myself about vain things; not to credit the great professions of such as pretend to work wonders, or of sorcerers about their charms, and their expelling of Demons and the like; not to keep quails (for fighting or divination), nor to run after such things; to suffer freedom of speech in others, and to apply myself heartily to philosophy. Him also I must thank for my hearing first Bacchius, then Tandasis and Marcianus; that I wrote dialogues in my youth, and took a liking to the philosopher’s pallet and skins, and to the other things which, by the Grecian discipline, belong to that profession. 7. To Rusticus I owe my first apprehensions that my nature needed reform and cure; and that I did not fall into the ambition of the common Sophists, either by composing speculative writings or by declaiming harangues of exhortation in public; further, that I never strove to be admired by ostentation of great patience in an ascetic life, or by display of activity and application; that I gave over the study of rhetoric, poetry, and the graces of language; and that I did not pace my house in my senatorial robes, or practise any similar affectation. I observed also the simplicity of style in his letters, particularly in that which he wrote to my mother from Sinuessa. I learned from him to be easily appeased, and to be readily reconciled with those who had displeased me or given cause of offence, so soon as they inclined to make their peace; to read with care; not to rest satisfied with a slight and superficial knowledge; nor quickly to assent to great talkers. I have him to thank that I met with the discourses of Epictetus, which he furnished me from his own library. 8. From Apollonius I learned true liberty, and tenacity of purpose; to regard nothing else, even in the smallest degree, but reason always; and always to remain unaltered in the agonies of pain, in the losses of children, or in long diseases. He afforded me a living example of how the same man can, upon occasion, be most yielding and most inflexible. He was patient in exposition; and, as might well be seen, esteemed his fine skill and ability in teaching others the principles of philosophy as the least of his endowments. It was from him that I learned how to receive from friends what are thought favours without seeming humbled by the giver or insensible to the gift. 9. Sextus was my pattern of a benign temper, and his family the model of a household governed by true paternal affection, and a steadfast purpose of living according to nature. Here I could learn to be grave without affectation, to observe sagaciously the several dispositions and inclinations of my friends, to tolerate the ignorant and those who follow current opinions without examination. His conversation showed how a man may accommodate himself to all men and to all companies; for though companionship with him was sweeter and more pleasing than any sort of flattery, yet he was at the same time highly respected and reverenced. No man was ever more happy than he in comprehending, finding out, and arranging in exact order the great maxims necessary for the conduct of life. His example taught me to suppress even the least appearance of anger or any other passion; but still, with all this perfect tranquillity, to possess the tenderest and most affectionate heart; to be apt to approve others yet without noise; to have much learning and little ostentation. 10. I learned from Alexander the Grammarian to avoid censuring others, to refrain from flouting them for a barbarism, solecism, or any false pronunciation. Rather was I dexterously to pronounce the words rightly in my answer, confining approval or objection to the matter itself, and avoiding discussion of the expression, or to use some other form of courteous suggestion. 11. Fronto made me sensible how much of envy, deceit and hypocrisy surrounds princes; and that generally those whom we account nobly born have somehow less natural affection. 12. I learned from Alexander the Platonist not often nor without great necessity to say, or write to any man in a letter, that I am not at leisure; nor thus, under pretext of urgent affairs, to make a practice of excusing myself from the duties which, according to our various ties, we owe to those with whom we live. 13. Of Catulus I learned not to condemn any friend’s expostulation even though it were unjust, but to try to recall him to his former disposition; to stint no praise in speaking of my masters, as is recounted of Domitius and Athenodorus; and to love my children with true affection. 14. Of Severus, my brother, I learned to love my kinsmen, to love truth, to love justice. Through him I came to know Thrasea, Helvidius, Cato, Dion, and Brutus. He gave me my first conception of a Commonwealth founded upon equitable laws and administered with equality of right; and of a Monarchy whose chief concern is the freedom of its subjects. Of him I learned likewise a constant and harmonious devotion to Philosophy; to be ready to do good, to be generous with all my heart. He taught me to be of good hope and trustful of the affection of my friends. I observed in him candour in declaring what he condemned in the conduct of others; and so frank and open was his behaviour, that his friends might easily see without the trouble of conjecture what he liked or disliked.