Introduction
During the lifetime of St. Vincent de Paul (1581-1660), and the century following his death, the Mediterranean Sea operated as a theater of conflict, commerce, and cultural intercourse. It acted as both contested and connective tissues between Europe and the North African Barbary Coast. The Mediterranean Sea was the context and structure, enabler and constraint, for Vincent de Paul’s France, its geopolitical actions, its mercantile ambitions, and its relationship with North Africa.
The France of Vincent de Paul’s boyhood was embroiled in a struggle over religion and royal power. The French Wars of Religion, which pitted the Catholic League against Protestant forces, left much of France embroiled in civil war. It also invited substantial and sustained intervention from Catholic Spain and its allies until the Wars’ conclusion in 1598. French historian Fernand Braudel’s writes that “while France and Spain were fighting over townships, forts, and hillocks of ground, the Dutch and the English were conquering the world”.
Both of these nations were achieving such conquest on the strength of their naval fleets and their ability to use privateering (state-sponsored piracy) to their benefit. By 1600 the Ottomans were largely contained in the Eastern Mediterranean, while Spain and later France became the dominant state-based naval forces in the Western Mediterranean. The 1700s saw Britain replace Spain as France’s main “Great Power” adversary in that Sea, while the Ottomans’ sway began to rapidly erode.
While the Ottoman Empire extended through the Barbary states through this period, their influence over those states had substantially waned. These loosely-regulated regencies of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripolitana proved excellent bases for privateers, corsairs and pirates. While 13th and 14th century Ottoman privateering had met with amazing success, allowing the Ottoman Empire to expand its coastal holdings throughout the Mediterranean, by St. Vincent’s time piracy was in decline.
Still the threat of piracy cast a shadow over the entire Sea, and the new European interest in expansion meant that nations would have to meet this threat head-on. This was attempted through increased trade with the regencies, largely unsuccessful military campaigns against them, and a complex series of temporary and shifting treaties and alliances.
For the French, an increase in the royal galley fleet led to the expansion of the galley slave population. These slaves, often prisoners-of-war, were used to row many of the ships that traversed the Mediterranean. They were also a microcosm of France’s larger conflicts with the world: Protestants and Muslims made up a significant portion of the galley slave population, with the rest being condemned criminals. Vincent ministered to these men, advocated for their rights, and provided them aid and assistance.
This new European military muscle also translated into a cultural assertiveness, a sense of moral and civilizational superiority, and increasing contempt for the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdoms of the Barbary Coast. Prejudice and biases is evident in most of the materials in this exhibit, and are representative of what became effective tools of propaganda in driving a further wedge between Europe and the Islamic World. When we view this material with contemporary eyes, it appears ignorant at best, and offensive at worst; still, it is very important to understand them through the prism of the time in which they were created.
It is in this world of expanding European power in the Western Mediterranean Sea, and increasing tense interaction with the Barbary regencies, that Vincent de Paul developed his mission and his paradigm of charity and public assistance. The conflicts and cultural communication of this time and place helped shape both Vincent and his legacy, which in turn shaped the larger Christian and Mediterranean worlds. It is our hope that the exhibition reveals the richness of this time period, and of materials held within DePaul University’s Special Collections and Archives.