[9] However, following this period of calm, the Algerian corsair activities intensified and caused distress on the southern shores of Spain and partially disrupted its maritime traffic.

The Spanish were therefore trying the Limpieza del Mar operation to try to end this corsair presence in the Western Mediterranean, without success.

In 1776, he appointed as Wakil al Kharadj (Minister for Foreign Affairs), Sidi Hassan who with his counterpart Floridablanca opened a period of rapprochement between the governments of Algiers and Madrid.

[7] However peace with Spain was not to the advantage of the dey; piracy earned it a lot of income and asking for the release of a captive might even be perceived in Algiers as a humiliation.

In fact, the Ottoman Sultan categorically refused to interfere in the affairs of the regencies, which he "considered as independent states".

[7] The Spaniards finally got a firman (a recommendation) to the Regencies of North Africa, that the dey Mohamed Ben Othmane had already planned to reject.

Indeed, apart from the spiritual connection (the Ottoman sultan was considered caliph and possessor of the holy places of Islam), at the time of Mohamed Ben Othmane, the Regency managed its internal and external affairs independently.