Initially defeating the forces of Mostéfa Boumezrag at Médea, they were soon halted at the First Battle of Blida by Mohamed ben Zamoum.

After Colonel Maximilien Joseph Schauenburg (1784-1838) perpetrated the Massacre of El Ouffia in 1832, the pace of spoliation and sequestration of Algerian lands and properties increased in order to settle more French farmers in Mitidja from the year 1836.

[4] The entrepreneur Mercier who had just arrived from the United States of America in 1836 was already experienced in the handling of businesses and operations of this kind.

The Zwawa confederacy, more specifically the Beni Aïcha, the Issers and the Amraoua tribes looted Reghaïa.

[6] Two French colonists were killed by the Zwawa in the agricultural fields, and a considerable amount of cattle was taken from the enclosures and transported to the region of Oued Isser.