The Regency of Algiers was an early modern semi-independent Ottoman province and nominal vassal state on the Barbary Coast of North Africa from 1516 to 1830. Founded by the privateer brothers Aruj and Hayreddin Reis, the Regency succeeded the Kingdom of Tlemcen as an infamous and formidable base that waged maritime holy war on European Christian powers. Elected regents headed a stratocracy that haunted European imagination for three centuries but still gained recognition as a regional power.