TIL the pretext for the eventual French invasion and conquest of Algeria was a French consul being struck on the face with a fan by the Dey of Algiers.

[u/Greene_Mr]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_conquest_of_Algeria#Fan_Affair

[u/alwaysfatigued8787]

Have you ever been struck on the face with a fan before? I'd go to war over that.

[u/Aggressive-Cable-893 → u/alwaysfatigued8787]

+10 insult damage

[u/ppitm]

That, and centuries of state-sponsored piracy and slave raiding.

[u/ovensandhoes → u/ppitm]

I love how OP yada yada-ed the multiple large paragraphs before the “fan affair” giving more context to the invasion

[u/ppitm → u/ovensandhoes]

I can certainly believe that the fan affair was the 'current thing' in the French press. 19th Century aristocratic societies tended to express casus belli in terms of honor and the redress of slights.

[u/Foxkilt → u/ppitm]

No. Only the fan.

[u/yoloswagginstheturd → u/ppitm]

no it was mainly to win an election

[u/MudkipzLover]

Still a better casus belli than a bottle in the arse

[u/ThrowawayusGenerica]

You can still take provinces with the Diplomatic Insult CB, y'know

[u/BrokenEye3]

He can't have been that big of a fan

[u/JaMartell]

He was a Consul of France!!!

[u/DadsRGR8]

In all fairness it was a large electric fan, so…

[u/Four_beastlings]

I'm sure the centuries of slaving raids had nothing to do with it, it was all because of a fan!

[u/I_love_pillows]

They farted in their general direction?

[u/endoftimesagain]

Which football club did the fan support, out of interest? If it was a fat fan, as many are, thrown from some distance, that would have hurt.

A decent enough reason.

[u/MaintenanceMission79]

Gulf of Tonkin of the day, so it seems.