Robert Davis's Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters (2003) reveals that 1 million to 1.25 million European Christians were enslaved by North African Barbary corsairs between 1500 and 1800. Often raiding coastal Italy, Spain, and beyond, corsairs sold captives into harsh servitude as rowers, laborers, or concubines, profoundly impacting Mediterranean life. The trade flourished until the 19th-century Barbary Wars and French colonization of the region put an end to the piracy.