Napoleon III visited Algeria twice in the early 1860s. He was profoundly impressed with the nobility and virtue of the tribal chieftains, who appealed to the emperor's romantic nature, and was shocked by the self-serving attitude of the leaders. He decided to halt the expansion of European settlement beyond the coastal zone and to restrict contact between Muslims and the , whom he considered to have a corrupting influence on the indigenous population. He envisioned a grand design for preserving most of Algeria for the Muslims by founding a (Arab kingdom) with himself as the (king of the Arabs). He instituted the so-called politics of the to deal with the Muslims directly through their traditional leaders.