did the french have a settlement colony in alegeria

France sent small numbers of settlers to its empire, with the notable exception of Algeria, where the French settlers took power while being a minority. In World War II, Charles de Gaulle and the Free French took control of the overseas colonies one-by-one and used them as bases from which they prepared to liberate France.

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Why did the French colonize Algeria?

The French first colonized Algeria in 1830, and remained within Algeria until 1962. The colonization was supposedly initiated by an Ottoman ruler slapping a French diplomat, but was more importantly a result of the failure of the French to pay their debts to Ottoman Algeria. ii What did the French really do in Algeria?

What is the history of settlement in Algeria?

settlement in Algeria began with the hopes of convincing hundreds of thousands of citizens to emigrate. Les Colons: Building the Pied-NoirIdentity Algeria quickly became the Wild West of French culture following the initial invasion of Algiers. Many of the French citizens who emigrated there between the 1840s and 1880s

When did Algeria become part of France?

Following its conquest of Ottoman-controlled Algeria in 1830, for well over a century, France maintained what was effectively colonial rule in the territory, though the French Constitution of 1848 made Algeria part of France, and Algeria was usually understood as such by French people, even on the Left.

What does French in Algeria stand for?

"French in Algeria" redirects here. For usage of the French language, see French language in Algeria. French Algeria ( French: Alger to 1839, then Algérie afterwards; unofficially Algérie française, Arabic: الجزائر المستعمرة ), also known as Colonial Algeria, was the period of French colonisation of Algeria.

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Was French Algeria a settler colony?

Between 1830 and 1962, Algeria came under French colonial rule. Unlike other French colonies, Algeria was annexed and made officially a part of France in 1848. It became a settler colony almost immediately after the wars of conquest, which largely ended in 1847.

When did the French settle in Algeria?

1830The French invaded Algeria in 1830. This was the first colonisation of an Arab country since the days of the Crusades and it came as a great shock to the Arab nation.

Why did the French settle in Algeria?

The conquest of Algeria began in the last days of the Bourbon Restoration by Charles X of France. It aimed to put a definite end to Barbary privateering and increase the king's popularity among the French people, particularly in Paris, where many veterans of the Napoleonic Wars lived.

What happened to the French settlers in Algeria?

After Algeria became independent in 1962, about 800,000 Pieds-Noirs of French nationality were evacuated to mainland France, while about 200,000 remained in Algeria. Of the latter, there were still about 100,000 in 1965 and about 50,000 by the end of the 1960s.

Why was Algeria a part of France and not a colony?

2:104:01Why was Algeria a part of France and not a colony? (Short Animated ...YouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipThe french government gave citizenship. And thus voting rights to muslims in algeria too late forMoreThe french government gave citizenship. And thus voting rights to muslims in algeria too late for any of that though since many of those living there wanted the french gone.

How long did France rule Algeria?

The manner in which French rule was established in Algeria during the years 1830–47 laid the groundwork for a pattern of rule that French Algeria would maintain until independence.

How did French treat Algeria?

The colonialist French authorities have committed abuses and torture against Algerian civilians, according to Algerian historians and victims. Electric shocks and the use of water wells as prisons were among the methods used by the colonialist authorities against prisoners in Algeria.

When did the French colonize Algeria?

The French first colonized Algeria in 1830, and remained within Algeria until 1962. The colonization was supposedly initiated by an Ottoman ruler slapping a French diplomat, but was more importantly a result of the failure of the French to pay their debts to Ottoman Algeria.ii

Why did Algerians fear the French law on colonialism would hinder the task of the French in confronting the?

Algerians feared that the French law on colonialism would hinder the task of the French in confronting the dark side of their colonial rule in Algeria because article four of the law decreed among other things that “School programmes are to recognise in particular the positive role of the French presence overseas, especially in North Africa.” Benjamin Stora, a leading specialist on French Algerian history of colonialism and a pied-noir himself, said “France has never taken on its colonial history. It is a big difference with the Anglo-Saxon countries, where postcolonial studies are now in all the universities. We are phenomenally behind the times.” In his opinion, although the historical facts were known to academics, they were not well known by the French public, and this led to a lack of honesty in France over French colonial treatment of the Algerian people.xxxv

What was Emir Abd al Qadir's plan?

However, Emir Abd al Qadir always operated his plans between Damascus, Istanbul, and Algeria against French occupation in his motherland. A devout and austere marabout, he was also a cunning political leader and a resourceful warrior. From his capital in Tlemcenxxiv, Abd al Qadir set about building a territorial Muslim state based on the communities of the interior but drawing its strength from the tribes and religious brotherhoods. By 1839, he controlled more than two-thirds of Algeria. His government maintained an army and a bureaucracy, collected taxes, supported education, undertook public works, and established agricultural and manufacturing cooperatives to stimulate economic activity.

What were the relations between Algeria and France?

Relations between post-colonial Algeria and France have remained close throughout the years, although sometimes difficult. In 1962, the Evian Accords peace treaty provided land in the Sahara for the French Army, which it had used under de Gaulle to carry out its first nuclear tests (Gerboise bleue). Many European settlers (pieds-noirs) living in Algeria and Algerian Jews, who contrary to Algerian Muslims had been granted French citizenship by the Crémieux decrees at the end of the 19th century, were expelled to France where they formed a new community. On the other hand, the issue of the harkis,xxxiithe Muslims who had fought on the French side during the war, still remained unresolved. Large numbers of harkis were killed in 1962 during the immediate aftermath of the Algerian War, while those who escaped with their families to France have tended to remain an unassimilated refugee community. The present Algerian government continues to refuse to allow harkis and their descendants to return to Algeria.xxxiiiOn February 23, 2005, the French law on colonialism was an act passed by the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) conservative majority, which imposed on high-school (lycée) teachers to teach the “positive values” of colonialism to their students in North Africa. The law created a public uproar and opposition from the whole of the left-wing and was finally repealed by President Jacques Chirac (UMP) at the beginning of 2006, after accusations of historical revisionism from various teachers and historians.xxxiv

How many Algerians died in the French occupation?

By 1875, the French occupation was completed throughout the country. The war had killed approximately 825,000 indigenous Algerians since 1830. A long shadow of genocidal hatred persisted, provoking a French author to protest in 1882 that in Algeria, “we hear it repeated every day that we must expel the native and, if necessary, destroy him” As a French statistical journal urged five years late, “the system of extermination must give way to a policy of penetration.”

What did Napoleon III do to Algeria?

He decided to halt the expansion of European settlement beyond the coastal zone and to restrict contact between Muslims and the colons, 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 an Arab kingdom with himself as the king of the Arabs. He instituted the so-called politics of the grand chefs to deal with the Muslims directly through their traditional leaders. To further his plans for the Arab Kingdom,viiiNapoleon III issued two decrees affecting tribal structure, land tenure, and the legal status of Muslims in French Algeria. The first, promulgated in 1863, was intended to renounce the state’s claims to tribal lands and eventually provide private plots to individuals in the tribes, thus dismantling “feudal” structures and protecting the lands from the colons. Tribal areas were to be identified, delimited into douars administrative units and given over to councils. Arable land was to be divided among members of the douar over a period of one to three generations, after which it could be bought and sold by the individual owners. Unfortunately for the tribes, however, the plans of Napoleon III quickly unravelled. French officials sympathetic to the colons took much of the tribal land they surveyed into the public domain. In addition, some tribal leaders immediately sold communal lands for quick gains. The process of converting arable land to individual ownership was accelerated to only a few years when laws were enacted in the 1870s stipulating that no sale of land by an individual Muslim could be invalidated by the claim that it was collectively owned. The cudah and other tribal officials, appointed by the French on the basis of their loyalty to France rather than the allegiance owed them by the tribe, lost their credibility as they were drawn into the European orbit, becoming known derisively as béni-oui-oui.ixThe second decree, issued in 1865, was designed to recognize the differences in cultural background of the French and the Muslims. As French nationals, Muslims could serve on equal terms in the French armed forces and civil service and could migrate to France proper. They were also granted the protection of French law while retaining the right to adhere to Islamic law in litigation concerning their personal status. But if Muslims wished to become full citizens, they had to accept the full jurisdiction of the French legal code, including laws affecting marriage and inheritance, and reject the authority of the religious courts.xIn effect, this meant that a Muslim had to renounce some of the mores of his religion in order to become a French citizen. This condition was bitterly resented by Muslims, for whom the only road to political equality was perceived to be apostasy. Over the next century, fewer than 3,000 Muslims chose to cross the barrier and become French citizens. Thus, assimilation policy in Algeria partially worked after 300 hundred years Ottoman Rule.xi

What was the name of the Ottoman territory in Algeria?

Algeria was an Ottoman territory centred on Algiers, in modern Algeria from the early sixteen century to nineteenth century. In 1516, the Spaniards later led numerous unsuccessful expeditions to take Algiers in the Algiers expedition and another failed expedition in 1541. Around the same time, the Ottoman privateer brothers Oruç Reis and Hayreddin were operating successfully off Tunisia under the Hafsids.xiiIn 1516, Oruç moved his base of operations to Algiers and asked for the protection of the Ottoman Empire in 1517 but was killed in 1518 during his invasion of the Kingdom of Tlemcen. Hayreddin succeeded him as military commander of Algiers. The country was initially governed by governors appointed by the Ottoman Sultan rulers appointed by the Odjak of Algiers and then Deys elected by the Divan of Algiers.xiii

What was the paradox of French Algeria?

The paradox of French Algeria was that despotic and military rule offered the native Algerians a better situation than did civilian and democratic government. A large-scale program of confiscating cultivable land, after resistance had been crushed, made colonization possible.

What was the rule of Algeria in 1830?

The manner in which French rule was established in Algeria during the years 1830–47 laid the groundwork for a pattern of rule that French Algeria would maintain until independence. It was characterized by a tradition of violence and mutual incomprehension between the rulers and the ruled; the French politician and historian Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that colonization had made Muslim society more barbaric than it was before the French arrived. There was a relative absence of well-established native mediators between the French rulers and the mass population, and an ever-growing French settler population (the colons, also known as pieds noirs) demanded the privileges of a ruling minority in the name of French democracy. When Algeria eventually became a part of France juridically, that only added to the power of the colons, who sent delegates to the French parliament. They accounted for roughly one-tenth of the total population from the late 19th century until the end of French rule.

Was Algeria a French country?

He declared, with considerable accuracy, that Algeria was “not a French province but an Arab country, a European colony, and a French camp.”. This attitude aroused certain hopes among Algerians, but they were destroyed by the emperor’s downfall in 1870.

When did France annexe Algeria?

On 22 June 1834, France formally annexed the occupied areas of Algeria, which had an estimated Muslim population of about two million, as a military colony. The colony was run by a military governor who had both civilian and military authority, including the power of executive decree. His authority was nominally over an area of "limited occupation" near the coast, but the realities of French colonial expansion beyond those areas ensured continued resistance from the local population. The policy of limited occupation was formally abandoned in 1840 for one of complete control.

Who controlled the coastal areas of Algeria?

The coastal and mountainous parts of Algeria were controlled by the Deylik of Algiers. The Deylik, while nominally part of the Ottoman Empire, acted independently from the Ottoman Sultan. The dey ruled the entire Deylik of Algiers, but only exercised direct control in and around Algiers, with Beyliks ( Governorates) established in the Western, Central, and Eastern parts of the country. The remainder of the territory (including much of the interior), while nominally controlled by Algiers, was effectively under the control of local Berber and Arab leaders, who usually acted as vassals to Dey, albeit not always. In the Northern Saharan parts some oasis kingdoms such as the Sultanate of Tuggurt were controlled by the Deylik. The inner Saharan parts were only claimed by the Dey, while in reality they were completely controlled by tribal confederacies, and smaller kingdoms such as that of Kel Ahaggar. The Dey was supported, or in some cases controlled by the Janissaries of the Odjak of Algiers, although their power was heavily limited after 1817. The territory was bordered to the west by the Sultanate of Morocco and to the east by the Beylik of Tunis. The western border, the Tafna [ fr] River, was particularly porous since there were shared tribal connections that crossed it.

How did Clauzel extend French influence into Oran and Constantine?

Clauzel also attempted to extend French influence into Oran and Constantine by negotiating with the bey of Tunis to supply "local" rulers that would operate under French administration. The bey refused, seeing the obvious conflicts inherent in the idea. The French foreign ministry objected to negotiations Clauzel conducted with Morocco over the establishment of a Moroccan bey in Oran, and in early 1831 replaced him with Baron Berthezène .

What did Clauzel do to help the French?

Clauzel introduced a formal civil administration in Algiers, and began recruiting zouaves, or native auxiliaries to the French forces, with the goal of establishing a proper colonial presence . He and others formed a company to acquire agricultural land and to subsidize its settlement by European farmers, triggering a land rush. Clauzel recognized the farming potential of the Mitidja Plain and envisioned the production there of cotton on a large scale. During his second term as governor general (1835–36), he used his office to make private investments in land and encouraged army officers and bureaucrats in his administration to do the same. This development created a vested interest among government officials in greater French involvement in Algeria. Commercial interests with influence in the government also began to recognize the prospects for profitable land speculation in expanding the French zone of occupation. Over a ten-year period they created large agricultural tracts, built factories and businesses, and bought cheap local labor.

Why did Ahmed Bey continue to play a role in resistance against French rule?

Ahmed Bey had continuously resisted any attempts by the French or others to subjugate Constantine, and continued to play a role in resistance against French rule, in part because he hoped to eventually become the next dey. Clausel and Ahmed had tangled diplomatically over Ahmed's refusal to recognize French authority over Bône, which he considered to still be Algerian territory, and Clausel decided to move against him. In November 1836 Clausel led 8,700 men into the Constantine beylik, but was repulsed in the Battle of Constantine; the failure led to Clausel's recall. He was replaced by the Comte de Damrémont, who led an expedition which captured Constantine the following year, although he was killed during the siege and replaced by Sylvain Charles, comte Valée .

What did the French buy for the army?

In 1795–96, the French Republic contracted to purchase wheat for the French army from two Jewish merchants in Algiers. The merchants, who had debts to Hussein Dey, the Dey of Algiers, claimed inability to pay those debts until France paid its debts to them. The dey unsuccessfully negotiated with Pierre Deval, the French consul, to rectify this situation, and suspected Deval of collaborating with the merchants against him, especially since the French government made no provision to pay the merchants in 1820. Deval's nephew Alexandre, the consul in Bône, further angered the dey by fortifying French storehouses in Bône and La Calle despite prior agreements.

What were the Algerian resistance forces?

Algerian resistance forces were divided between forces under Ahmed Bey ben Mohamed Chérif at Constantine, primarily in the east, and nationalist forces in the Kabylia and the west. Treaties with the nationalists under Emir Abdelkader enabled the French to first focus on the elimination of the remnants of the Deylik, achieved with the 1837 Siege of Constantine. Abd Al-Qādir continued to give stiff resistance in the west. Finally driven into Morocco in 1842, by large-scale and heavy-handed French military action, he continued to wage a guerrilla war until the Moroccan government, under French diplomatic pressure following its defeat in the Franco-Moroccan War, drove him out of Morocco. He surrendered to French forces in 1847.

What was the relationship between Algeria and France?

As in many colonies, the settlers of Algeria had an ambivalent relationship with France. Admiration, resentment and detachment combined with a deep-seated anxiety borne of the colony’s demographic imbalance, thanks to the large Muslim majority.

When did Algeria become independent?

For over a century, the French settlers of Algeria were regarded as benefiting from France’s colonising presence. But when Algeria achieved independence in 1962, almost a million dispossessed people were forced across the Mediterranean in just a few months. The ceasefire of 19 March 1962 marked the official end ...

How many Europeans left Algeria in the summer?

The numbers increased from March onwards, peaking in June with around 350,000 passages. By the end of the summer, only around 150,000 Europeans remained in independent ...

How did the World Wars affect the settlers?

The World Wars, in which large numbers of settlers fought and died for France, eased the settlers’ sense of inferiority and bolstered the belief that France stretched ‘from Dunkirk to Tamanrasset’.

What were the pieds-noirs regarded as?

As colonial settlers, the pieds-noirs were widely regarded as having benefited from the colonial system. The abrupt manner of their departure from Algeria enabled them to challenge the view that they were the perpetrators of colonisation, replacing it with a narrative which positioned them as the victims of history.

What was the significance of the exodus of the French?

As Claire Eldridge and Jean-Jacques Jordi have argued, the exodus has served as the founding myth of the repatriate community. It compounded the pieds-noirs’ feeling of betrayal at the outcome of the war, and their sense that they were not fully accepted by their French compatriots. It laid the foundations for a narrative of victimhood which portrayed them as the victims of decolonisation, and colonial Algeria as a lost paradise. Following the exodus of 1962, the pieds-noirs have become associated with a colonialist nostalgia (‘nostalgérie’) allied to demands for a rethinking of their presence in colonial Algeria. Pied-noir activist groups have been an important influence on the French political landscape, campaigning firstly for indemnification legislation, and then for a public acceptance of the benefits of colonisation. In the process they have succeeded in being treated as a ‘community’ by a republican political system which has traditionally been fiercely resistant to the notion of collective identity politics. Over fifty years after independence, their activism continues to shape France’s attitude towards its colonial past.

What was the impact of the mass displacement of Europeans in France?

The mass displacement of Europeans caused consternation in France, where the huge numbers of arrivals took the authorities by surprise. Yet if the settlers were traumatised and largely dispossessed, they were nonetheless in possession of rights which differentiated their experience from that of stateless refugees. Whereas contemporary migration across the Mediterranean has been strongly rebuffed by certain European governments, there was no question about the right of the Europeans to enter France. As settlers in French Algeria, they held full French citizenship, and many who worked for French state services were able to seek redeployment on the mainland. The French government hastily passed legislation making available limited benefits to the repatriates, and allocating housing in the blocks of flats newly erected as part of France’s post-war modernisation programme.

What Did The French Really Do in Algeria?

• With the decay of the Ottoman Empire, the French invaded and seized Algiers in 1830. This began the colonization of French North Africa, which expanded to include Tunisia in 1881 and Morocco in 1912. The occupation of Algeria was initiated in the last days of the Bourbon Restoration by Charles X, as an attempt to increase his popularity amongst the...

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Ottoman Rule in Algeria

Beginning of The French Occupation

The Capture of Constantine by French Troops

Emir Abd Al Qadir

French Colonial Policy in Algeria

Towards Independence

Post-Colonial Relations

Current Political Problems Between Algeria and France

Notes