French Algeria

Algeria, 1832–1962. Draft, not yet reviewed

French rule lasted from the beginning of the French conquest in 1830 until the end of the Algerian War, which resulted in Algeria gaining independence on 5 July 1962. Algeria was ruled as a colony from 1830 to 1848, and then as multiple departments of France after the implementation of the 1848 French Constitution. Algeria became a destination for hundreds of thousands of European settlers, who were first known as colons and later as pieds-noirs.

Seat of power: Algiers

Rulers

Culture

• It is estimated that by 1875, between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Algerians had been killed from disease, starvation and violence. Various scholars describe the French conquest as genocide.
• During colonial rule, the French language was imposed as the official language and the language of instruction in schools, while Arabic was reduced to foreign status.
• From 8 May to 26 June 1945, the French carried out the Sétif and Guelma massacre, in which between 6,000 and 80,000 Algerian Muslims were killed. The Sétif and Guelma massacre in 1945 marked a point of no return in Franco-Algerian relations and led to the outbreak of the Algerian War.
• The war was characterised by guerrilla warfare by the National Liberation Front, and crimes against humanity by the French, including torture, rape and regroupment camps.

Picture

Notre Dame d'Afrique is a Catholic basilica in Algiers that was inaugurated in 1872 after fourteen years of construction.

Image: Chettouh Nabil, CC BY-SA 4.0, file

Sources

• French Algeria (Wikipedia)
• French Algeria (Wikidata)
• About the picture (Wikipedia)

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.