- Since the 16 th century, Algeria was under the Ottoman regency.
- In 1798, France bought wheat from Jews in Algiers for the Napoleonic expeditions. In 1827, Dey Hussein demanded payment for this wheat from the French consul. Feeling insulted by the consul's answer, the dey then gives him a few blows of fly swatter. This case serves as a pretext for Charles X to invade Algeria.
1830 - 1954
Characters
Feraht Abbas
Henry of Orleans
Louis de Bourmont
Louis Alexis Desmichels
Thomas Robert Bugeaud
Charles X
Georges Clemenceau
Adolphe Crémieux
Charles de Gaulle
Abd al-Kader
Messali Hadj
Dey Hussein
Napoleon III
Procedure
Louis de Bourmont and his troops landed at Sidi Ferruch, not far from Algiers, on June 14, 1830. On July 5, Dey Hussein surrendered. In 1834, General Desmichel signed a treaty with the Emir Abd el-Kader which recognized the sovereignty of France while he became Commander of the Faithful.
But the peace does not last. French officers followed one another (Desmichel, Trézel, Clausel, Bugeaud) and other treaties were signed (Tafna 1837) until the decisive capture of the Smala d'Abd el-Kader by the Duke of Aumale in 1843. The emir surrendered in 1847 and, under the II th Republic, Algeria becomes French.
However, resistance remained numerous (uprising in Ouled Sidi-Chechk in 1864); and if Napoleon III proposes naturalization in his policy of the "Arab Kingdom", the colonial resistance will abort the project.
In 1870, under the III th Republic, Algeria is divided into three French departments and the Crémieux decrees offer citizenship to the Jews of Algeria. A rebellion agitated Kabylie (El Mokhrani, 1871) which engendered the native regime (1881) to repress only the "natives". They do not have French citizenship, unlike the Europeans living there (June 26, 1889).
Following the enlistment of Algerians during the 1914-1918 war, Clemenceau initiated reforms in 1919 for greater elected Muslim representation. In addition, the Popular Front (Blum-Viollette) wanted to grant citizenship to the Algerian elite (1936). But again, the settlers oppose it.
On the independence side, the association of the North African Star, founded in 1926 by Messali Hadj, was banned in 1929. In 1937, he created the Algerian People's Party while Ferhat Abbas formed the Algerian People's Union (1938).
In 1944, an ordinance gave full French citizenship to Muslim graduates and criminally abolished the native status system (March 7). In addition, the French National Liberation Committee, led by de Gaulle, established a series of reforms to give the natives the same rights.
Consequences
- Between 1830 and 1954, France experienced major political instability that was felt in the colonies. While it has modernized the country (hospitals, schools and other infrastructure), many measures, such as the indigénat regime, maintain a policy of domination that has never allowed assimilation.
- In 1945, Germany was dying and Algeria hoped to obtain the right to self-determination, but Messali Hadj was imprisoned. Violent riots broke out on May 8, 1945 in Sétif. The break between natives and settlers is consummated and independence inevitable. The war in Algeria will cause hundreds of thousands of deaths, some of them by torture. Even today, the two countries remain prisoners of their memory.