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San José State University
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applet-magic.com Thayer Watkins Silicon Valley & Tornado Alley USA |
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Before the conquest by France in 1830 there did not exist a political entity corresponding to present day
Algeria. Thus Algeria per se was created by France. What existed before were tribal domains and larger
kingdoms.
The Climate and Population of the Region
at the Time of the Last Ice Age
The climate of the region bordering on the Mediterranean has always been conducive to human habitation and bones from the neolithic cultures have been found there.
At the time of the last ice age the climate of the Sahara was quite different from what is now. There are traces of rivers and lakes, but the most striking evidence of the wetter climate of the time is in the cave and rock art of sites in the middle of the Sahara. This art shows animals such as hippopotamuses as well as gazelles.
The humans depicted in this art are of the Negroid type that exists in sub-Saharan Africa.
With the waning of the ice age the climate of the region became progressively drier until it was a desert.
According to a theory associated with Colin Renfrew agriculture was developed around 8000 BCE in the Anatolia or its vicinity. The peoples who assimilated this technology migrated away. Those who migrate to the north became the ancestors of the Ind-Europeans, those who migrated east became the Dravidians and those who migrated west into North Africa became the Berbers. The language of the Berbers is related to some languages of the Middle East. The name Berber was given to the people by Arabs who thought the language sounded incomprehensible, like the speakers were saying ber... ber... ber. The Berbers' name for themselves was Amazigh, (the free people). Their language was Tamazight.
Incidentally the name for coastal North Africa, al Maghrib is Arabic for the island between the two seas, the sand sea of the Sahara and the Mediterranean. But that came much later.
The Greeks and later the Phoenicians established trading towns on the coast and controlled a bit of the hinterland surrounding the town. By the sixth century BCE some Greek authors made reference to the aborigine people of North Africa and their way of life. Later the Romans conquered the area. The Roman administrator and historian, Gaius Crispus Sallust, says of natives of North Africa.
North Africa was first occupied by Libyans and Getulians, who were a barbarous people, a heterogeneous mass, or agglomeration of people of different races, without any form of religion or government, nourishing themselves on herbs, or devouring the raw flesh of animals killed in the chase; for first amongst these were found Blacks, probably some from the interior of Africa, and belonging to the great negro family; then whites, issue of the Semitic stock, who apparently constituted, even at that early period, the dominant race or caste. Later, but at an epoch absolutely unknown, a new horde of Asiatics of Medes, Persians, and Armenians, invaded the countries of the Atlas, and, led on by Hercules, pushed their conquests as far as Spain.
The Greeks established trading stations in the Mediterranean but most of them were on the European side. Likewise the Phoenicians established trading stations. One of those trading stations, in what is now Tunisia, grew into a major power in its own right, Carthage.
The Carthagians built an empire that included the Iberian Peninsula as well as the western coast of North Africa. The Carthagenian Empire impinged upon the Roman Empire and Rome finally conquered and destroyed Carthage after several wars. The Romans built cities and facilities in North Africa but they and their European successors had almost no lasting impact on the culture of area. The influences of the Phoenicians, Carthagenians and Romans were limited to the cities. They made their peace with the Berber tribes near the trading stations, even hiring them as mercenaries.
Jugurtha was the illegitimate son of the king of Numidia (roughly what is now coastal Algeria). When the king died his brother became king. This king took Jugurtha, his nephew, under his protection and eventually formally adopted him. Jugurtha was brave and smart. He cooperated with the Romans and even fought as their ally as the commander of Numidian troops in Spain. He developed relationships with important Roman politicians.
When Jugurtha's uncle, the king of Numidia, died Jugurtha as his adopted son received a share of power. He proceded to try to eliminate his two cousins. One he had assassinated, the other he militarily challenged. Jugurtha's forces were victorious and the cousin king fled with some of his supporters to a fortress in what is now the city of Constantine. Jugurtha's forces soon captured the fortress and proceded to slay all of the occupants. This included some prominant Roman businessmen.
This provocation was too much to ignored and the Roman Senate declared war on Jugurtha. The Roman invasion force was not successful. Jugurtha found it very easy to wage a classic guerilla war against the Romans of the cities. Finally the Roman commander chose to negotiate a peace treaty with Jugurtha. The terms of the treaty were so unusally favorable to Jugurtha that the Roman demanded that the he come to Rome and explain how he got such favorable terms. Jugurtha was given safe conduct to Rome. He went there but official in charge of the Senate ordered him not to speak. This might sound like an enemy of Jugurtha was preventing him from giving his testimony, but it was actually a supporter of Jugurtha keeping him from being grilled by his enemies. Jugurtha had strong support in the Senate and he was allowed to return to Numidia. However in Rome at that time there was another claimant to the throne of Numidia. Jugurtha saw the opportunity to rid himself of a rival so he had that rival assassinated.
This action was too much for the Senate and they declared the treaty abrogated. Rome was again at war with Jugurtha.
Under a new command the Roman force were more successful. Jugurtha finally had to seek a haven in the neighbor kingdom of Mauretania (what is now northern Morocco and western Algeria). The king of Mauretania was Blocchus, a monarch who had previously tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a treaty with Rome. Earlier Blocchus had supported Jugurtha's rebellion against Roman domination but the Mauretanians were not very successful against the Roman military and Blocchus withdrew his support for Jugurtha. Blocchus was the father of one of the wives of Jugurtha so Jugurtha felt confident of Blocchus' loyalty to him.
Jugurtha however reasoned without knowing the resourcefulness of a man Rome had sent to aid the Roman forces in Numidia. This man's name was Sulla. He was reputed to have the courage of a lion and the cunning of a fox. Sulla fearlessly journeyed to Mauretania to deal with Blocchus. Blocchus could have turned Sulla over to Jugurtha, but he did not. Sulla was able to convince Blocchus that his self interest lay in an alliance with Rome. All Blocchus had to do was lure Jugurtha into an ambush. Jugurtha was captured and turned over to the Romans.
Sulla's commander sent Jugurtha to Rome were he was imprisoned. The commander however was jealous of Sulla's brilliant coup which ended the rebellion in Numidia. Jugurtha was kept alive long enough to be used in the victory celebration, called a triumph, that Sulla's commander presented in Rome. Later Jugurtha was executed in prison. Jugurtha represented Berber resistance to foreign domination.
It took only about fifty years after the death of Mohammad for Islam to reach al Maghrib in the form of raids into the coastal plains. By 710 massive conversions to Islam were being carried out.
There were two Bedouin tribes from the western side of the Arabian peninsula, the Bani Hilal and the Bani Salim, who migrated into Upper Egypt, the southern part. The text of Morocco: A Country Study refers to these Bedouin tribes as infesting Upper Egypt. They were marauders. When the Fatamids, a Shi'ite group, conquered Egypt and established a Caliphate in Cairo they decided to deal with the problem of the Bedouin tribes in Egypt by encouraging them to migrate westward to reassert Egyptian suzerainty over that region. The Bedouins, later known as Halilians, swept slowly across the Maghrib region of North Africa. They conquered and destroyed cities and they turned farm land into pastureland. The historian Ibn Khaldun described the advance of the Halilians across the Maghrib as being like a swarm of locusts. However the migration of the Hilalians had a significant demographic impact on the Maghrib. It brought a large number of Arabs into its population. Prior to that time the Arabs constituted a small elite among a predominantly Berber population.
There were two Bedouin tribes from the western side of the Arabian peninsula, the Bani Hilal and the Bani Salim, who migrated into Upper Egypt, the southern part. The text of Morocco: A Country Study refers to these Bedouin tribes as infesting Upper Egypt. They were marauders. When the Fatamids, a Shi'ite group, conquered Egypt and established a Caliphate in Cairo they decided to deal with the problem of the Bedouin tribes in Egypt by encouraging them to migrate westward to reassert Egyptian suzerainty over that region. The Bedouins, later known as Halilians, swept slowly across the Maghrib region of North Africa. They conquered and destroyed cities and they turned farm land into pastureland. The historian Ibn Khaldun described the advance of the Halilians across the Maghrib as being like a swarm of locusts. However, Morocco suffered less from the Hilalians than the territory of the Maghrib to the east of it. However the migration of the Hilalians had a significant demographic impact on Morocco. It brought a large number of Arabs into its population. Prior to that time the Arabs constituted a small elite among a predominantly Berber population.
(To be continued.)
After the surrender of the muslim authorities in Granada in 1492 the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, moved on to overseas expansion. The most important of these ventures, as it subsequently turned out, was the financing of the voyages of Columbus. But other ventures were pursued as well. Spain prohibited the North African ships from trading on the Mediterranean coast. This resulted in the development of organized piracy in the Maghrib. In part, the piracy was aided by the muslims who were driven out of Spain and Portugal who were familiar with the geography of the Iberian peninsula and its coastal waters. The city of Algiers became the headquarters of the organized piracy. The leaders of the pirates were two brothers, Aruj ad Din and Khair ad Din. Aruj was killed but Khair ad Din lived to become infamous among Europeans under the name Barbarossa (Red Beard).
Spain captured enclaves in the Maghrib and established fortifications, presidios to counter the piracy and extend Spanish control.
The Spanish intrusion prompted not only resistance in the Maghrib but efforts by the Ottoman empire to prevent Spanish invasion of the Ottoman sphere of influence. The Sultan of the Ottoman empire at the time, Süleyman the Magnificent, made Khair ad Din the governor of the Maghrib region and an admiral of the Ottoman navy. He also sent Khair ad Din two thousand Janissary soldiers to help in his battles. Khair ad Din and his descendants established control in the Maghrib and its coastal waters and was able to extract tribute from the European states for allowing their ships to traverse the the Mediterranean safely.
Brtitain paid tribute and this protected the ships of the British North American colonies until the American Revolution. When the pirate states of North Africa heard of the American Revolution they started capturing the ships of the United States. The cargoes were stolen and people captured were sold into slavery if no ransom were paid.
The fledgling United States wanted no war but something needed to done. In 1794 the U.S. Congress appropriated funds to build war ships. But before any martial action was taken the U.S. government agreed to a treaty with the ruler of Algiers in which the U.S. agreed to pay $10 million over a twelve year period in return for the pirates of Algiers not harming U.S. ships. This did not cover the pirates operating out of other ports of North Africa.
By 1800 the payment of tribute and the payment of ransoms was a major expense for the U.S. government. It constituted 20 percent of the Federal government expenditures.
When the Napoleonic wars were concluded in 1815 the European countries decided to end the piracy problem of North Africa. Individually they attacked the pirate states. In March of 1815 the U.S. decided to end the piracy and the tribute. Congress sent war ships under the command of Commodore Stephen Decatur to the Mediterranean. There he captured a few pirate ships and then sailed into the harbor of Algiers and threatened to bombard the city unless
The ruler of Algiers agreed to the American terms but as soon as Decatur's ships left Algiers the treaty was renounced. Decatur went on to attack Tripoly and surrounding territory in what is now Libya.
In 1816 a joint British and Dutch fleet sailed into the harbor of Algiers and bombarded the city for nine hours. After the ruler of Algiers again agreed to the same sort of terms Decatur had demanded.
France also engaged in attacks on the pirate enclaves of North Africa. In 1827 France imposed a blockade of Algiers. Even after three years this blockade did not bring capitulation of the rulers of Algiers. In 1830 France decided to invade, capture and occupy Algiers and the surrounding territory.
Writers decry the conquest of Algeria by France but it is difficult to see what alternative the European countries had once the local government sanctioned piracy. There just was no alternative. The innocent common people of the region suffered the consequences of the actions of the pirates, but they were not experiencing good government under the existing regimes. The area was officially part of the Ottoman Empire but the local authorities ruled with very little constraint being imposed by Istanbul. Nevertheless the invasion was ostensibly the wresting of control of the region from one imperial power by another.
France blockaded the port of Algiers for three years trying to get the Dey, the ruler, to end the piracy. After three years without success France, in 1830, staged the invasion. Thirty four thousand French soldiers were landed about 17 miles west of Algiers. The Dey called 43 thousand troops to Algiers to counter the invasion. The local troops were no match for the superior military technology and organization of The French. Algiers fell into French hands after a three-week campaign. The Dey fled into exile. The French, who were supposedly involved in a civilizing mission, treated Algiers and its population despicably. Mosques and cemeteries were desecrated and women raped. The government treasure of 50 miilion francs was confiscated.
Shortly after the conquest of Algiers there was a change of regime in Paris. The new constitution monarchy of Louis Philippe had not favored the invasion of Algiers but could not bring itself to relinquish the control that had already been established. The invasion proceded to capture the other cities, such as Oran (1832) and Constantine (1837), and the areas around them. All of this territory was united under the command of a governor-general, a military appointee with political responsibilities as military ones. In 1834 the French government annexed the conquered territory and declared it a colony.
The entrepreneurial population of France was not ambivalent about the acquisition of the territorities in North Africa. They poured into the conquered territorities in droves and began acquiring land.
Some were wealthy and acquired great estates. They were known as the grande colons. Most were from a peasant background and poor. They acquired small holdings and were known the petit blancs (little whites), more generally as the pieds noir, the black feet or black footed. Most opted for the security of a life in a city. By 1848 less than 14 percent chose to live in a rural area.
When it was clear that the Ottoman Empire was useless in resisting the French takeover, the local leaders purged their administrations of the Turkish officials. The leaders of the opposition to the French takeover where often those that had opposed the rule of the Ottomans and these usually were religious organizations.
The tribal elders chose an austere and devout young man (25) who was a gifted military commander and charismatic political leader. His name was Abd al Qadir; he could have been called al Mahdi, the divinely guided one.
No political entity corresponding to Algeria existed before the French invasion. The French created Algeria by putting the conquered territory under the control of one administator. They also created Algeria by uniting the disparate tribes into opposition to them. Abd al Qadir came from the Constantine region but soon his noble character gained the allegiance of tribal leaders in the rest of the territory that became Algeria.
Abd al Qadir set up a government in the territories not yet captured by the French. It was a well functioning government that not only provided military resistance to the French but maintained a bureaucracy, promoted education and collected taxes. His forces faught the French but their superior resources were too much for al Qadir's forces and 1836 al Qadir's forces suffered a major defeat. Despite the defeat Qadir enter into negotiations which gained acceptance by the French of Moslem state under the control of al Qadir. Some of the French in control of the army did not want such a state to exist. In 1839 they launched an attack on the city of Constantine which was supposed to remain in the Moslem state. Al Qadir then launched a counter-attack. So more tribal pledged their allegiance to al Qadir. By 1839 he controlled two thirds of what later became Algeria.
Al Qadir was fighting a guerilla war. The French reacted by calling more troops. By 1840 the French had 108,000 troops in Algeria, one third of the total French army. The also invoked the only effective strategy against such a guerilla war, genocide. The French army began destroying the food supply of the population. By 1843 the French had defeated Abd al Qadir's forces and al Qadir fled to Morocco. He tried continuing the war from Morocco but he failed and surrended to a French general in 1847. He was promised safe passage to Egypt if he would call upon his followers to end their war against the French. Al Qadir complied but a French general violated the agreement and sent al Qadir to a prison in France.
Al Qadir languished in prison for about four years. The king of France, Louis Napoleon freed al Qadir in 1852 and gave him a pension of 150,000 francs. Al Qadir settled in what is now Tunisia but in 1855 moved to Damascus, then part of the Ottoman Empire. In 1860 al Qadir persuaded local Ottoman official not to carry out their threat to massacre twelve thousand Christian hostages. In gratitude the French government awarded al Qadir the Grand Cordon of the Legion of Honor. Al Qadir remainded in Damascus until his death in 1883 at an age of about 76.
Al Qadir can be considered to be the founder of the modern state of Algeria.
Initially the conquered areas were under military administration, called r&eactute;gime du sabre (government of the sword). By 1845 some areas in the north had sufficient European population that they were allowed to elect mayors and councils of self-government. Other areas which were of predominantly indigineous population but militarily stable there was civilian rule by French government appointed administrators. In some cases tribal leaders were appointed as these administrators. In other cases the French government had a bureaux arabes made up of scholars educated in the lore of Arab culture to help administer and collect information. In areas not yet sufficiently subdued the miliary still controlled things.
In 1848 there was a political upheaval that resulted in the overthrow of the constitutional monarchy of Louis Philippe and the creation of the Second Republic. During the short period of the Second Republic the French government annexed the Algerian territory as a part of the French nation. French migration into Algeria was further encouraged. But in 1852 the Second Republic was replaced by the Second Empire. Louis Philippe was bac with his name changed to Napoleon III. Napoleon III tried to ameliorate the condition of the Moslem Algerians. In 1863 Napoleon III declared that the tribal lands would eventually be distributed as private property to the members of the tribes.
A serious, multiyear drought occurred in Algeria in 1866 and the following few years. The loss of the grain crop brough widespread starvation and epidemics. One fifth of the Moslem population of the city of Constantine was the estimated death toll from the consequences of the drought.
Napoleon III met his downfall in 1870 in the war between Prussia and France. His capture in the Battle of Sedan brought an end to the Second Empire. In Algiers the colons took control of the government of Algeria away from the military administrators. The loss of territory, Alsace and Lorraine, in the 1870 meant that there were thousands of French citizens from those territories who were seeking new homes. Algeria seemed to be the ideal place to settle them.
In 1871 a serious rebellion broke out among the Berbers of the Kabyle region. The French army put down the insurrection and there were moves to impose special laws applying only to the Moslems.
(To be continued.)
When World War II broke out in Europe the French army recruited Algerians. Some of the leaders of the Algerian Revolution, such as Ahmed Ben Bella, fought for the French and later for the Free French under General De Gaulle. The nationalist movement however started long before the World War II era.
Ahmed Messali Hadj rose to prominence as the secretary general of a political organization that was formed in Paris in 1926 to organize the Algerian workers in France. It was called The Star of North Africa. The French Communist Party was instrumental in its formation and and support, but the program of the Star of North Africa was primarily Algerian nationalism rather than economic ideology. That program consisted of
 Ahmed Messali Hadj |
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This program resulted in the French government banning the Star of North Africa in 1929. Under Messali Hadj's leadership it operated illegally and evolved into a more nationalistic organization. Its ties with the French Communist Party were severed and that party criticized its nationalism.
Messali Hadj returned to Algeria and founded the Parti du Peuple Algerién (PPA) in 1937 to organize the Algerian workers in the city and the Algerian farmers in the countryside. He was still a socialist but an Islamic socialist rather than a Marxist socialist supporting an international movement. As a result Messali Hadj and his organizations were left out of the conferences organized by the political left at that time.
Messali Hadj's PPA was successful enough to organize a significant political demonstration in Algiers in 1937. That demonstration prompted the French authorities to arrest and imprison Messali Hadj and the other leaders of the PPA. The French government then banned the PPA and the Star of North Africa as political organizations.
The PPA then organized secret cells throughout Algeria and paramilitary units in the Kabyle and Constantine regions. On May 1st, 1945 the PPA along with other nationalist organizations organized marches in 21 cities throughout Algeria.
In 1946 Messali Hadj was freed and returned to Algeria where he organized a new political party called the Mouvement pour le Triomphe des Libertés Démocratique (MTLD), the Movement for Democratic Liberties, a name that gave no hint of its Algerian nationalism. The PPA continued to operate illegally. When the political activities of the MTLD were suppressed by the authorities a splinter group within the MTLD was formed to carry out guerilla operations. This splinter group was called Organization Spéciale (OS). Later Ahmed Ben Bella became the commander of the OS.
Ahmed Ben Bella was born in a small town in western Algeria to a farm family. French was his mother tongue. Ben Bella says that the discrimination by the French colonialists against the Algerians like himself was not severe. He and other Algerians played in sports against the students from the French colonialist families.
Ben Bella was a conscientious student but his father pushed him to finish school earlier and he failed a major examination.
 Ahmed Ben Bella |
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Ben Bella joined the French Army. He was initially assigned to the Algerian branch. However after engaging in political aggitation the authorities transferred him to a unit of Moroccan soldiers. The Moroccans were much less politically conscious than the Algerian soldiers. Ben Bella served with distinction in Italy and was given awards for his valor.
At the end of the war the French authorities asked Ben Bella to continue his military service. He might have been inclined to do so but political events disuaded him. The Algerians were expecting political improvements and reductions of discriminations against Algerians. When these improvements were not forthcoming at the end of the war Algerians rebelled at various places. The French authorities put down these rebellions with great brutality. Ben Bella was appalled at the inhumanity of the French authorities and decided to end his association with them. He then joined Algerian political organizations which were working for improved status for Algerians through official channels.
After being disillusioned with the possibility of improving the Algerian political situation through legal means Ben Bella joined with some other leaders to work toward Algerian independence through armed insurrection. The first action was to rob a post office to raise funds to support the revolution. Ben Bella was involved in the planning but not the execution of the robbery. There was an attempt to make the robbery look like the work of a notorious bank robber of the time and the French authorities accepted it as such. It is only by accident that the authorities discovered that the robbery was an action of revolutionaries.
The car that was used in robbery was abandoned by the robbers. In a search of the car authorities found a piece of a metal bracket on the car floor. Later the police arrested some Algerian political dissidents on a different matter. These Algerians had with them an empty suitcase. A policeman noticed that there was a bracket broken off the suitcase and remembered the bracket found in the car used for the postoffice robbery. He checked and found that they matched. Soon the police arrested those involved in the post office robbery including Ben Bella.
Ben Bella did not deny his role in the robbery and, in fact, gloried in it and garnered as much publicity for the revolutionaires as he could. Ben Bella was convicted and sent to prison. A friend brought Ben Bella a metal saw in prison hidden in a loaf of bread. The authorities tested for countraband in bread by simply cutting the loaf in half. Ben Bella's friends simply position the saw so it would not show up this loaf cutting. The prisoners began a program of cutting the bars on a window. The noise of the sawing was disguised by the prisoners singing songs.
Only Ben Bella and another prisoner were to make their escape. The escape route involved leaping from one wall to another. Ben Bella was in good physical condition; he was something of an extraordinary athlete. The other prisoner was not and so only Ben Bella was able to escape. Friends were waiting for him in a car and he was escorted out of Algeria and sought refuse in Egypt. Nasser put Ben Bella under his protection. A major reason for Ben Bella rise to leadership was the support that Nasser gave to him in terms of supplies for his organizations.
Ben Bella worked as an Algerian revolutionary from Egypt. At one point Ben Bella journeyed to Morocco for a conference of revolutionaries. After the conference Ben Bella was scheduled to fly back to Egypt. The French Air Force interdicted Ben Bella's flight over international waters in the Mediterranean and forced the pilot to land where Ben Bella could be arrested. There was an international outcry for this action but Ben Bella was nevertheless sent to prison where he stayed for close to ten years. He used the time productively. For one thing he learned Arabic. He had been embarassed at times in his early career when he could not speak Arabic and had to communicate in the language of the occupiers of Algeria, French. In the scheme of things Ben Bella's revolutionist career probably benefited from his sojourn in prison. It kept him safe and above the disputes among the various revolutionary groups.
After Ben Bella's release by the French to act as a negotiator for the Algerians in the settlement of the war for independence he was the acknowledged favorite to be the chief of state for an independent Algeria.
In power Ben Bella opted for centralized state-control of the economy, which effectively meant Ben Bella control. Those enterprise which he did personally take control of, he encouraged their workers to take control and operate. The system of worker-controlled enterprises was called autogestation. As was predictable the autogestation enterprises were soon failing and and had to be subsidized by the state.
Ferhat Abbas represented those Algerians who desired a modification of the status of Algerians but was willing to accept political affiliation with France. In the early 1930's Abbas espoused a program of assimilation of the French-speaking Algerians and political union of Algeria with France. He noted in opposition to the Algerian nationalism that was emerging that historically no political entity corresponding to Algeria ever existed.
In 1936 when France had a leftist Popular Front government under the leadership of Leon Blum, a socialist, the leaders of a number of different Algerian political movement met in Algiers and drew up a list of demands. These demands included provision for Algerian Muslims of proper qualifications to become French citizens. These qualification involved being French-speaking, French educated and holding a position of authority in the army, government or in the professions. Leon Blum received a delegation of Algerians desiring reform of political conditions in Algeria and commissioned his minister of state, Maurice Viollette, to draw up a serious proposal for extending French citizenship to qualified Algerian muslims. Leftist groups supported Viollette's proposal as the more moderate Algerian reform groups, but the Algerian Europeans were adamantly against it for fear that they would be swamped by an Algerian muslim electorate. Under the plan only about twenty thousand Algerian muslims would be granted French citizenship. Nevertheless the Viollette plan was not accepted among the Algerian Europeans and therefore not accepted in Paris.
 Ferhat Abbas |
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Ferhat Abbas was disappointed in the failure of the plan. He subsequently took a harder line concerning political reform in Algeria.
When Allied troops defeated the Vichy forces in Algeria the authorities called for Algerian muslims to join the army for the invasion of Europe. Ferhat Abbas said Algerians would fight for the Allies but only if after the war political reforms would be carried out in Algeria. In 1943 Abbas put together a Manifesto of the Algerian People which 56 leaders of Algerian political organizations signed. This manifesto called for legal and political equality of Algerian muslims with the Algerian Europeans. The French authorities in Algeria had an appointed commission look into the manifesto. The outgrowth of the examination of the manifesto was an attempt to reintroduce the Viollette Plan. By this time the Viollette Plan was too little.
Algerian political activists planned demonstrations for the day that military victory would be achieved in Europe, VE-day. That victory came on May 8th, 1945. Marchers in the city of Sétif were told they could march only if there were no nationalist flags or placards displayed. The marchers defied this order. Shootings occurred and a number of police and marchers were killed. The marchers then rioted and killed 103 Europeans. The police and army responded by attacks on areas of political activism. The French authorities acknowledged that 1500 muslims were killed; Algerians estimate that the death toll was several times this figure.
Over five thousand Algerians were arrested by the authorities, including Ferhat Abbas. About a year later Abbas was free and formed a political organization called the Democratic Union for the Algerian Manifesto (UDMA). Abbas still wanted some sort of loose federation of Algeria with France. Other leaders were calling for full independence.
The French government in Paris was now ready to make some concessions to Algerian reform. It passed legislation in 1947 which created a two-house Algerian Assembly. The upper house was Europeans and meritorious muslims. The lower house was for the rest of the muslims.
The Algerian Europeans were fearful of a militant, nationalist lower house of the Assembly and outrageously rigged the election in 1948. Ferhat Abbas' political organization UDMA was allowed only eight seats out of a total of 72. A more militant political organization MTLD received 9 seats; the rest went to independents. However when the MTLD came to take their seats in the Assembly they were arrested. Other muslim delegates then walked out in protest.
The elections in 1952 were likewise rigged. Most political activists gave up on achieving reforms through electoral politics. In Cairo Ahmed Ben Bella formed a Revolutionary Committee for Unity and Action in about 1953. In 1954 this organization was renamed the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN), the National Liberation Front. In 1956 Fehat Abbas flew to Cairo and formally joined the FLN, which gave it a degree of respectability among the more moderate Algerian muslims.
Up to 1955 the FLN attacked only the military and government installations. In August of 1955 the commander of the FLN forces in the Constantine region decided on his own to massacre civilians for the intended purpose of prompting the French military and the European Algerians to respond in kind against the Algerian muslims. Near the port of Philippeville (now Skikda) the FLN killed 123 people including old women and babies. About 60 percent of the victims were French; the rest were Algerian muslims who were consider collaborators.
The government unleashed retaliation against any suspected guerillas and their supporters. It announced that 1,273 FLN guerillas were killed, but this did not include the victims of gangs of European Algerians. It was all-out war. The FLN announced that twelve thousand muslims had been killed, but this is an unlikely figure released only for propaganda purposes.
(To be continued.)
At independence the Algerian population had some very serious health problems. Tuberculosis was the most serious danger. Malaria too was a serious threat in the spring and autumn when standing water was available for misquitoes to propagate in. Flies spread the eye infection trichoma which could lead to blindness. In addition pneumonia was always an ever present risk. Likewise the infectuous diseases scarlet fever, diphtheria and venereal diseases were a danger.
Miriam R. Lowi, in an article in Rebuiding Devastated Economies in the Middle East sums up the nature of Algeria's economic problems as follows:
The endemic economic problems of Algeria are not derivative primarily of misguided economic policies, or inadequate technical capacities, or even resource deficiencies-- although the domestic political economy has by no means escaped such afflictions. Nor are they the result of 10 years of civil war, even though the violence provided a cover for the perpetuation and exacerbation of unhealthy political and economic arrangements. Rather they are institutional: they are derivative of a patrimonial system of clan politics elaborated by a military-bureaucratic oligarchy, which, along with its clients, are the principal beneficiaries. It is a vertically fashioned system, composed of intricate and overlapping networks of interests, in which some of the most lucrative economic transactions take place in the shadows, and where the principal objectives of all players is to increase their access to the rent and to power. This is the system that resists reform.
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