History of Algeria: Encyclopedia II - History of Algeria - Historical setting

History of Algeria - Historical setting

History of Algeria - Geography

In geography, the fertile coastal plain of North Africa, especially west of Tunisia, is often termed the Maghreb.

History of Algeria - Language and culture

Modern Algeria is mainly Arabic-speaking, but a large minority still speak the indigenous Berber language, surviving from Neolithic times. The most significant forces in the country's history have been the spread of Islam, Arabization, Ottoman and French colonization, and the struggle for independence.

History of Algeria - Origins and influences

North Africa served as a transit region for peoples moving toward Europe or the Middle East. Thus, the region's inhabitants have been influenced by populations from other areas. Out of this mix developed the Berber people, whose language and culture, although pushed from coastal areas by conquering and colonizing Carthaginians, Romans, and Byzantines, dominated most of the land until the spread of Islam and the coming of the Arabs.

History of Algeria - Islamisation

The introduction of Islam and Arabic had a profound impact on North Africa (or the Maghreb) beginning in the seventh century. The new religion and language introduced changes in social and economic relations, established links with a rich culture, and provided a powerful idiom of political discourse and organization. From the great Berber dynasties of the Almoravids and Almohads to the militants seeking an Islamic state in the 1990s, the call to return to true Islamic values and practices has had social resonance and political power. For 300 years, beginning in the early sixteenth century, Algeria was a province of the Ottoman Empire under a regency that had Algiers as its capital (see Dey). During this period, the modern Algerian state began to emerge as a distinct territory between Tunisia and Morocco. Algeria and surrounding areas, collectively known as the Barbary States, were responsible for piracy in the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the enslaving of Christians, actions which brought them into the First and Second Barbary War with the United States of America.

History of Algeria - French period

The French occupation of Algeria, beginning in 1830, while having a profound impact, was immediately met by a rebellion led by Abdel Kadir. In addition to enduring the affront of being ruled by a foreign, non-Muslim power, many Algerians lost their lands to the new government or to colonists. Traditional leaders were eliminated, coopted, or made irrelevant, and the traditional educational system was largely dismantled; social structures were stressed to the breaking point. Viewed by the Europeans with condescension at best and contempt at worst, the Algerians endured 132 years of colonial subjugation. In the earlier part of the French colonization, native Muslims and Jews were viewed as French nationals, but not French citizens. However, in 1865, Napoleon III allowed them to apply for full French citizenship, a measure that few took, since it involved renouncing the right to be governed by sharia law in personal matters, and was considered a kind of apostasy; in 1870, French citizenship was made automatic for Jewish natives, a move which largely angered the Muslims, who began to consider the Jews as the accomplices of the colonial power. Nonetheless, this period saw progress in health, some infrastructures, and the overall expansion of the economy of Algeria, as well as the formation of new social classes, which, after exposure to ideas of equality and political liberty, would help propel the country to independence. During the years of French domination, the struggles to survive, to co-exist, to gain equality, and to achieve independence shaped a large part of the Algerian national identity.

History of Algeria - Independence

During World War II, Algerian troops fought with other Free French Forces, on the Allied side.

The massacres of 1945 marked a turning point in Algerian history. In April 1945 the French arrested the most popular Algerian leader Messali Hadji. On May 1st the followers of his PPA (Parti du peuple algérien) participated in demonstrations which where violently suppressed by the police. Several Algerians were killed. But it was on May 8th, when France celebrated Germany's unconditional surrender, that more deaths provoked a violent uprising by the Algerian population in and around Sétif. The army set the villages on fire, and 6,000 to 8,000 were killed, according to Yves Bénot. From now on it seemed evident to all nationalists that independence could not be won by peaceful means.

The Algerian War of Independence (1954–62), brutal and long, was the most recent major turning point in the country's history. Although often fratricidal, it ultimately united Algerians and seared the value of independence and the philosophy of anticolonialism into the national consciousness. The systematic use of torture by the French did not secure military victory.

It should be remembered, however, that more than one million Algerians (or 10% of the population of Algeria at the time) were forced to flee the country in 1962 due to the unbridgeable rifts opened by the civil war: these were the Algerians of European or Jewish descent (pieds-noirs) and the Muslim Algerians who had supported a French Algeria (harkis).

History of Algeria - Military rule

In 1965 the military toppled Ahmed Ben Bella and Houari Boumedienne became head of state. The military has been dominating Algerian politics up to today.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Historical setting", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki