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Algeria
FRANCE IN ALGERIA, 1830-1962
Most of France's actions in Algeria, not least the invasion of
Algiers, were propelled by contradictory impulses. In the period
between Napoleon's downfall in 1815 and the revolution of 1830,
the restored French monarchy was in crisis, and the dey was weak
politically, economically, and militarily. The French monarch
sought to reverse his domestic unpopularity. As a result of what
the French considered an insult to the French consul in Algiers
by the dey in 1827, France blockaded Algiers for three years.
France used the failure of the blockade as a reason for a military
expedition against Algiers in 1830.
Invasion of Algiers
Using Napoleon's 1808 contingency plan for the invasion of Algeria,
34,000 French soldiers landed twenty-seven kilometers west of
Algiers, at Sidi Ferruch, on June 12, 1830. To face the French,
the dey sent 7,000 janissaries, 19,000 troops from the beys of
Constantine and Oran, and about 17,000 Kabyles. The French established
a strong beachhead and pushed toward Algiers, thanks in part to
superior artillery and better organization. Algiers was captured
after a three-week campaign, and Hussein Dey fled into exile.
French troops raped, looted (taking 50 million francs from the
treasury in the Casbah), desecrated mosques, and destroyed cemeteries.
It was an inauspicious beginning to France's self-described "civilizing
mission," whose character on the whole was cynical, arrogant,
and cruel.
Hardly had the news of the capture of Algiers reached Paris than
Charles X was deposed, and his cousin Louis Philippe, the "citizen
king," was named to preside over a constitutional monarchy. The
new government, composed of liberal opponents of the Algiers expedition,
was reluctant to pursue the conquest ordered by the old regime,
but withdrawing from Algeria proved more difficult than conquering
it. A parliamentary commission that examined the Algerian situation
concluded that although French policy, behavior, and organization
were failures, the occupation should continue for the sake of
national prestige. In 1834 France annexed the occupied areas,
which had an estimated Muslim population of about 3 million, as
a colony. Colonial administration in the occupied areas--the so-called
régime du sabre (government of the sword)--was placed
under a governor general, a high-ranking army officer invested
with civil and military jurisdiction, who was responsible to the
minister of war.
Data as of December 1993
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