Algeria

F

International Organizations

Algeria is a member of the United Nations (UN), the Arab League, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), and the African Union.

VI

History

The earliest inhabitants of what is now Algeria were Berbers, tribal peoples of unknown origin. Cave paintings in the Ahaggar region depict a people who raised cattle and hunted game in the area between 8000 and 2000 bc. Much later, about 1100 bc, the Phoenicians, a seafaring people from the eastern Mediterranean, founded a North African state at Carthage in what is now Tunisia. During the Punic Wars (3rd-2nd century bc) between Carthage and Rome, Masinissa (reigned 202-148 bc), a Berber chief allied with Rome, established the first Algerian kingdom, Numidia. His grandson, Jugurtha, was subjugated by Rome in 106 bc.

Numidia prospered under Roman rule. Large estates produced so much grain and olive oil that the region became known as the granary of Rome. A system of military roads and garrisoned towns protected the inhabitants from nomads. In time, these towns grew into miniature Roman cities.

The decline of the Roman Empire brought many changes. Roman legions were withdrawn to defend other frontiers, and in the 3rd century ad regional independence was briefly expressed in the Donatist movement, a North African Christian sect persecuted by the Roman authorities. The Vandals, a Germanic people, invaded the region in the 5th century and established their own kingdom there. Barely a century later these warriors were themselves overthrown by an army of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, whose dream was to restore the glory of the Roman Empire.

A

Medieval Islamic Dynasties

Justinian’s dream was short-lived. In the 7th century the Arabs invaded North Africa, bringing with them a new religion, Islam. In Algeria they were resisted by a woman leader—Kahina, the high priestess of a people supposedly converted to Judaism—but eventually the Berbers submitted to Islam and Arab authority; Algeria became a province of the caliphate of the Umayyads. The Arabs, however, remained largely an urban elite.

An internal conflict over the succession to the caliphal throne enabled the Berbers to form their own Islamic government in the 8th century. Many of them joined the branch of Islam known as Shiism, and they founded several tribal kingdoms. One of the most prominent was that of the Rustamids at Tahert in central Algeria. Tahert prospered in the 8th and 9th centuries. Between the 11th and 13th centuries two successive Berber dynasties, the Almoravids and the Almohads, brought north-west Africa and southern Spain under a single central authority. Tlemcen, the capital under the Almohads, became a city of fine mosques and schools of Islamic learning, as well as a handicrafts centre. Algerian seaports like Bejaïa, Annaba, and the growing town of Algiers carried on a brisk trade with European cities, supplying the famed Barbary horses, wax, fine leather, and fabrics to European markets.

B

Ottoman Turkish Rule

The collapse of the Almohads in 1269 set off fierce trade competition among Mediterranean seaports, both Christian and Muslim. To gain advantage, city governments began to hire corsairs—pirates who seized merchant ships and held crews and cargo for ransom. Algiers became a primary centre of corsair activities.

In the 16th century the Christian Spaniards occupied various North African ports. Algiers was blockaded and forced to pay tribute. Other ports were captured outright. The desperate Muslims called for help from the Ottoman sultan, then the caliph of all Islam. Two corsair brothers, the Barbarossas (“Redbeards”), persuaded the Ottoman Empire to send them with a fleet to North Africa. They drove the Spaniards out of most of their new possessions, and in 1518 the younger Barbarossa, Khayr ad-Din, was appointed beylerbey, the sultan’s representative in Algeria.

Because of its distance from the Turkish capital at Constantinople, Algiers was governed as an autonomous province. Externally, the effectiveness of its corsair fleet made Algiers a power in its own right; Algerian pirates dominated the Mediterranean. European states paid tribute regularly to ensure protection for their ships, and prisoner ransom brought a rich income to the province. Internal security was maintained by Ottoman janissary garrisons.

In the late 18th century improved firepower and ship construction enabled the Europeans to challenge corsair domination. By then, the days of Ottoman Algiers were numbered. International agreements to outlaw piracy made collective action against the corsair capital possible. In 1815 the United States sent a naval squadron against Algiers. The following year an Anglo-Dutch fleet nearly destroyed its defences, and in 1830 the city was captured by a French army.

C

French Colonization

France annexed Algeria in 1834, and the new regime aroused fierce resistance from inhabitants accustomed to indirect Turkish rule. Their leader, Abd al-Qadir, an Islamic holy man claiming descent from Muhammad, used hit-and-run tactics that were highly effective; he was not completely subdued until 1847, and he remains a hero to modern Algerian nationalists.

With Abd al-Qadir out of the way, France began to colonize Algeria in earnest, and European settlers poured into the country. To encourage settlement, the French confiscated or purchased lands at low prices from Muslim owners. Algeria became an overseas department of France, controlled for all practical purposes by the European minority, the colons (colonists). The colons formed a privileged elite. With the help of large infusions of capital, they developed a modern economy, with industries, banks, schools, shops, and services similar to those at home. Algerian agriculture was geared to the French economy; large estates produced wines and citrus fruit for export to France, just as North Africa had once served Rome. Some Europeans made vast fortunes, but the majority were small farmers, tradespeople, shopkeepers, and factory workers. All, however, shared a passionate belief in Algérie Française—a French Algeria.

The Muslim population, although benefiting from social services and economic development, remained a disadvantaged majority, subject to many restrictions. By French law they could not hold public meetings, carry firearms, or leave their homes or villages without permission. Legally, they were French subjects, but to become French citizens, with full rights, they had to renounce their faith. Few did so.

The Muslim population grew steadily; by 1930, it numbered 5 million. A small minority, educated in French schools, adopted French culture, although they were not accepted as equals by the colons. From this group came the initial impetus for Algerian nationalism.