Algeria

VI

History

The earliest inhabitants of what is now Algeria were Berbers, tribal peoples of unknown origin. Cave paintings in the Ahaggar Mountains region, dating between 6500 and 1200 bc, depict a people who raised cattle and hunted game in the area.

A

Ancient Times

About 800 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 centuries bc) between Carthage and Rome, Masinissa (reigned 202-148 bc), a Berber chief allied with Ancient 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 nomadic tribes. In time, these towns, such as Timgad and Tipasa, grew into miniature Roman cities.

The decline of Rome brought many changes. Roman legions were withdrawn to defend other frontiers, and in the 3rd century ad regional independence was briefly expressed in the heretical Donatist movement, a North African Christian sect persecuted by the Roman authorities. Saint Augustine, a native Algerian of the 4th and 5th centuries, particularly denounced Donatism in his prolific writings. The Vandals, a Germanic tribe, invaded the region in the 5th century and stayed on to establish their own kingdom. Barely a century later these warriors were themselves overthrown by an army of the Byzantine emperor Justinian, whose dream was to restore the glory of the Roman Empire.

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B

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 the Berber leaders Kusayla and Kahina, a supposed prophetess of a tribe that some scholars believe had been converted to Judaism. Eventually, however, the Berbers submitted to Islam and Arab authority, and Algeria became a province of the Umayyad caliphate. The Arabs, however, remained largely an urban elite.

The Abbasids seized the caliphate from the Umayyads in the 8th century. In the ensuing disorder, Algerian Berbers, many of them members of the Kharijite sect of Islam, founded their own autonomous Islamic kingdoms. One of the most prominent was that of the Rustamids at Tahert in central Algeria. Tahert prospered in the 8th and 9th centuries. In the early 10th century Tahert was captured by the Fatimids, who adhered to the Shia branch of Islam. Between the 11th and 13th centuries two successive Berber dynasties, the Almoravids and the Almohads, brought northwest Africa and southern Spain under a single central authority. Tlemcen became a city of fine mosques and schools of Islamic learning, as well as a handicrafts center. Algerian seaports such as 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.

C

Ottoman Rule

The Almohad dynasty collapsed in 1269 and was succeeded by the 300-year-long rule of the Abd al-Wadid (or Zayyanid) dynasty, centered in Tlemcen. The period was marked by fierce trade competition among rival 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 center 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 sultan 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 Ottoman capital at Constantinople (present-day İstanbul), 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 (from Turkish, yeniçeri, “new special troops”) garrisons.

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

D

French Colonization

France annexed Algiers and the surrounding territory in 1834 and began occupying other coastal and inland areas. The new regime, led by a French governor-general, aroused fierce resistance from tribes accustomed to indirect Ottoman rule. Military leader Abd al-Qadir, the head of the Sufi Islamic brotherhood known as the Qadiriyya, used hit-and-run tactics that were highly effective against the French forces. A hero to Algerian nationalists to this day, al-Qadir was not completely subdued until 1847. Berber forces continued to resist the French in the 1850s, and in 1871 Kabyle Berbers staged a fierce rebellion in Kabylia, in eastern Algeria. French colonial forces finally put the revolt down in 1872, and subsequently confiscated large amounts of land from the Berbers.

With these insurrections 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 was divided into three overseas departments of France, controlled for all practical purposes by the European settlers. The settlers 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. The settlers developed Algerian agriculture, gearing it to support the French economy. Large estates produced wines and citrus fruit for export to France, just as North Africa once produced grain for 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 displaced and deprived Muslim population 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 Islam. Few did so. Beginning in the late 19th century, thousands emigrated to France to find work.

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 settlers. From this group came the initial impetus for Algerian nationalism.

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