The Colonial and Post-Colonial Question in Algeria.

Introduction

 

More than any other country of the southern Mediterranean, Algeria's colonial experience has left a complex historical heritage, source of multiple and often unequivocal interpretations and representations about the country's contemporary history (in terms of society, politics, economics, ideologies). Colonial domination marked Algerian society so deeply between the 19th and 20th centuries that even today it's difficult to imagine or take in the country's past other than through its colonial past. 1830, the year Algiers was captured by the French, remains (for both sides) the key date, enabling us to put a start date on contemporary history and see a before and an after. The year in which the conquest of the country began, a conquest marked by violence, piecemeal military policy and various more or less successful experiments to develop the territory and colonise the people. 132 years of colonial presence have made Algeria's earlier history seem even more remote and enigmatic. Ottoman Algeria (1515 to 1830) is often reduced to the pirates who sheltered there, to its legendary rais and deys. Further back still, the Berber and Arab dynasties of the Middle Ages and early modern period are presented and studied mostly through the prism of Islam and their relations with the Arab civilisation of North Africa. As for Antiquity, the Romanisation, then the Christianisation are still the two dominating parameters which enable us to understand Algeria's ancient past, leaving the question of the influence of the Berber and indigenous peoples of northern Africa in a still unexplored wilderness.

Introduction

A history of indifference?

War, freedom, sacrifice and heroes

A new nation, but also a model ...

Conclusion

Bibliography and film references

Abstract

More than any other country of the southern Mediterranean, Algeria's colonial experience has left a complex historical heritage, source of multiple and often unequivocal interpretations and representations about the country's contemporary history (in terms of society, politics, economics, ideologies). Colonial domination marked Algerian society so deeply between the 19th and 20th centuries that even today it's difficult to imagine or take in the country's past other than through its colonial past. 1830, the year Algiers was captured by the French, remains (for both sides) the key date, enabling us to put a start date on contemporary history and see a before and an after. ...

Author

Direche-Slimani Karima
Research fellow in contemporary history, CNRS, TELEMME, MMSH.