Colonization and

Independence in Africa 39

Algeria: What were the effects of assimilation?

Assimilation is the process by which one culture becomes more like another culture. In the case
of Algeria, French leaders wanted to change Algeria’s culture to make it more French—for example,
by encouraging people to speak French, limiting the influence of Islam, and educating Algerians
about French history, literature, and political ideas. In this case study, you will explore the effects of
French attempts to assimilate Algerians into French society by examining social and cultural colonial
policies. As you read, consider how colonial laws pushed Algerians to change their cultural practices.
What effects did these changes have?

Algeria is the largest country in Africa, SPAIN

Mediterranean Sea
Algiers
and was a French colony for more than 130 AT L A N T I C Oran Alger
Constantine
Constantine
years—much longer than the colonial experi- OCEAN
Oran

ences of most African countries. Like other Touggourt

Touggourt TUNISIA
countries in North Africa, Algeria has a long Ghardaïa (France)
MOROCCO Aïn-Sefra
history of contact with Europe and the Middle (France) Ghardaia Ouargla

East, and has a large Arab population. The vast

Ain-Sefra
majority of Algerians are Muslim.
Oasis LIBYA
(Italy)
ALGERIA
How did Algeria become a French colony? (France)

The French army invaded Algeria in MAURITANIA

(France)

1830. France colonized Algeria for a num-

ber of reasons, including a desire to increase
trade, spread French culture and religion, and MALI
(France)
respond to rising diplomatic tensions with
Algeria’s ruler. Algeria’s experience of colo- NIGER
nialism was different from that of most African (France)

countries because of its relationship to France.

Unlike other colonies, Algeria was adminis-
tered as if it were a province of France, not a Colonial Algeria
Administrative Divisions
separate entity. The French viewed Algeria as Railroads
an integral part of their country.
Algeria became a French “settler colony,”
that is, a colony with a significant popula- or being rude to a colonial official. Informal
tion of European settlers that wielded a great segregation kept Algerians out of certain
deal of political power. The majority of these neighborhoods, beaches, and businesses. Rac-
settlers were small farmers who grew wheat ism and discrimination permeated society. By
or produced wine. Living in Algeria afforded 1936, out of a population of more than 4.5 mil-
them a status that they would not otherwise lion, only 2,500 Muslim Algerians had chosen
have had in mainland France. This was in to become citizens.
large part due to the social divisions in Alge-
rian society. By the late nineteenth century, What was life like in the colony?
colonial policies had turned Muslims into By the 1930s, inequalities between settlers
second-class citizens compared to European and Algerians were stark. Colonial policies
settlers. Laws defined Algerians as “subjects,” had divided up communal Algerian lands,
rather than citizens unless they agreed to stop allowing settlers to buy thousands of square
following Islamic laws, and governed their miles of the best land where they could pro-
behavior with harsh punishments for offenses duce crops for export. Most Algerians, on the
such as speaking ill of the French government other hand, were subsistence farmers on small

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40 Colonization and
Independence in Africa

Felix Jacques Antoine Moulin, Archives nationale d’outre-mer, 8Fi427/28.

This photograph from 1856-57 shows a French school for girls in Algiers, the capital of Algeria. French was the
official language in Algeria throughout the colonial period. Many Algerians who could not speak French were
excluded from jobs in government, international business, and other sectors.

plots of land. Poverty, hunger, and malnutri- ing in Algeria, almost 80 percent of them born
tion were widespread. To escape destitution, in Algeria. These settlers felt a deep attach-
many migrated to Algeria’s towns and cities or ment to Algeria as their homeland. Although
worked for low wages on settler farms. Tens of French politicians often supported measures
thousands migrated to France. to assimilate Algerian Muslims and grant them
The French believed their civilization was citizenship, settlers opposed any attempts to
superior, and viewed Algerian Muslim culture increase rights for Muslims.
as “primitive” and “medieval.”Algerians were
frustrated with the inequalities of the colonial How did people in Algeria resist colonialism?
system. They resented the ways in which their When French forces invaded Algeria in
culture was belittled by colonial policies and 1830, they ended the Ottoman Empire’s three
settler racism, and were angry about their loss hundred year rule of the region. Although
of land. Many refused to accept French rule. Algerians were pleased to be freed from Ot-
At the same time, after more than a century toman rule, they did not submit to another
of French rule, some Algerians viewed them- foreign power willingly. Algerian militants
selves as French as well as Algerian. fought against the French for decades. Parts
European settlers used their political of Algeria, for example, the remote mountain
power to oppress the native population and regions and Sahara Desert in the south, did not
to protect their own privileges. By 1954, there come under French control until the twentieth
were nearly one million European settlers liv- century.

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 Colonization and
Independence in Africa 41
Algerian resistance was often linked to alists in Indochina (present-day Vietnam), and
religion, with Islam playing an important role also faced uprisings in Tunisia and Morocco.
in organizing opposition. Islam also allowed This convinced Algerian nationalists that
Algerians to assert an identity and cultural France could finally be challenged and de-
pride outside of the colonial system. As a feated.
result, French repression of Algerian uprisings Led by the Front de Libération Nationale
also aimed to limit the influence of Islam. For (FLN), Algerians began one of the longest and
example, after a rebellion in 1871, the colo- most violent decolonization struggles of the
nial authorities not only confiscated the land twentieth century to gain their independence
of those involved, but also passed decrees to from France. The Algerian War, which began
label Arabic a foreign language, limit pilgrim- in 1954, pitted Algerian militants against the
ages to Mecca, and monitor Islamic schools. French army, white settlers, and Algerians
In the 1920s and 1930s, a number of recruited by the French.
Algerian nationalist groups formed in Algeria The war dragged on for eight long years,
and France. By the mid-1940s, many Algeri- with brutal violence on both sides. Although
ans were calling for independence by force if France granted independence to Tunisia and
necessary. On May 8, 1945—the official date of Morocco in 1956, it was not willing to give up
the end of World War II in Europe—nationalist Algeria. Conflict took place not only in Alge-
groups staged demonstrations across Algeria in ria, but also in France, particularly in Paris
order to draw attention to the link between the where many Algerians lived.
end of fascism and their desire to end colonial-
ism. In the town of Sétif, the demonstrations Algerian nationalists aimed to create a
turned into a violent revolt, and Algerians climate of fear and insecurity by targeting the
murdered more than one hundred settlers. European settler population in Algeria with
The French response was swift and brutal. bombs and other acts of terrorism. The most
The colonial army and settler vigilante groups infamous conflict of the war raged from 1956
killed thousands
of Algerians in
return. It was clear

French President Charles De Gaulle and the Six-Year War, National Security Council,
that France was
not budging from

Central Intelligence Agency, National Archives, 1960. Still image from video.
its position on
Algeria’s colonial
status. The bru-
tality of France’s
response drove
many more Alge-
rians to join the
nationalist cause,
and to see violence
as the only way to
win independence.

What were the

human costs of the
Algerian War? In 1956, the French government sent paratroopers into Algiers. The crackdown by
In 1954, France paratroopers was brutal; entire neighborhoods of Algerian Muslims were taken in
lost a nine-year for interrogation or imprisonment. Paratroopers were known for using torture to
war against nation- extract information. This photograph shows French paratroopers standing guard near
a crowd of FLN supporters.

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42 Colonization and
Independence in Africa

to 1957 in Algiers, Algeria’s capi-

tal city. It began as a series of FLN

Council, Central Intelligence Agency, National Archives, 1960. Still image from
French President Charles De Gaulle and the Six-Year War, National Security
attacks on city police and settler tar-
gets. The French military responded
with mass torture, executions, and
imprisonment. By the late 1950s,
two million Algerians had been
placed in detention camps, an effort
by the French to isolate the FLN.
The war took a devastating toll, with
as many as one million Algerian
casualties and tens of thousands of
settlers and French soldiers dead.

When did Algerians gain

video.
independence?
The French were militarily Algerians working for the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN)
successful, but their methods came carried out targeted bombings in public spaces popular among
under sharp international criticism. French settlers in the capital city of Algiers. This led to increased
By the end of the 1950s, it was clear security by the French military and police. In this photograph, a
that France had lost the war for French military officer is using a metal detector on an Algerian
woman to check for explosives or other weapons.
public opinion. In March 1962, the
French government negotiated a
ceasefire with the FLN.
Continued violence between settler groups
and the FLN resulted in the deaths of tens
of thousands more in the months after the
ceasefire. Algeria gained its independence on
July 3, 1962. Divisions in the FLN led to more
violence in July and August. After elections in
September, Ahmed Ben Bella became the first
president of Algeria.

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 Colonization and
Independence in Africa 43

From the Historical Record

Overview: French policy aimed to as- which one of the oldest nations of the world
similate Algerians into French society by has the right to be proud. It is a question of
pressuring them to speak French, follow creating near us and far away from us so many
French customs, and gradually participate in new Frances; it is a question of protecting our
government and society as French citizens. But language, our customs, our ideas, the French
Algerians could only gain French citizenship if and Latin glory, in face of furious competition
they agreed to disavow Islamic civil law, which from other races, all marching along the same
governs matters such as marriage, divorce, routes.”
and inheritance. By 1936, out of a population
of more than 4.5 million, only 2,500 Muslim The Sénatus-Consulte (senate decree) of 14 July 1865
Algerians had chosen to become citizens. under France’s Emperor Napoléon III
The adoption of French culture meant losing “Art. 1. The Muslim native is French;
aspects of Algerian culture. By 1954, some Al- nevertheless he shall continue to be governed
gerian Muslims could no longer speak Arabic, under Muslim law….
and most could not read or write in Arabic. “He may, on application, be granted the
Although French leaders continued to claim rights of French citizenship; in this case, he
Algeria as a part of France until 1960, many shall be governed under the civil and political
Algerians worked hard to protect or regain laws of France.”
aspects of their culture that had come under
attack from French colonialism. Governor-General of Algeria Jacques Soustelle, at the
Algiers Assembly in February 1955
The following sources express French and
“France is at home here…or rather, Algeria
Algerian perspectives on assimilation. The
and all her inhabitants form an integral part of
sources are from a variety of French and Alge-
France, one and indivisible. All must know,
rian scholars as well as political and religious
here and elsewhere, that France will not leave
leaders.
Algeria any more than she will leave Provence
and Brittany [two provinces in mainland
French Perspectives France]. Whatever happens, the destiny of
Background: During much of the colo- Algeria is French.”
nial period, French leaders viewed their own
culture as superior and believed that one of Max Lejeune, French Minister for the Armed Forces,
the goals of colonialism should be to spread March 15, 1956
French culture to France’s colonial territories. “We want the men in Algeria to be more
Although leaders in France tried to ease some free, more fraternal, more equal, that is to say
of their citizenship requirements for Algerians more French. We must guarantee their politi-
in the twentieth century, settlers in Algeria cal liberties and their social emancipation in
blocked any attempts to give more rights to the face of a few thousand rebels inspired by
Muslim Algerians. unemployment, the absence of hope, religious
fanaticism, and not least the fit of nationalists
Gabriel Hanotaux, French government official and histo- who aspire to an unrealizable independence.”
rian, in his book L’Engergie française, 1902
“Let me be clearly understood: this is not Emporer Napoléon III in a letter to Aimable Pélissier,
only a matter of a vast number of conquests; governor-general of Algeria, 1863
it is not even a matter of the increase of “[W]e have not come to Algeria to oppress
public and private wealth. It is a question of and exploit them, but to bring them the ben-
extending overseas to regions only yesterday efits of civilization….”
barbarian the principles of a civilization of

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44 Colonization and
Independence in Africa

A. Arnaud and H. Méray, Les Colonies françaises, organ- culture. While many strongly opposed the re-
isation administrative, judicaire, politique et financière, strictions of colonialism, they also appreciated
1900
French political ideas of liberty and human
“Assimilation, by giving the colonies
rights.
institutions analogous to those of metropolitan
France, little by little removes the distances
which separate the diverse parts of French Sheikh Abdul-hamid Ben Badis, founder of the Associa-
tion of Algerian Muslim Ulema, April 1936
territory and finally realizes their intimate
“[The Muslim Algerian nation]…has its
union....”
culture, its traditions and its characteristics,
good or bad like every other nation of the
French Prime Minister Léon Blum and Government earth. And…we state that this Algerian nation
Minister Maurice Violette’s proposal to give Muslims in
Algeria the right to vote (the bill was never debated in is not France, cannot be France, and does not
the French Parliament because of strong opposition by wish to be France.”
Algerian settlers and their allies), December 30, 1936
“[E]xperience has shown that it was Manifesto of 10 February, 1943 by Ferhat Abbas and
impossible to continue treating as subjects colleagues, presented to Algeria’s Governor-General
without essential political rights French na- Marcel Peyrouton
tives of Algeria who have fully assimilated “Today the representatives of this Algeria,
French thought but who for family or religious responding to the unanimous desire of their
reasons cannot give up their personal status. peoples, cannot escape the overriding duty of
Algerian natives are French. It would be unjust posing the problem of their future.
to refuse henceforth the exercise of political “So doing, they do not intend to disavow
rights to those among them who are the most the French and Western culture that they have
cultured and who have furnished important received, which remains dear to them. It is,
guarantees of loyalty…. on the contrary, by assimilating the moral and
“But it seems impossible to invest all na- spiritual riches of Metropolitan France and the
tives immediately with political rights. The tradition of liberty of the French people that
massive majority are still far from desirous of they find the strength and justification for their
using these rights and do not yet show them- present action….
selves capable of doing so…. [C]ertain (hostile) “[T]he Algerian people, in its desire for
influences would not fail to profit from the peace and liberty, raises its voice to denounce
inexperience of this mass by overwhelming it the colonial rule imposed on it, to recall its
with propaganda…. earlier protests and reclaim its rights to life….
“[T]o our way of thinking, the right of “One need only examine the process of
suffrage [right to vote] is a reward either for the colonization in Algeria to realize how the
services rendered or for intellectual achieve- policy of assimilation, applied automatically
ment.” to some and refused systematically to others,
has reduced the Islamic society to the most
Algerian Perspectives complete servitude.
Background: For most Algerians, French “[C]olonization...demands the simultane-
efforts to replace Algerian culture with French ous existence of two societies, one oppressing
culture limited their opportunities in colonial the other….
society. For example, an Algerian who did not
“There lies the deep and brutal drama
speak French could not hold certain jobs or
to which colonization has given birth. The
communicate with French officials and set-
identification and formation of a single people
tlers. The promotion of French culture created
under the ‘same paternal government’ has
a divided society, with Algerians as second-
failed…. The European and Muslim blocs
class citizens. Educated Algerians who spoke
remain distinct from each other without
French often had mixed feelings about French

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 Colonization and
Independence in Africa 45
a common spirit. The one is strong in its Recollections of Ahmed Ben Bella, first president of
privileges and social position; the other is Algeria, 1964
threatened by the demographic problem of “It is very noticeable that, when the co-
its creation and by the place in the sun that it lonial learns a foreign language, he more or
claims and has been denied….” less adopts the mental attitudes which that
language represents. If he still possesses and
utilizes his own language, his experience will
Recollections of Ahmed Ben Bella, first president of
Algeria, 1964 be enriched by this process. But if his thoughts
“I think I was fourteen when, at my école are no longer inspired by his own language,
primaire supérieure [high school], an incident and have to be conveyed in the speech of the
occurred which made a deep impression on conqueror, then it is clear that there is a real
me. One of my teachers…was French and an estrangement from his native tongue….
excellent teacher when he did not bore us “Algerians such as myself who do not
with long digressions on the religions of the accept this estrangement from the Arabic
world…. Faith in his own religion made him language, nevertheless notice it in the deep
believe that all others were bad and despi- disquiet which they experience when they try
cable. to give expression to their ideas in French,
“One day during school, he did not hesi- while at the same time they ‘feel’ in Arabic. A
tate to go for his Moslem pupils, launching a state of perpetual divorce is thus established
violent attack on Islam. ‘Your prophet Moham- in us, between the head and the heart, between
med,’ he shouted at the end of this diatribe, the intellect and the emotions.”
‘was nothing but an imposter!’
“I stood up, pale with anger. ‘Sir,’ I told
him, ‘it’s all very well for you to say that to
children. We are too young and ignorant to
argue with you, but you must understand that
to us our religion is sacred. No, no, it is wrong
of you to speak like this.’
“Of course…[the teacher]…blew up. It was
terrible. I was punished, dismissed from the
class, and even threatened with expulsion….
And it was a double scandal, as I well knew.
Firstly, for a pupil to tick off a teacher was
bad enough. But for a ‘native’ to stand up to
a European made me a thousand times more
guilty.”

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