French Algeria

The French Algérie is the name given to the Algérie for the period of French Colonisation of 1830 with 1962.

History

In 1830, the Monarchie of July inherits the conquests carried out in Algeria by the finishing Restauration and which sought in the colonial adventure a little military glory in the hope to reconquer some popularity. Louis-Philippe would have probably given up this cumbersome legacy, whose conservation mobilizes average important soldiers at one time when the new mode is highly tackled interior. But it must flatter the patriotic feelings in France, in particular those of the left wing of its partisans. At the beginning, the king of the French thus wishes the maintenance of the status quo in Algeria, i.e. a French occupation limited to some coastal enclaves: Algiers, Bône, Candle, Oran, Arzew and Mostaganem.

But, whereas the other colonies concern the ministry for the Navy, those are placed under the supervision of the ministry for the War, directed as from November 1830 by the marshal Soult. This last will be interested of close with these French possessions. It on the spot organizes specialized military units, adapted to the country - Spahis, Zouaves, hunters of Africa, battalions of Africa - and creates the “Bureaux Arab”, designed by the general Trézel and implemented by the captain of Lamoricière.

The high military hierarchy pushes thus with a reinforcement of the French presence in Algeria. In June 1833, the marshal Clauzel - which had been governor of Algeria in 1830 - 1831 - pleads, with the platform of the House of Commons, for the colonization of Algeria, from which he affirms that it would make as much for the prosperity of France that the conquest of the India made for that of the the United Kingdom. Challenged, lunatic Soult that the government have the least intention to undertake this operation, but he adds that he would leave of it readily the realization to concessionary private companies.

The July 22nd 1834, an ordinance of the king entrusts the general command and the important administration of the French possessions in Algeria to a general governor placed under the orders of the Minister for the war. The general Drouet d' Erlon is named a few days after general governor of the French possessions of the North of Africa. But the situation of the French enclaves in Algeria is made precarious by the ambitions of the bey of Mascara, the emir Abd El-Kader who, extremely from the treaty which he concluded with the general Desmichels the February 26th 1834, extends in 1835 his domination in the Titteri, in the center of Algeria, since the Morocco to the borders of the beylicat of Constantine.

In June 1835, Abd El-Kader attacks a tribe of the Oranais which was placed under the protection of the French Army. The latter, ordered by the general Trézel, response, but it is decimated in a ambush with the procession of the Macta the June 28th 1835. Following this disaster, Drouet d' Erlon is recalled and replaced by the marshal Clauzel, which returns to Algeria as general governor.

The army of the Clauzel marshal, in whom combat the duke of Orleans, avenges the affront for Macta by a punitive operation successful on Mascara in December 1835, then on Tlemcen in January 1836. But manpower are insufficient to occupy these two cities, and the army must be folded up on Oran without making any durable conquest. The general Bugeaud inflicts then heavy losses with the troops of Abd El-Kader in Sikka, close to Tlemcen, the July 6th 1836. With 7 000 men, Clauzel then tries to seize Constantine, but it fails the November 24th and returns to Bône on February 1st, while having lost a thousand of men officially.

Following this failure, Clauzel is recalled in February 1837 and replaced by the general Damrémont, to which it President of the Council, the count Molé, gives the following instructions: “The goal which the government proposes is not the absolute domination of Regency. What France especially keeps in mind, it is its maritime establishment, the safety of its trade, the increase in its influence in the Mediterranean. France may find it beneficial especially to be main littoral. The remainder must be abandoned with indigenous chiefs. ”

It is in this spirit that Bugeaud concludes with Abd El-Kader, the May 30th 1837, the Traité of Tafna which mentions French sovereignty only on the coastal enclaves, even if it means to appear to give up all the remainder of the territory to the emir.

With the summer 1837, Louis-Philippe I {{er}} and the chief of its government, the count Molé decides a new forwarding on Constantine, at one moment when, with the consolidation of the Monarchie of July and the re-establishment of economic prosperity, the king considers a dissolution of the House of Commons. Like Charles X in 1830 with the Forwarding of Algiers, the king of the French seeks to obtain a better result with the elections by offering to the country a little military glory and by avenging the failure for the forwarding of 1836.

The French Army starts from Bône on October 1st. The October 13rd, the victorious attack is started with the general Damrémont, which is carried by a ball, and is completed by its successor, the general Valée. This last is high with the dignity of Marshal of France the November 11th and named general governor of Algeria on February 1st.

In September 1838, at the end of a long negotiation with Louis-Philippe, the pope Gregoire XVI accepts the creation of one évêché in Algiers. For the monarchy of July, it is a question of avoiding a apostolic Vicariat depending with Rome of the Congregation for the propagation of the faith and entrusted to a religious Congrégation. But this decision, which involves the application to Algeria of the certificated Régime, is also the first stage towards the Francization of the territory.

To the autumn 1839, the duke of Orleans, oldest son of the king, leaves for Algeria to realize, with the marshal Valée, the taking possession by France of the interior part of the country, between Constantine and Algiers. Started from Constantine on October 16th, three days after the second birthday of the catch of the city, the famous ride gains Algiers the November 2nd while passing by Sétif and the procession of the Portes of Iron.

Abd-el-Kader there sees a violation of the Traité of Tafna and starts the Holy war against the French. Thus engage a climbing which will lead to the total occupation of Algeria by France. As of the end of 1839, the emir launches stiff murderers on the Mitidja.

Become again chief of the government at the beginning of 1840, Adolphe Thiers, to dissociate his predecessors and to conquer a little glory to regild the blazon of the monarchy of July, denounces the policy consisting in limiting the French occupation to the coastal enclaves by giving up in fact the interior of the grounds to the emir, and devotes himself to a severe criticism of the treaty of Tafna. For him, France will have peace in Algeria only by entirely subjecting the territory; by doing this, it can make an excellent deal, since the country was rich and prosperous in the time of the Roman Empire. Louis-Philippe wife this design because it understood that Algeria forms an ideal ground on which its sons can gather the military bay-trees which will consolidate the prestige of its dynasty. The king and his government thus will face the oppositions of those which, on the right like on the left, fear to see the army engaged on a remote theater and dispute the economic value of Algeria.

To achieve its intention, Thiers pushes the general Bugeaud, which presents the disadvantage of being furiously unpopular near the left, for which he is the man of the massacre of the street Transnonain, as near the legitimists, who see in him the geôlier of the duchess of Berry to Blaye, but which passes for a specialist in the Algerian file. With the reserved departure, Bugeaud was convinced of the need for a colonization until the limits of the desert. Louis-Philippe, which is wary of the general in which his sons sees a potential rival, ends up being let convince and names Bugeaud general governor of Algeria the December 29th 1840, whereas Thiers has left the capacity for a few months.

French authorities in Algeria

See also: List of the governors of Algeria

Geography

See also: List of the French departments of Algeria

See too

Sources

Guy Antonetti, Louis-Philippe , Paris, Bookstore Arthème Beech, 2002 - ISBN 2-213-59222-7

External bond

Michelin Chart on French Algeria of 1962

the village of Ténès and its Inhabitants of 1830 to 1962

Random links: