Constructing colonial power in brief:

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Constructing colonial power (in brief)

• The case of France and Algeria

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(No Transcript)
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Dates

• 1830 French invade Algeria
• 1834 France annexes Algeria
• Pop about 3 million Muslims
• Early resistance encourages French pacification
  effort major resistance only ends in 1870s

• 1947/48 First Algerian elections (partially
  rigged)
  
• 1954-1962 FLN-led Algerian Revolution
• 1962 Independence

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The various players

• French government (in France)
• Colons (settlers) and the National Assembly
• The French public liberal critics

• beni-oui-ouis Algerian yes men
• (e.g. the Caid)
• Algerian political parties and rebel groups
• Liberals
• Revolutionaries
• Secular Muslim
• Ordinary people

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Economic power

• Colons/pied-noirs
• About 10 of population
• Grand colons and petit blancs
• Hold about 30 arable land by 1900.
• Nearly half vineyards by 1914
• Muslims pay higher taxes than colons
• In 1909 Muslims produced 20 percent of Algeria's
  income but paid 70 percent of direct taxes
  

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Political Power

• After the Turkish authorities had
  disappearedthere was no day on which we did not
  try to destroy the great familiesbecause we
  found them to be forces of resistance. We did not
  realize that in suppressing the forces of
  resistance in this fashion, we were also
  suppressing our means of action. The result is
  that we are today confronted by a sort of human
  dust on which we have no influence and in which
  movements take place which are to us unknown. We
  no longer have any authoritative intermediaries
  between ourselves and the indigenous
  population.
• Jules Cambon, Gov. General in Algeria, reporting
  to the French Senate in 1894. Quoted in William
  Quandt, Revolution and Political Leadership
  Algeria, 1954-1968, p, 5

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Ideological power

• French "civilizing mission"
• French schools in urban areas
• curriculum entirely French
• Emergence of a class of évolués (literally, the
  evolved ones) leads to rise in Algerian
  nationalism
  
• Early generations of Algerian nationalists sought
  full integration into France, not independence