Evaluate the Impact of European Imperialism on Algeria in the Early Twentieth Century
By David Hwang August 18th 2014
French always had connection to Algeria dating back to 800 AD but the French did not properly invade Algeria until the 1830's when the French invaded Algeria at first there were few rebellious encounters but the French managed well until Algeria became independent in 1962, well between 1830-1962 the French Imperialism had impacts through Roman Catholicism and Christianity also slavery, poverty and the French education system.
Algeria was always part of French Imperialism plan but they really never took over Algeria until 1830. That is because before 1830 the French Empire lost most of their oversea Empire like in the Seven Years War between 1754-1763 and they lost New France to Great Britain which is now parts of United States and Canada (Jones, 2014). Also with the French Empire losing the Napoleonic War between 1803-1815 they lost more of their Empire (Macro History and World Timeline, n.d.). So due to many losses the French Empire was trying to regain their power rather than trying to expand further (Jones, 2014).
As French Empire and Algeria was pretty close taking over Algeria was not really difficult as the French had evolved and is becoming an industrialised country while Algeria was not. Also the Ottoman's benefited a lot from the Mediterranean trade during the Napoleonic War. Also the Mediterranean was controlled by the British Royal Navy so the French try to rebuild their Navy.
The invasion of Algeria took less than a month from 14th June 19-7th July 1830 (Country Studies US , n.d.). One of the impacts French had on Algeria was the discrimination of Muslims. As French were Roman Catholic and most of Algeria was Muslim there was conflicts between them because of religion. The French discriminated Algerians by giving them the chance to become French citizens if they stop following Muslim.
Another impact imperialism had on Algeria was the increase of Christianity in the area. There is really low percentage of Christians before the French invaded and still present there is low percentage of Christianity. Present in Algeria around 2% is Christians while the other 98% is Muslims (Nation Master, n.d.) Before the French invaded there was even lower percentage of Christianity. But after the French invaded Algeria, the French restricted the Algerians to practicing Muslim but it got less restricted after time. Also the French brought back the Roman Catholic Church to Algeria which increased the Christianity and the Catholicism around the area in North Africa also in Algeria. One of the most significant reasons that it spread well was through the missionaries the Catholics brought in after French invaded (Christianity in Algeria, n.d.). They assisted with aid, establishments of schools, workshops and infirmaries, and training of the people around the area for further development (Christianity in Algeria, n.d.). Some of the missionaries survived after Algeria became independent (Christianity in Algeria, n.d.). But the reasons the French Empire brought in the missionaries was to convert the Muslim kids to Catholic by assisting them and helping them out (Beck, n.d.). The French Empire especially target children who were orphans so their help will be more effective and significant to those kids. So in 1867 Lavigerie, the Archbishop then put 1,753 orphan children’s into the care of missionaries which offended the local Muslims (Beck, n.d.). During the French rule the Catholic population grew over 1 million excluding the French (Christianity in Algeria, n.d.). But after Algeria’s independence in 1962 most of the Catholic population left after the Muslims took over again. Since the 1980s the Algeria’s population of Catholic has shrank with around 45,000 people now in Algeria are Catholics but most of them are French or foreigners or an Algerian who married either French or the Italians (Christianity in Algeria, n.d.). But the impact of European Imperialism allowed Christianity and Catholicism to spread around rest of Africa, which now has one of the highest Christianity percentage in the world by continent.
Another Impact was that the French took land, cattle, food that the Algerian needed to survive, also the taxes the Muslims had to pay was outrageous and impacted them through lack of survival equipment’s and lack of resources. After the rebel of Adbul-Qadir, the French went on the offensive and destroyed villages, stole cattle’s, burned crops and chopped down trees and through this lots of the Muslims suffocated from all the smoke created from the burned crops and the villages (Beck, n.d.). Through this Adbul-Qadir fled to Morocco after defeat to the mighty French Empire which was led by Colonel Pelissier (Beck, n.d.). There was a significant migration to Algeria from the French Empire and the French just came along and just stole their lands and their property (George Mason University, n.d.). But before that when the French first invaded Algeria the lands were sold quickly by the Algerian’s, but the French enacted a law in the 1870s which states that no land sales can be made by a Muslim individual and that the land automatically be owned by the French Empire and the tribal lands were sold to recently migrated French to gain capital for their conquest (Beck, n.d.). Most of the Europeans had their land cultivated by Muslim farmers and they had barely minimum wage, and most of them starved to death and also their families as well (Beck, n.d.). Many of the tribal leaders became corrupt due to the French Empire and they sold their own people from the tribe into slavery so they could protect themselves (Jones, 2014). During 1866 there was a grain crop failure and several years following that after and most of the Muslims faced starvation because they sell most of their crops to pay taxes and also to make a living and they did not have any crops left during the crop failure years because they did not save any so during that time the Muslim population dropped by 20% in that 3 year period (Country Studies US , n.d.). Also through more famine and epidemics in the following 15 years the Muslim population dropped even further to 50% (Country Studies US , n.d.). Through the taxes the Muslims had to pay they barely survived. The Muslims had to pay six categories of crops as well as camels, horses, cattle’s, sheep’s and goats. The beginning of a new century brought in new tax rules and it impacted the Muslims heavily. Their tax increased by 26% and in 1912 the Algerians owned 38% of the lands but payed 71% in direct taxes (Beck, n.d.). During the 1880s because of the taxes the Muslims had to pay the number of sheep’s and goats declined further and this is probably one of the reasons that lead to lots of death during the famine as the Muslims did not have enough resources to save up during the famine because they have to pay the heavily unfair tax (Beck, n.d.). Also by the 1900’s manufacturing, mining, agriculture and trade the wealth that Algeria is built on was all stolen by the French Empire and was all ran by the French (Beck, n.d.). The French only owned 30% of the lands in Algeria but they were the most fertile and the rest of the land which was useless was left to the Muslims which had harder time to grow crops which meant they made less crops to survive on (Beck, n.d.).
Another impact the French had was the education system they had on the children growing up in Algeria during that time. After the French’s invasion the education system was running decently because of Abdal Qadir supported the Muslim education and funded all of it to keep Muslim running in Algeria but after he fled the education system was going down and in 1843 they did not have enough funds to keep the school running and the French rejected the Muslims in helping them run their school and the mosque so the staff at the school and the mosque was dominated by students in one classroom (French Algeria, n.d.). During 1870’s it was estimated that 5% of the Muslim population went to school and it may have been lower than that (French Algeria, n.d.). There were few attempts that the French tried to put the French and the Muslims together but all those attempts resulted in failure (French Algeria, n.d.). But in the beginning of the 1890’s there were more attempt to educate small amounts of Muslim kids together with the French and the French called it as a “civilising mission” (French Algeria, n.d.). The curriculum was entirely French and there was nothing to do with the Muslim studies and the Arabic studies (French Algeria, n.d.). This generation was created and there were more educated and far superior then the one’s that rejected the French curriculum (French Algeria, n.d.). This generation was eventually given French citizenship and most of this generation now lives in France (French Algeria, n.d.). Through this the Algerians were impacted as the French was the main language now spoken in Algeria and now through statistics it’s proven that in Algeria in 2011 there was 11.2 million people who could read and speak French which is 33% of the population (Algeria.com, n.d.). Through the education influence some of the Muslims in Algeria went to France after receiving French citizenship and more than a quarter of the Muslims in France are Algerian through the connection when French had control over Algeria in the 19th century (United States Department of State, n.d.). But negative to the French education system to the Muslims children was that most of the children lost their tribe identities and lost their “Algerian” influence and identities (French Algeria, n.d.) (Beck, n.d.).
Therefore the French impacted the Algerian in lots of different ways through poverty, slavery, education and also bringing Roman Catholicism and Christianity. If the French did not invade Algeria, Algeria had many looked different in different aspects also there would not have been as much as Muslims in France right now and also Christianity and Catholicism may have not be known around the areas in North Africa which is still dominated by Muslims.