Resisting the French Invasion, Emir Abd El-Kader, Part II

PART I HERE

Perfidious French Compelled to Sign the Tafna Treaty 

In 1835, the French generals, having treacherously violated their agreements with Abd el-Kader, invaded his territory. The peaceful respite had ended. After two years of fierce, yet fruitless fighting, France consented to a new agreement with Abd el-Kader. It was signed on May 30, 1837, in Tafna. This time the French were compelled to acknowledge Abd el-Kader’s power not only in western, but also in central Algeria. They agreed to this so as to be able to concentrate all their efforts on the campaign against Constantine, where the second breeding ground of anti-French opposition was located. 

Fall of Constantine 

In the winter of 1836, the French had attempted to seize Constantine, but had been rebuffed by the Arabs and had retreated with the loss of 1,000 men. Now, a year later, having concluded peace with Abd el-Kader and having received an assurance of his neutrality, the French attacked Constantine with powerful forces. In October 1837, they finally succeeded in capturing the city, which was situated on high cliffs and had seemed inaccessible. The population offered fierce resistance. A battle was waged in the narrow streets for each corner and each roof. In the end Ahmed Bey was forced to retreat deep into the country, to the remote mountains, where resistance continued for some time. 

The seizure of Constantine and the eastern part of Algeria was followed by savage colonial plundering. The French took over the land and property of the vanquished, and this resulted in a fresh outbreak of disturbances. The tribes of eastern Algeria began a guerrilla war against the enemy. They acknowledged Abd el-Kader’s leadership and requested him to send his deputies to Constantine. On this basis, the French accused Abd el-Kader of violating the Peace Treaty of 1839 and unleashed a new war against him. In his turn, Abd el-Kader declared a holy war on France, which lasted several years. 

By 1839, France had concentrated 70,000 men in Algeria and was still sending in reinforcements. The French soldiers died by the thousands of disease, of the unbearable heat, marsh gas and hunger, and fell in battle. But the French army continued to grow. In 1837, it had 42,000 men whereas by 1844, the number had reached 90,000. It was twice the size of Abd el-Kader’s army and was equipped with weapons that the Arabs could not even dream of. Abd el-Kader could oppose this force only with the moral superiority of his men and their skilful guerrilla tactics. “When your army attacks, we shall retreat,” he wrote to a French marshal. “Then it will be forced to retreat and we shall return. We shall fight when we feel it is necessary. You know we are not cowards. But we are not so foolish as to expose ourselves to defeat by your army. We shall exhaust your army, torment and destroy it piece by piece and the climate will finish it off.” By employing these tactics, Abd el-Kader was able to keep up a steady resistance for a number of years. 

One of France’s top generals, Marshal Bugeaud, was made commander-in-chief of the occupation army. He bribed the Algerian tribal leaders, some of whom became the vassals of France and were appointed deputies in the most backward regions of Algeria. 

In the battles against Abd el-Kader, Bugeaud adopted new mobile column tactics. He singled out nine to twelve columns, which moved simultaneously along the western routes, each combing its own sector, and seizing fortresses and towns where Abd el-Kader’s bases and magazines were located. This ‘was more like bilateral guerrilla warfare than regular military actions. The battles and raiding dragged on for several years. 

The French resorted to the most barbarian methods to terrorise the Algerian population and exterminated entire tribes which had sided with Abd el-Kader. According to the testimony of participants in the campaign, the French cut off the prisoners’ ears and took away the Arabs’ wives, children and flocks. They exchanged women prisoners for horses and auctioned them off like pack animals. “It cost them nothing to behead a prisoner in public, so as to command the Arabs’ respect for their authority,” wrote a contemporary. 

The barbarous war, inter-tribal strife and the acts of treason by many tribal chieftains culminated in Abd el-Kader’s expulsion from Algeria and the subjugation of his territory by the French after a four-year struggle. 

Abd el-Kader did not give up. In 1844, together with a group of faithful followers he took refuge in Morocco, which had been tolerating his presence on its soil all these years, and began preparing for new battles. 

The Battle of Isly, 1844. 

Bugeaud made a demand in the form of an ultimatum that the Moroccan Sultan, Mulai Abd er-Rahman, should give up Abd el-Kader. When he was refused, he invaded Morocco. While the French squadron under Prince de Joinville was bombarding Tangier (August 6) and Mogador (August 15), Bugeaud crushed the Moroccan Sultan’s semi-feudal army in a large-scale battle at the River Isly (August 14, 1844). Only the threat of British intervention restrained the French and saved Mulai Abd er-Rahman. The French had to withdraw from Morocco. 

Abdelkader, Declared an Outlaw in Morocco! 

But according to the Tangier Peace Treaty of September 10, 1844, Mulai Abd er-Rahman declared Abd el-Kader an outlaw, undertook to refuse all aid to the Algerian uprising, to withdraw his troops from the borders and to punish the officers “guilty” of having helped the insurgents. The treaty fixed the exact borders between Algeria and Morocco, but only on a comparatively narrow coastal strip. No demarcation line was drawn further south, so there was always the danger of new conflicts. 

The Uprising of 1845-46

Immediately after the conclusion of the Tangier Peace Treaty, Abd el-Kader returned to Algeria and waged guerrilla warfare as he moved about in the desert. In the meanwhile, a new popular uprising headed by Bu Maaza flared up in the northern part of Algeria in the region between Oran and Algiers. The uprising was called forth by the French plundering of the land. 

The wholesale plundering of the land exhausted the local people’s patience and in 1845 the whole of western Algeria rose in rebellion against the French. The leader of the uprising, Bu Maza, appealed to Abd el-Kader and offered him the leadership of the popular struggle. The French hastened to raise the strength of the occupation army to 108,000 men. Eighteen punitive detachments again slaughtered the population and destroyed villages. The French generals, Pelissier and Saint Arnaud broke the record of barbarism in this campaign. Pelissier drove thousands of Arabs into the mountain caves, where he suffocated them with smoke. Saint Arnaud bricked up in caves 1,500 Arabs, including women and children. Nor did Cavaignac, who was serving in the occupation army at the time, lag behind them. 

Treachery of the Moroccan Sultan and the End of Road for Abd el-Kader 

The brutal repressions and the decree of July 31, 1845, on the confiscation of land as a punishment for “associating with the enemy” achieved their aim. The uprising began to wane. French detachments pursued Abd el-Kader, trying to surround him, but he withdrew to the oases of the Sahara Desert and from there continued to wage guerrilla warfare. It was only at the end of 1847, following the treachery of the Moroccan Sultan, that the French captured Abd el-Kader and sent him away to France. In 1848, Ahmed Bey was also taken prisoner. After spending five years in France, Abd el-Kader was permitted to return to the East. Having lived for a few years in Bursa, in 1855 he settled in Damascus, where he spent the rest of his life. Abd el-Kader died in 1883, a the age of 75.

Resisting the French Invasion, Emir Abd El-Kader, Part I

RESISTING THE FRENCH INVASION, ABD EL-KADER 

Having seized Algiers, de Bourmont arrogantly announced in his report: “The whole kingdom will surrender to us within fifteen days without firing a single shot.” But he was mistaken. The French subdued Algeria only after forty years of bloody fighting against her people. 

No sooner had the news of the capital’s fall spread throughout the country than the tribes rose in arms against the enemy. The Algerians used scorched earth tactics and the French troops, who were dependent on their own supply lines, often found themselves in difficulties. The extortion and plundering by the French army further roused the population who united to repel the aggressor. In the western part of Algeria, the movement was headed by the national hero, Abd el-Kader, and in the eastern, by Ahmed, the district Bey of Constantine. 

Abd el-Kader was born in 1808 in the marabout family of Muhyi ed-Din. His father headed the religious brotherhood of Kaderiya in West Algeria and for many years he fought against the Turkish conquerors and then against the French occupation forces. Abd el-Kader had received his religious education before the French invasion and had made a pilgrimage to Mecca, visited Baghdad and then travelled to Egypt. 

Abd el-Kader was no ordinary marabout. He was above all a courageous soldier, a skilled horseman, a good marksman and a talented general. He was an eloquent orator, an outstanding writer and poet and a brilliant organiser. 

In 1832, the tribes who were fighting against the occupation forces elected Abd el-Kader as their leader. He was confronted with the difficult task of combating feudal and tribal disunity, subduing the endless strife and uniting the whole population in the one common desire to defend the independence of their country. Because of his closeness to the people and because he symbolised their hopes, Abd el-Kader went a long way towards achieving this end. 

Desmichels Treaty, Recognising Abdelkader’s State 

Once he took over the command of the West Algerian tribes, Abd el-Kader inflicted merciless blows on the French troops, using the classical tactics of guerrilla warfare. Having suffered a number of defeats and some bad luck, the French finally agreed to negotiations and in February 1834, he concluded with them the Desmichel Treaty. Abd el-Kader willingly agreed to the French proposal since he felt an urgent need for a peaceful respite to reorganise his troops and gain strength for a renewal of the war against the invaders. Moreover, the treaty acknowledged all western Algeria, with the exception of three coastal towns, as the territory of the new sovereign Arab state under Abd el-Kader, who adopted the title of “sovereign of the believers” (emir el-mu’meneen). 

Having become the ruler of a large state, Abd el-Kader continued to lead a humble way of life. He ate simple food, drank only water, wore no ornaments and, true to the nomadic customs, preferred to live in a tent. His only property consisted of a small flock of sheep and a plot of land, which was ploughed by a pair of oxen. His only wealth was a wonderful library. He did not use a single penny for his personal needs from the revenues, which were paid into his treasury by the Algerian tribes. 

Apart from the irregular tribal levies, numbering approximately 70,000 men, Abd el-Kader formed a regular army consisting of 10,000 men. The Agha el-askari was entrusted with the command of the regular army, which was divided into thousands (battalions), hundreds (companies) and platoons with an Agha, sail or Reis es-Saf respectively at their head. The artillery of Abd el-Kader numbered 36 pieces (true, only twelve of them were fit for use). Abd el-Kader built barracks and fortresses, a foundry, two powder-mills and a weaving manufactory. 

Abd el-Kader used the old, traditional methods as well as new, extreme methods to gain money for the upkeep of his army and for military construction. He collected ushr, zakat for each head of cattle and extraordinary taxes from his dependencies. Apart from this, he used incomes from the state lands and monopolies. He also replenished his treasury with the spoils seized during raids on hostile tribes who had refused to join his movement or had defected to the French. 

Disunity, the French Generals’ Best Ally 

Abd el-Kader found support among the Moslem clergy and Bedouins, who comprised the main bulk of his troops. Abd el-Kader, carried out administrative reforms, dividing Algeria into nine regions with caliphs-vicegerents, subordinate to the central power at their head. He abolished the selling of posts, struggled against the embezzlement of public property and tried to defend the nomads and peasants from the tyranny of tribal chiefs. 

The leaders of eastern Algeria refused to obey him. Under their Bey, Ahmed, they fought the French independently. Nor would the Kabylia tribal lords and sheikhs of the Sahara oases obey him. He usually assigned marabouts as his deputies and only in rare cases did he give the post to the tribal leaders. But even those who collaborated with Abd el-Kader were ready to give him up to the French. Their ambitions and self-interest came before the interests of their country. The acts of treason and the mutinies of the tribal lords weakened the state founded by Abd el-Kader more than the doubtful successes of the French generals.

PART II

The French Conquest of Algeria Between Truth and Propaganda

BEFORE THE BLOW OF THE “FLY-WHISK”, A NAPOLEONIC PROJECT

French plans for the conquest of Algeria had matured long before the famous “blow of the fly-whisk” event of 1827.  Napoleon Bonaparte had once regarded Algeria as an indispensable foreign market for the industrial development of France. In his talks with Alexander I in Tilzit (1807) and Erfurt (1808), whenever the question of the partition of the Ottoman Empire arose, Napoleon I never failed to include Algeria in his future domains. To prepare for the conquest of the country in 1808, he sent the military engineer, Major Buten, to Algeria and Tunisia to make a topographical survey and work out a plan for the expedition. Although the defeats in Spain and Russia prevented Napoleon 1^st from putting his plans into practice, Buten’s material was to come in handy during the preparations for the expedition of 1830.

A DIVERSION FROM INTERNAL STRIFE

Charles X recalled Napoleon’s plans in the last days of the collapsing Bourbon monarchy. The greed for new markets was the primary reason for the conquest of the Algerian regency, as the country was called in the official documents of the time. Of no little importance was the desire of the French landowners, who had lost their lands during the Great Revolution, to acquire new estates. By conquering Algeria, the Bourbons hoped to strengthen their own tottering throne. Charles X and his Prime Minister, Polignac, calculated that the military adventure would stir up a wave of nationalist feelings and delay the revolution. Tsarist Russia supported the aggressive plans of the Bourbon monarchy. Although England objected, she offered no resolute opposition.

PIRACY AND CHRISTIAN PRISONERS, A FICTION

As a propaganda pretext for the Algerian adventure, France raised the question of “piracy and the sufferings of prisoners in Algeria” as well as the financial account of the Dey government. It must be noted, however, that as far back as the 18th century and especially after the punitive expeditions of the European squadrons and the United States at the beginning of the 19th century, Maghreb piracy had fallen into decay and had long since ceased to serve as a profitable business for the ruling clique of Algeria. The Algerians’ opposition to the decisions of the Aix-la-Chapelle congress, however, made it possible for France to brand the Dey government as the protector of the pirates.

FRENCH INGRATITUDE AND INTRIGUE

The question of financial accounts was equally fictitious. During the revolution the Dey had sent supplies of wheat, salt-beef and hides to France, which was under a blockade at the time. He also supplied Bonaparte’s army with provisions during the Italian and Egyptian campaigns. The majority of the deliveries were made on a credit basis and the Dey received nothing in return. The agreement on the repayment of debts and settlement of mutual claims concluded later through the mediation of the Algerian Jewish merchants, Bakri and Bushnack, did not satisfy the Dey. He felt that the French had deceived him, and cheated the Algerian treasury of several million francs. The dispute over the debts lasted for several years and irritated the Dey and his men. Moreover, a conflict arose over the stronghold at La Calle, which the French had begun to fortify in spite of the formal prohibition of the Dey.  

The differences were considerably aggravated by the French consul in Algeria, Pierre Deval. According to a French historian, in Algeria he was regarded as a person of questionable reputation, a rascal and unprincipled intriguer. He played a dirty and provocative role in the money conflict. Deval plotted, lied and exorted bribes from the Dey.

THE FLY-WHISK? THEY BEGGED FOR IT!

One hot morning on April 29, 1827, during one of their countless squabbles, Deval gravely insulted the Dey, who in his indignation struck Deval with his fly-whisk.  This provided France with the long-awaited excuse. She immediately severed all relations with Algeria and blockaded the Algerian coast. At first she decided to act through the Egyptians. In 1829, Mohammed Ali, the governor of Egypt and one of France’s chief allies in the East, had almost agreed to attack Algeria, but then refused to bargain with France because of the insignificant reward that was offered.

In such circumstances the Polignac government and Charles X decided to operate independently. On June 14, 1830, the 37,000-strong French army under General de Bourmont landed at Sidi-Ferruch (23 kilometres west of Algiers). Opposition was strong, but fruitless. In the fight for Algiers, the French lost 400 men and the Turks lost 10,000. On July 4, 1830, Fort de l’Empereur fell. In the evening, the Dey signed an unconditional surrender and on the following day, July 5, the French entered Algiers. On July 23, 1830, the Dey was deported, the janissaries left for Turkey, the enemy plundered the Algerian treasury (about 48,000,000 francs) and also seized the homes, land and property of many Algerians.

Two weeks later, a revolution took place in Paris and Charles X’s shaky throne collapsed. General de Bourmont tried to send his troops to save the Bourbons, but met with the resistance of the soldiers. Having abandoned the army, he fled to Portugal.

MONEY BAG AND EASY PROFIT

The July monarchy of Louis Philippe de Orleans accepted the Algerian heritage of the Bourbons and after some hesitation decided to continue fighting in the name of the self-interest of the new rulers of France-knights of the money bag and easy profit. ln 1834, in conformity with the recommendations of the “Commission on Africa,” Louis Philippe formally proclaimed Algeria’s annexation and organised the civil administration of the “French possessions in North Africa” under a governor-general. By that time France had occupied only the coastal towns of Algiers, Oran, Mostaganem, Arzew and Bougie as well as the Algerian coastline and Metija. The rest of the country would not surrender to the French authorities.

WHAT LIES AHEAD

Having seized Algiers, de Bourmont arrogantly announced in his report: “The whole kingdom will surrender to us within fifteen days without firing a single shot.” But he was mistaken. The French subdued the north of Algeria only after forty years of bloody fighting.

No sooner had the news of the capital’s fall spread throughout the country than the tribes rose in arms against the enemy…

(To be continued with episodes about the Algerian resistance to the French invasion)

Algeria Under French Rule, a Brief Account

Algeria Under French Rule, a Brief Account 

The French Conquest of Algeria 

Pretexts for the Invasion but the truth is.. 

France’s conquest of Algeria began in 1830 with the swift overpowering of the Ottoman regency of Algiers. After defeating the Dey’s troops in the battle of Staoueli on 19th June, the French entered Algiers on 5th July. A capitulation treaty was subsequently signed by the Dey and the French commander “de Bourmont”. 

Even though the conquest is attributed to various motives: - a dispute over debt repayments to Algerian merchants, the Dey Hussein’s (the Ottoman governor) alleged lashing of the French consul with his fly swatter, or the unpopular King Charles X’s need for an impressive foreign adventure -, the truth is France had designs on Algeria dating back to the Napoleonic period during which a plan for the invasion of Algiers had already been carefully prepared as early as 1808. 

Initially lacking any long-term purpose, France’s colonial project had gradually taken on a totalising scope, but it took France a hundred years to subjugate the entire land mass of modern Algeria. 

Notable Resistance to the French Occupation 

French armies met significant resistance, the most famous of which is that of the charismatic young religious leader, Emir Abd-El-Kader, who spearheaded a successful guerrilla-style campaign until 1847. The remnants of Ottoman power also held out in the northeast, for another ten years, with the ravine-straddling town of Constantine posing a particularly difficult challenge to the invaders. Likewise, the perennially unyielding communities of the Atlas and the Tell Highlands generated several sizable rebellions until the late 1870s. Algeria witnessed several other regional or localised uprisings up to the turn of the twentieth century. 

Scorched Earth Campaigns 

Embodied by the ruthless Governor General Bugeaud, whose tactics inspired the expression “scorched earth campaign,” the imposition of French rule was marked by genocidal military campaigns. While the French command had nominally agreed to preserve the liberties, properties, and religious freedoms of the inhabitants as per the capitulation treaty, French troops immediately began plundering the country, arbitrarily arresting and killing people, exterminating entire tribes, seizing property and desecrating religious sites. 

Oddly enough, the “scorched earth” campaigns were called “pacification” by the French! Colonel Montagnac stated that the purpose of the pacification was to "destroy everything that crawl at our feet like dogs". 

In the absence of official figures, it is estimated that more than 1 million Algerians died between 1830 and 1870 as a result of war, sickness, and famine; one-third of the total pre-colonial population. 

Historians Ben Kiernan, estimates that 850,000 Algerians were lost to war by 1875, while according to Augustin Bernard, up to 500,000 lost their lives to the famine of 1868 alone. 

The Notion of ‘French Algeria’ 

In terms of its basic political and economic characteristics, l’Algérie française (French Algeria) proper began in 1870, when Algeria was brought under the auspices of the ministère de l'Intérieur from the ministère des Colonies. Immigration accelerated as the colons set about buying up most of Algeria’s prime farmland and building a society whose raison d’être was the exploitation of the original Muslim population and their descendants. In 1881, the government in Paris declared Algeria an integral part of sovereign French territory, in accordance with the constitution of the Third Republic. From that point on, the colons in Algeria were considered “normal” French citizens who just happened to live in three departments that were located across the Mediterranean but legally identical to, say, Normandy or Provence. 

Like their compatriots on the mainland, the Algerian French elected their local deputies to the National Assembly in Paris, where they formed an uncompromising, united bloc on settler-colonial issues. 

Apartheid-Style Segregation 

At the same time, however, the 1881 Code de l’indigénat (Native Code) relegated Algeria’s Muslims to an entirely separate and repressive legal framework that sharply curtailed personal freedoms, neglected due process for criminal matters, and placed domestic matters under the auspices of Islamic courts. 

Subjects not citizens, most Algerian Muslims lived in the communes mixtes (mixed communities), districts whose administrators and judges (cadis) were appointed by the colonial authorities. Therefore, the defining division of the Algerian society under French colonial rule was that between Muslim and non-Muslim— a truth made explicit in the 1870 Crémieux Decree that extended French citizenship to Algeria’s 25,000 Jews (a community that boasted many centuries of history in that land) and stipulated that those very few Muslim évolués (literally, “evolved”) who were deemed worthy of French citizenship had to renounce Islam first. As a result, the vast majority of Algeria’s Muslims under French rule, belonged to either the near-destitute peasantry or the pool of cheap labour that served colon farms and homes.