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French rule in Algeria
(1830-1962)
Most of France's actions in Algeria, not least the invasion of Algiers, were propelled by contradictory impulses. In the period between Napoleon's downfall in 1815 and the revolution of 1830, the restored French monarchy was in crisis, and the Dey was weak politically, economically, and military. The French monarch sought to reverse his domestic unpopularity. As a result of what the French considered an insult to the French consul in Algiers by the Dey in 1827, France blockaded Algiers for three years, France used the failure of the blockade as a reason for a military expedition against Algiers in 1830.
Invation of Algiers
Using Napoleon's 1808 contingency plan for the invation of Algeria, 37.000 French soldiers landed twenty-seven Kilometers west of Algiers, at Sidi Ferruch, on June 14, 1830. To face the French, the Dey sent 7.000 janissaries, 19.000 troops from beys of Constantine and Oran, and about 17.000 Kabyles. The French established a strong beach-head and pushed toward Algiers, thanks in part to superior artillery and better organization. Algiers was captured after a three-week campaign, and Hussein Dey fled into exile. French troops raped, looted (taking 50 million francs from the treasury in the Casbah), desecrated mosques, and destroyed cemeteries. It was an inauspicious beginning to France's self-described " civilizing mission,"whose characer on the whole was cynical, arrogant, and cruel.
Hardly had the news of the capture of Algiers reached Paris than Charles X was deposed, and his cousin Louis Philippe, the "citizen king," was named to preside over a constitutional monarchy. The new government, composed of liberal opponents of the Algiers expedition, was reluctant to pursure the conquest ordered by the old regime, but withdrawing from Algeria proved more difficult thanconquering it. A parliamentary commisson that examined the Algerian situation conduded that although French policy, behavior, and organization were failures, the occupation should continue for the sake of national prestige. In 1834, France annexed the occupied areas, which had an estimated Muslim popilation of about 3 million, as a colony. Colonial administration in the occupied areas the so-called régime du sabre (government of the sword) was placed under a governor general, a high-ranking army officer invested with civil and military jurisdiction, who was responsible to the minister of war.
