MC_A Concise History of Africa

COLONIALISM

BELOW: Algiers is the capital and largest city in Algeria and is situated on the Mediterranean Sea. The modern part of the city was built on level ground by the seashore. The ancient sector was constructed on a steep hill behind the modern town. The casbah or citadel is at the highest point. OPPOSITE: Basilique Notre Dame d'Afrique, a church built by the French Pieds-Noirs in Algeria.

The French began to arrive in the Barbary states in the 1830s, and by 1848 Algeria was a département of France. At first, rule was modeled on the Ottoman administration, but French unemployed were encouraged to leave France in search of better prospects in North Africa. These French nationals were known as pieds-noirs (black-feet) and they arrived alongside Sephardic Jews and settlers from other European countries, such as Spain, Italy, and

Malta, who had been born in Algeria. Although the Muslims were officially French subjects they could not become French citizens unless they renounced Islam and converted to Christianity. Settlers, therefore, took over the land and dominated in political, economical, and educational fields. After Algeria became independent in 1962, more than a million pieds-noirs returned to mainland France, where many of

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