Algeria

Algeria The second largest African country, its colonization began with the French occupation of Algiers in 1830. In 1848, it was given an administrative structure to parallel that of metropolitan France through the creation of three départements, Algier, Oran, and Constantine. Most of the country had been brought under military control by 1870, and in 1882 it formally became part of metropolitan France. The Algerian population had no political or civil rights, though in 1919 members of the indigenous elite were offered full French citizenship if they renounced their Muslim faith and customs. This was part of a general attempt to integrate the African state into what was regarded to be superior French culture and customs. The French colonists took possession of the areas suitable for agrarian cultivation, with Algerian peasants working on their farms for minimal wages.

During World War II, Algeria was ruled by the Vichy government. The successful landing of Allied troops in French North Africa in November 1942 enabled de Gaulle to set up his headquarters and the ‘Committee of National Liberation’ in Algiers on 3 June 1943. Beginnings of Algerian nationalists' demands for greater independence under Abbas were met by a promise (formally made in 1947) of full Algerian participation in the politics and government of the country. The promise was not fulfilled, however. France was preoccupied with its own attempts at constitutional and social renewal, and the emerging Fourth Republic in mainland France proved too weak to impose its will upon the conservative and intransigent French Algerian colonists. At the same time, the French government was hindered by its inability to rely fully on the loyalty of its military commanders in Algeria, who often sided with the colonists.

Brutal acts of repression against the Muslim population led to the Algerian War of Independence (1954–62). It devastated the country, both because of the material destruction and loss of life during the war and because of the subsequent exodus of most of the colonists, who took their capital and their skills with them. Under the leadership of Ben Bella, the colonists' farms were nationalized and given to peasant self-government. This socialist experiment failed to increase production and had to be abandoned under Boumédienne, who came to power after a coup in June 1965. While Boumédienne continued to espouse the principles of socialism, he shifted economic policy from the development of agriculture to the establishment of an industrial base, e.g. through the nationalization of companies. This was accompanied by a policy of religious and cultural nationalism which emphasized Algeria's Arabic ethnicity and its Muslim traditions, rather than its colonial history. Despite the defiant rhetoric, however, Algeria remained closely reliant on France, both through trade (50 per cent of imports were from France in 1990) and through the population of over 300,000 Algerians living and working in France.

During the 1970s, the country became increasingly dependent on its oil revenues. When the price of oil fell from 1981, Algeria's foreign debt burden increased dramatically. Boumédienne's successor, Chadli, was thus forced to introduce market-oriented economic reforms. As dissatisfaction with economic austerity measures increased, it became evident that the regime's policy of fostering Algerian nationalism had backfired, enabling the growth of Islamic fundamentalism in opposition to the government. In 1989, Chadli revised the Constitution and allowed the formation of political parties. He also permitted the organization of Islamic fundamentalists as the Islamic Salvation Front (Front Islamique du Salut, FIS), despite their pledge to destroy the current system of government if elected. After the first round of parliamentary elections (26 December 1991), the FIS gained 188 out of 435 parliamentary seats, though it had gained only 25 per cent of the popular vote. Chadli subsequently resigned, his power passing to a transitional state council consisting of five members. On 9 February 1992 it banned the FIS, and proclaimed a state of emergency. A civil war erupted which had claimed about 100,000 lives by 1999. In that year, Abdelaziz Bouteflika was elected President, who embarked on a policy of reconciliation. He pronounced a general amnesty, and gave out aid to fighters returning to their villages. This was accepted by most, though not all, Islamist groups including the FIS, dramatically reducing the number of people killed in the conflict.