Signs from Allah: History, Science and Faith in Islam
155. The War of Algeria’s Independence – 1954-62
By Professor Nazeer Ahmed
Concord, CA

It was the century of colonialism. The nations of Europe fanned out across the globe in search of profits and in the process subjugated vast regions of the earth, pillaging the land, destroying old cultures, displacing local languages, transforming ancient customs. They played with the nations of Asia and Africa as if they were playing with pieces on a chess board that could to be captured and removed off the board at will.
The people of the colonized territories were pawns, second class citizens at best and slaves at worst, their resources at the disposal of the colonizing power, their destinies decided in European capitals tens of thousands of miles away from home. Despite shifting alliances in Europe, the colonial structure held. The principal colonial powers were the United Kingdom, France, Russia and the Netherlands. By the second half the 19th century there was a broad understanding between these powers about colonies and regions of influence. The structure held until the beginning of the 20th century when the failure of the established empires to accommodate the rising power of Germany precipitated the Great War and spelled the beginning of the end of the colonial world order.
The 20th century witnessed a rising tide of resentment against colonial rule. Political movements arose calling for the rights of the colonized people. It was a slow, tortuous and painful struggle. The colonial powers were dug in. They enjoyed overwhelming superiority in technology and military power. The colonial order was backed by sociology of dominance which arrogated the right of the European races to rule the world. The term “the white man’s burden” was invented to express the self-arrogated right of the Europeans to “civilize” the natives. By contrast, the colonized people lacked the organization, the institutions and the resources to confront the colonial order. Any semblance of effective resistance was crushed with a heavy hand. It was only after Hitler’s war, with the colonial powers financially bankrupt and militarily exhausted that the people of Asia and Africa saw the light of emancipation and freedom.
Of all the countries that achieved independence in the immediately post World War II period, Algeria stands out as a tragic exhibit of the brutality of colonial rule. Even an exhausted France was unwilling to relinquish its hold on its colonies. After its defeat and expulsion from Indochina (1954), France was even more adamant in holding onto Algeria. Attempts at reforms and proposals for integration of the colony with continental France were quashed leaving no option to the nationalists but to resist. The ensuing War of Independence (Guerre d’Algerie-1952-62) was one of the bloodiest struggles of the 20th century.
Estimates vary, but according to historians, between 500,000 and 1,500,000 Algerians perished in the conflict. Over two million in a total population of ten million were forced out of their homes and put in concentration camps. French army losses were approximately 28,000 dead and 65,000 wounded. Thousands of European settlers lost their lives. The war was characterized by torture and brutality against the Algerian Muslims and terror on the part of the resistance. In a long and protracted test of wills, the French won the military conflict but lost the political battle. The cessation of hostilities and independence opened the floodgates of refugees from North Africa into France. More than a million fled, many were Frenchmen, others were Algerians who had sided with the French during the war. The children and grandchildren of the North African immigrants constitute an unwelcome presence in France and face systemic discrimination in the land of their adoption. Their presence rocks the social and political fabric of France even to this day.
Algeria is the heart of the Maghreb. Situated between Morocco to the west, Tunisia and Libya to the East, Mali and Niger to the South, it is a large North African country, second in size only to the Sudan. The Mediterranean coastline, six hundred miles long, has fine harbors located at Oran, Algiers, Skikda and Anaba. The Atlas Mountains run from Morocco through Algeria into Tunisia. The highlands and the coastal areas receive a moderate amount of rainfall. The bulk of the country in the south is part of the Sahara with scant rainfall, little vegetation and very few habitations. Oil discovery in recent years has increased the strategic importance of this vast and desolate region.
As a part of the Mediterranean world, Algeria has been fought over and settled by wave after wave of invaders. The local people, the Berbers, have inhabited the land from prehistoric times. Circa 800 BC, Phoenician sailors arrived from the Eastern Mediterranean and established the city of Carthage, located in modern Tunisia. The city grew prosperous through trade and in succeeding centuries established a strong city-based state and an empire that straddled the coastlines of the Maghreb and Spain.
In the second and third century BC, Carthage was an adversary of Rome and a contestant for power in the Mediterranean. The Romans captured the city and destroyed it in the year 146 BC and the Maghreb became a part of the Roman Empire. Algeria was a granary for the Romans. Urbanization grew. Illustrious men graced the land. Among the noteworthy greats was St Augustine. In the year 698 CE the Arab general Hasan ibn al Numan defeated the Byzantines (Eastern Romans) at the battle of Carthage. North Africa fell before the relentless march of the Arab armies. A combined Arab-Berber army crossed the Straits of Gibraltar in 711 CE. By the year 732 CE, Spain and southern France had been incorporated into the far-flung Arab empire. Islamic influence took roots, and by the 9th century, North Africa and Spain were predominantly Muslim.
During the Islamic period, the Maghreb was ruled by successive dynasties including the Omayyads, the Abbasids, the Aghlabids, the Fatimids, the Almoravids, Al Mohads and the Merinides. After the fall of Granada in 1492, Spain thrust its power across the Mediterranean and captured several ports along the Mediterranean coast. The Muslim potentates appealed to the Ottomans for help. A long series of battles ensured. By 1570 CE Ottoman power was fully established in North Africa as far as the kingdom of Morocco. The Battle of Lepanto (1572 CE) arrested the expansion of Ottoman naval power. However, succeeding attempts by the Christian Iberians to colonize the Maghreb were beaten back. In 1588 CE, Emir Ahmed al Mansur demolished an invading Portuguese force led by King Sebastian at the Battle of al Qasr al Kabir. Thereafter, despite occasional forays by the Christian Iberians, the hold of Islamic empires on the Maghreb held, with the Merinids, Wattasid, Sa’adis and Alouite dynasties in Morocco, and the Ottomans in Algeria, Tunisia and lands farther east.
Until the 19th century, Algeria was the western province of the Ottoman Empire and was a source of manpower for the Ottoman navy. It was also a grain surplus area. A governor (Dey) appointed by the Sultan in Istanbul ruled the province and acted as the arbitrating authority in a pyramidal structure supported by local landlords and successful merchants. Due primarily to its distance, the province was largely autonomous. It was divided into four districts, each governed by a Bey.
The Napoleonic wars (1798-1812 CE) released enormous energies in the European continent and provided an impetus to the imperial expansion of the great powers. The weakening Ottoman Empire was the coveted prize. There was consensus between Britain, France and Russia that the Ottoman Empire was crumbling. However, there was no agreement as to how to dismantle it and who would control its pieces after it was dismantled.
The Russians had the advantage of geography. They coveted the Caucuses which provided access to the Black Sea. They also pressed their claims as protectors of the eastern Orthodox church whose followers formed a majority in the Balkans. The grand Russian design was to reach the warm waters of the Mediterranean and make their land-based realm a world empire. The French had their eyes on North Africa. The strategic goal of Great Britain was to protect its fledging Indian empire by controlling the land and sea routes leading to the Indian Ocean. Hence the British had the dual aims of containing the Russians and enhancing their own interests in the Middle East. The three Great Powers played a grand game alternately cooperating and competing with one another.
(The author is Director, World Organization for Resource Development and Education, Washington, DC; Director, American Institute of Islamic History and Culture, CA; Member, State Knowledge Commission, Bangalore; and Chairman, Delixus Group)