Algeria History
Think Tanks
Wikipedia. Prehistory and ancient history. Around
~1.8-million-year-old stone artifacts from Ain Hanech (Algeria) were
considered to represent the oldest archaeological materials in North
Africa. Stone artifacts and cut-marked bones that were excavated
from two nearby deposits at Ain Boucherit are estimated to be ~1.9
million years old, and even older stone artifacts to be as old as ~2.4
million years.[16] Hence, the Ain Boucherit evidence shows that
ancestral hominins inhabited the Mediterranean fringe in northern Africa
much earlier than previously thought. The evidence strongly argues for
early dispersal of stone tool manufacture and use from East Africa or a
possible multiple-origin scenario of stone technology in both East and
North Africa.
Neanderthal
tool makers produced hand axes in the Levalloisian and Mousterian
styles (43,000 BC) similar to those in the Levant.[17][18] Algeria was
the site of the highest state of development of Middle Paleolithic Flake
tool techniques.[19] Tools of this era, starting about 30,000 BC, are
called Aterian (after the archaeological site of Bir el Ater, south of
Tebessa).
The
earliest blade industries in North Africa are called Iberomaurusian
(located mainly in the Oran region). This industry appears to have
spread throughout the coastal regions of the Maghreb between 15,000 and
10,000 BC. Neolithic civilization (animal domestication and agriculture)
developed in the Saharan and Mediterranean Maghreb perhaps as early as
11,000 BC[20] or as late as between 6000 and 2000 BC. This life, richly
depicted in the Tassili n'Ajjer paintings, predominated in Algeria until
the classical period. The mixture of peoples of North Africa coalesced
eventually into a distinct native population that came to be called
Berbers, who are the indigenous peoples of northern Africa.[21]
From
their principal center of power at Carthage, the Carthaginians expanded
and established small settlements along the North African coast; by 600
BC, a Phoenician presence existed at Tipasa, east of Cherchell, Hippo
Regius (modern Annaba) and Rusicade (modern Skikda). These settlements
served as market towns as well as anchorages.
As
Carthaginian power grew, its impact on the indigenous population
increased dramatically. Berber civilisation was already at a stage in
which agriculture, manufacturing, trade, and political organisation
supported several states. Trade links between Carthage and the Berbers
in the interior grew, but territorial expansion also resulted in the
enslavement or military recruitment of some Berbers and in the
extraction of tribute from others.
By
the early 4th century BC, Berbers formed the single largest element of
the Carthaginian army. In the Revolt of the Mercenaries, Berber soldiers
rebelled from 241 to 238 BC after being unpaid following the defeat of
Carthage in the First Punic War.[22] They succeeded in obtaining control
of much of Carthage's North African territory, and they minted coins
bearing the name Libyan, used in Greek to describe natives of North
Africa. The Carthaginian state declined because of successive defeats by
the Romans in the Punic Wars.[23]
In
146 BC the city of Carthage was destroyed. As Carthaginian power waned,
the influence of Berber leaders in the hinterland grew. By the 2nd
century BC, several large but loosely administered Berber kingdoms had
emerged. Two of them were established in Numidia, behind the coastal
areas controlled by Carthage. West of Numidia lay Mauretania, which
extended across the Moulouya River in modern-day Morocco to the Atlantic
Ocean. The high point of Berber civilisation, unequalled until the
coming of the Almohads and Almoravids more than a millennium later, was
reached during the reign of Masinissa in the 2nd century BC.
After
Masinissa's death in 148 BC, the Berber kingdoms were divided and
reunited several times. Masinissa's line survived until 24 AD, when the
remaining Berber territory was annexed to the Roman Empire.
For
several centuries Algeria was ruled by the Romans, who founded many
colonies in the region. Like the rest of North Africa, Algeria was one
of the breadbaskets of the empire, exporting cereals and other
agricultural products. Saint Augustine was the bishop of Hippo Regius
(modern-day Annaba, Algeria), located in the Roman province of Africa.
The Germanic Vandals of Geiseric moved into North Africa in 429, and by
435 controlled coastal Numidia.[24] They did not make any significant
settlement on the land, as they were harassed by local tribes.[citation
needed] In fact, by the time the Byzantines arrived Leptis Magna was
abandoned and the Msellata region was occupied by the indigenous
Laguatan who had been busy facilitating an Amazigh political, military
and cultural revival.[24][25] Furthermore, during the rule of the
Romans, Byzantines, Vandals, Carthaginians, and Ottomans the Berber
people were the only or one of the few in North Africa who remained
independent.[26][27][28][29] The Berber people were so resistant that
even during the Muslim conquest of North Africa they still had control
and possession over their mountains.[30][31]
The
collapse of the Western Roman Empire led to the establishment of a
native Kingdom based in Altava (modern day Algeria) known as the
Mauro-Roman Kingdom. It was succeeded by another Kingdom based in
Altava, the Kingdom of Altava. During the reign of Kusaila its territory
extended from the region of modern-day Fez in the west to the western
Aurès and later Kairaouan and the interior of Ifriqiya in the
east.[32][33][34][35][36][37]
Middle Ages
After negligible resistance from the locals, Muslim Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate conquered Algeria in the early 8th century.
Large
numbers of the indigenous Berber people converted to Islam. Christians,
Berber and Latin speakers remained in the great majority in Tunisia
until the end of the 9th century and Muslims only became a vast majority
some time in the 10th.[38] After the fall of the Umayyad Caliphate,
numerous local dynasties emerged, including the Rustamids, Aghlabids,
Fatimids, Zirids, Hammadids, Almoravids, Almohads and the Abdalwadid.
The Christians left in three waves: after the initial conquest, in the
10th century and the 11th. The last were evacuated to Sicily by the
Normans and the few remaining died out in the 14th century.[38]
During
the Middle Ages, North Africa was home to many great scholars, saints
and sovereigns including Judah Ibn Quraysh, the first grammarian to
mention Semitic and Berber languages, the great Sufi masters Sidi
Boumediene (Abu Madyan) and Sidi El Houari, and the Emirs Abd Al Mu'min
and Yāghmūrasen. It was during this time that the Fatimids or children
of Fatima, daughter of Muhammad, came to the Maghreb. These ""Fatimids""
went on to found a long lasting dynasty stretching across the Maghreb,
Hejaz and the Levant, boasting a secular inner government, as well as a
powerful army and navy, made up primarily of Arabs and Levantines
extending from Algeria to their capital state of Cairo. The Fatimid
caliphate began to collapse when its governors the Zirids seceded. In
order to punish them the Fatimids sent the Arab Banu Hilal and Banu
Sulaym against them. The resultant war is recounted in the epic
Tāghribāt. In Al-Tāghrībāt the Amazigh Zirid Hero Khālīfā Al-Zānatī asks
daily, for duels, to defeat the Hilalan hero Ābu Zayd al-Hilalī and
many other Arab knights in a string of victories. The Zirids, however,
were ultimately defeated ushering in an adoption of Arab customs and
culture. The indigenous Amazigh tribes, however, remained largely
independent, and depending on tribe, location and time controlled
varying parts of the Maghreb, at times unifying it (as under the
Fatimids). The Fatimid Islamic state, also known as Fatimid Caliphate
made an Islamic empire that included North Africa, Sicily, Palestine,
Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, the Red Sea coast of Africa, Tihamah,
Hejaz and Yemen.[39][40][41] Caliphates from Northern Africa traded with
the other empires of their time, as well as forming part of a
confederated support and trade network with other Islamic states during
the Islamic Era.
Fatimid Caliphate, a Shia Ismaili dynasty that ruled much of North Africa, c. 960–1100
The
Amazighs historically consisted of several tribes. The two main
branches were the Botr and Barnès tribes, who were divided into tribes,
and again into sub-tribes. Each region of the Maghreb contained several
tribes (for example, Sanhadja, Houara, Zenata, Masmouda, Kutama, Awarba,
and Berghwata). All these tribes made independent territorial
decisions.[42]
Several
Amazigh dynasties emerged during the Middle Ages in the Maghreb and
other nearby lands. Ibn Khaldun provides a table summarising the Amazigh
dynasties of the Maghreb region, the Zirid, Ifranid, Maghrawa,
Almoravid, Hammadid, Almohad, Merinid, Abdalwadid, Wattasid, Meknassa
and Hafsid dynasties.[43] Both of the Hammadid and Zirid empires as well
as the Fatimids established their rule in all of the Maghreb countries.
The Zirids ruled land in what is now Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya,
Spain, Malta and Italy. The Hammadids captured and held important
regions such as Ouargla, Constantine, Sfax, Susa, Algiers, Tripoli and
Fez establishing their rule in every country in the Maghreb
region.[44][45][46] The Fatimids which was created and established by
the Kutama Berbers [47][48] conquered all of North Africa as well as
Sicily and parts of the Middle East.
Ifranid Dynasty
Maghrawa Dynasty
Zirid Dynasty
Hammadid Dynasty
Fatimid Caliphate[47][48]
Kingdom of Tlemcen
Following
the Berber revolt numerous independent states emerged across the
Maghreb. In Algeria the Rustamid Kingdom was established. The Rustamid
realm stretched from Tafilalt in Morocco to the Nafusa mountains in
Libya including south, central and western Tunisia therefore including
territory in all of the modern day Maghreb countries, in the south the
Rustamid realm expanded to the modern borders of Mali and included
territory in Mauritania.[49][50][51]
Once
extending their control over all of the Maghreb, part of Spain[52] and
briefly over Sicily,[53] originating from modern Algeria, the Zirids
only controlled modern Ifriqiya by the 11th century. The Zirids
recognized nominal suzerainty of the Fatimid caliphs of Cairo. El Mu'izz
the Zirid ruler decided to end this recognition and declared his
independence.[54][55] The Zirids also fought against other Zenata
Kingdoms, for example the Maghrawa, a Berber dynasty originating from
Algeria and which at one point was a dominant power in the Maghreb
ruling over much of Morocco and western Algeria including Fez,
Sijilmasa, Aghmat, Oujda, most of the Sous and Draa and reaching as far
as M’sila and the Zab in Algeria.[56][57][58][59]
As
the Fatimid state was at the time too weak to attempt a direct
invasion, they found another means of revenge. Between the Nile and the
Red Sea were living Bedouin nomad tribes expelled from Arabia for their
disruption and turbulency. The Banu Hilal and the Banu Sulaym for
example, who regularly disrupted farmers in the Nile Valley since the
nomads would often loot their farms. The then Fatimid vizier decided to
destroy what he couldn't control, and broke a deal with the chiefs of
these Beduouin tribes.[60] The Fatimids even gave them money to leave.
Whole
tribes set off with women, children, elders, animals and camping
equipment. Some stopped on the way, especially in Cyrenaica, where they
are still one of the essential elements of the settlement but most
arrived in Ifriqiya by the Gabes region, arriving 1051.[61] The Zirid
ruler tried to stop this rising tide, but with each encounter, the last
under the walls of Kairouan, his troops were defeated and the Arabs
remained masters of the battlefield. They Arabs usually didn't take
control over the cities, instead looting them and destroying them.[55]
The
invasion kept going, and in 1057 the Arabs spread on the high plains of
Constantine where they encircled the Qalaa of Banu Hammad (capital of
the Hammadid Emirate), as they had done in Kairouan a few decades ago.
From there they gradually gained the upper Algiers and Oran plains. Some
of these territories were forcibly taken back by the Almohads in the
second half of the 12th century. The influx of Bedouin tribes was a
major factor in the linguistic, cultural Arabization of the Maghreb and
in the spread of nomadism in areas where agriculture had previously been
dominant.[62] Ibn Khaldun noted that the lands ravaged by Banu Hilal
tribes had become completely arid desert.[63]
The
Almohads originating from modern day Morocco, although founded by a man
originating from Algeria[64] known as Abd al-Mu'min would soon take
control over the Maghreb. During the time of the Almohad Dynasty Abd
al-Mu'min's tribe, the Koumïa, were the main supporters of the throne
and the most important body of the empire.[65] Defeating the weakening
Almoravid Empire and taking control over Morocco in 1147,[66] they
pushed into Algeria in 1152, taking control over Tlemcen, Oran, and
Algiers,[67] wrestling control from the Hilian Arabs, and by the same
year they defeated Hammadids who controlled Eastern Algeria.[67]
Following
their decisive defeat in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 the
Almohads began collapsing, and in 1235 the governor of modern-day
Western Algeria, Yaghmurasen Ibn Zyan declared his independence and
established the Kingdom of Tlemcen and the Zayyanid dynasty. Warring
with the Almohad forces attempting to restore control over Algeria for
13 years, they defeated the Almohads in 1248 after killing their Caliph
in a successful ambush near Oujda.[68]
The Zayyanid Kingdom of Tlemcen during the rule of Abu Malek
The
Zayyanids retained their control over Algeria for 3 centuries. Much of
the eastern territories of Algeria were under the authority of the
Hafsid dynasty,[69] although the Emirate of Bejaia encompassing the
Algerian territories of the Hafsids would occasionally be independent
from central Tunisian control. At their peak the Zayyanid kingdom
included all of Morocco as its vassal to the west and in the east
reached as far as Tunis which they captured during the reign of Abu
Tashfin.[70][71][72][73][74][75]
After
several conflicts with local Barbary pirates sponsored by the Zayyanid
sultans,[76] Spain decided to invade Algeria and defeat the native
Kingdom of Tlemcen. In 1505, they invaded and captured Mers el
Kébir,[77] and in 1509 after a bloody siege, they conquered Oran.[78]
Following their decisive victories over the Algerians in the
western-coastal areas of Algeria, the Spanish decided to get bolder, and
invaded more Algerian cities. In 1510, they led a series of sieges and
attacks, taking over Bejaia in a large siege,[79] and leading a
semi-successful siege against Algiers. They also besieged Tlemcen. In
1511, they took control over Cherchell[80] and Jijel, and attacked
Mostaganem where although they weren't able to conquer the city, they
were able to force a tribute on them.
Ottoman era
The Zayyanid kingdom of Tlemcen in the fifteenth century and its neighbors
In
1516, the Ottoman privateer brothers Aruj and Hayreddin Barbarossa, who
operated successfully under the Hafsids, moved their base of operations
to Algiers. They succeeded in conquering Jijel and Algiers from the
Spaniards with help from the locals who saw them as liberators from the
Christians, but the brothers eventually assassinated the local noble
Salim al-Tumi and took control over the city and the surrounding
regions. When Aruj was killed in 1518 during his invasion of Tlemcen,
Hayreddin succeeded him as military commander of Algiers. The Ottoman
sultan gave him the title of beylerbey and a contingent of some 2,000
janissaries. With the aid of this force and native Algerians, Hayreddin
conquered the whole area between Constantine and Oran (although the city
of Oran remained in Spanish hands until 1792).[81][82]
Hayreddin Barbarossa
The
next beylerbey was Hayreddin's son Hasan, who assumed the position in
1544. He was a Kouloughli or of mixed origins, as his mother was an
Algerian Mooresse.[83] Until 1587 Beylerbeylik of Algiers was governed
by Beylerbeys who served terms with no fixed limits. Subsequently, with
the institution of a regular administration, governors with the title of
pasha ruled for three-year terms. The pasha was assisted by an
autonomous janissary unit, known in Algeria as the Ojaq who were led by
an agha. Discontent among the ojaq rose in the mid-1600s because they
were not paid regularly, and they repeatedly revolted against the pasha.
As a result, the agha charged the pasha with corruption and
incompetence and seized power in 1659.[81]
Plague
had repeatedly struck the cities of North Africa. Algiers lost from
30,000 to 50,000 inhabitants to the plague in 1620–21, and suffered high
fatalities in 1654–57, 1665, 1691 and 1740–42.[84]
The
Barbary pirates preyed on Christian and other non-Islamic shipping in
the western Mediterranean Sea.[84] The pirates often took the passengers
and crew on the ships and sold them or used them as slaves.[85] They
also did a brisk business in ransoming some of the captives. According
to Robert Davis, from the 16th to 19th century, pirates captured 1
million to 1.25 million Europeans as slaves.[86] They often made raids,
called Razzias, on European coastal towns to capture Christian slaves to
sell at slave markets in North Africa and other parts of the Ottoman
Empire.[87][88] In 1544, for example, Hayreddin Barbarossa captured the
island of Ischia, taking 4,000 prisoners, and enslaved some 9,000
inhabitants of Lipari, almost the entire population.[89] In 1551, the
Ottoman governor of Algiers, Turgut Reis, enslaved the entire population
of the Maltese island of Gozo. Barbary pirates often attacked the
Balearic Islands. The threat was so severe that residents abandoned the
island of Formentera.[90] The introduction of broad-sail ships from the
beginning of the 17th century allowed them to branch out into the
Atlantic.[91]
In
July 1627 two pirate ships from Algiers under the command of Dutch
pirate Jan Janszoon sailed as far as Iceland,[92] raiding and capturing
slaves.[93][94][95] Two weeks earlier another pirate ship from Salé in
Morocco had also raided in Iceland. Some of the slaves brought to
Algiers were later ransomed back to Iceland, but some chose to stay in
Algeria. In 1629, pirate ships from Algeria raided the Faroe
Islands.[96]
In
1671, the taifa of raises, or the company of corsair captains rebelled,
killed the agha, and placed one of its own in power. The new leader
received the title of Dey. After 1689, the right to select the dey
passed to the divan, a council of some sixty nobles. It was at first
dominated by the ojaq; but by the 18th century, it had become the dey's
instrument. In 1710, the dey persuaded the sultan to recognise him and
his successors as regent, replacing the pasha in that role. Although
Algiers remained nominally part of the Ottoman Empire,[81] in reality
they acted independently from the rest of the Empire,[97][98] and often
had wars with other Ottoman subjects and territories such as the Beylik
of Tunis.[99]
The
dey was in effect a constitutional autocrat. The dey was elected for a
life term, but in the 159 years (1671–1830) that the system was in
place, fourteen of the twenty-nine deys were assassinated. Despite
usurpation, military coups and occasional mob rule, the day-to-day
operation of the Deylikal government was remarkably orderly. Although
the regency patronised the tribal chieftains, it never had the unanimous
allegiance of the countryside, where heavy taxation frequently provoked
unrest. Autonomous tribal states were tolerated, and the regency's
authority was seldom applied in the Kabylia,[81] although in 1730 the
Regency was able to take control over the Kingdom of Kuku in western
Kabylia.[100] Many cities in the northern parts of the Algerian desert
paid taxes to Algiers or one of its Beys,[101] although they otherwise
retained complete autonomy from central control, while the deeper parts
of the Sahara were completely independent from Algiers.
Christian slaves in Algiers, 1706
Barbary
raids in the Mediterranean continued to attack Spanish merchant
shipping, and as a result, the Spanish Navy bombarded Algiers in 1783
and 1784.[82] For the attack in 1784, the Spanish fleet was to be joined
by ships from such traditional enemies of Algiers as Naples, Portugal
and the Knights of Malta. Over 20,000 cannonballs were fired, much of
the city and its fortifications were destroyed and most of the Algerian
fleet was sunk.[102]
In
1792, Algiers took back Oran and Mers el Kébir, the two last Spanish
strongholds in Algeria.[103] In the same year, they conquered the
Moroccan Rif and Oujda, which they then abandoned in 1795.[104]
In
the 19th century, Algerian pirates forged affiliations with Caribbean
powers, paying a ""licence tax"" in exchange for safe harbour of their
vessels.[105]
Attacks
by Algerian pirates on American merchantmen resulted in the First and
Second Barbary Wars, which ended the attacks on U.S. ships. A year
later, a combined Anglo-Dutch fleet, under the command of Lord Exmouth
bombarded Algiers to stop similar attacks on European fishermen. These
efforts proved successful, although Algerian piracy would continue until
the French conquest in 1830.[106]
French colonization (1830–1962)
Under
the pretext of a slight to their consul, the French invaded and
captured Algiers in 1830.[107][108] Historian Ben Kiernan wrote on the
French conquest of Algeria: ""By 1875, the French conquest was complete.
The war had killed approximately 825,000 indigenous Algerians since
1830.""[109] French losses from 1831 to 1851 were 92,329 dead in the
hospital and only 3,336 killed in action.[110][111] The population of
Algeria, which stood at about 2.9 million in 1872, reached nearly 11
million in 1960.[112][unreliable source?] French policy was predicated
on ""civilising"" the country.[113] The slave trade and piracy in
Algeria ceased following the French conquest.[85] The conquest of
Algeria by the French took some time and resulted in considerable
bloodshed. A combination of violence and disease epidemics caused the
indigenous Algerian population to decline by nearly one-third from 1830
to 1872.[114][115][unreliable source?] On September 17, 1860, Napoleon
III declared ""Our first duty is to take care of the happiness of the
three million Arabs, whom the fate of arms has brought under our
domination.""[116]
During this time, only Kabylia resisted, the Kabylians were not colonized until after the Mokrani revolt in 1871.
From
1848 until independence, France administered the whole Mediterranean
region of Algeria as an integral part and département of the nation. One
of France's longest-held overseas territories, Algeria became a
destination for hundreds of thousands of European immigrants, who became
known as colons and later, as Pied-Noirs. Between 1825 and 1847, 50,000
French people emigrated to Algeria.[117][118] These settlers benefited
from the French government's confiscation of communal land from tribal
peoples, and the application of modern agricultural techniques that
increased the amount of arable land.[119] Many Europeans settled in Oran
and Algiers, and by the early 20th century they formed a majority of
the population in both cities.[120]
During
the late 19th and early 20th century, the European share was almost a
fifth of the population. The French government aimed at making Algeria
an assimilated part of France, and this included substantial educational
investments especially after 1900. The indigenous cultural and
religious resistance heavily opposed this tendency, but in contrast to
the other colonised countries' path in central Asia and Caucasus,
Algeria kept its individual skills and a relatively human-capital
intensive agriculture.[121]
During
the Second World War, Algeria came under Vichy control before being
liberated by the Allies in Operation Torch, which saw the first
large-scale deployment of American troops in the North African
campaign.[122]
Gradually,
dissatisfaction among the Muslim population, which lacked political and
economic status under the colonial system, gave rise to demands for
greater political autonomy and eventually independence from France. In
May 1945, the uprising against the occupying French forces was
suppressed through what is now known as the Sétif and Guelma massacre.
Tensions between the two population groups came to a head in 1954, when
the first violent events of what was later called the Algerian War began
after the publication of the Declaration of 1 November 1954. Historians
have estimated that between 30,000 and 150,000 Harkis and their
dependants were killed by the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) or by
lynch mobs in Algeria.[123] The FLN used hit and run attacks in Algeria
and France as part of its war, and the French conducted severe
reprisals.
The
war led to the death of hundreds of thousands of Algerians and hundreds
of thousands of injuries. Historians, like Alistair Horne and Raymond
Aron, state that the actual number of Algerian Muslim war dead was far
greater than the original FLN and official French estimates but was less
than the 1 million deaths claimed by the Algerian government after
independence. Horne estimated Algerian casualties during the span of
eight years to be around 700,000.[124] The war uprooted more than 2
million Algerians.[125]
The
war against French rule concluded in 1962, when Algeria gained complete
independence following the March 1962 Evian agreements and the July
1962 self-determination referendum.
The first three decades of independence (1962–1991)
The
number of European Pied-Noirs who fled Algeria totaled more than
900,000 between 1962 and 1964.[126] The exodus to mainland France
accelerated after the Oran massacre of 1962, in which hundreds of
militants entered European sections of the city, and began attacking
civilians.
Algeria's
first president was the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) leader
Ahmed Ben Bella. Morocco's claim to portions of western Algeria led to
the Sand War in 1963. Ben Bella was overthrown in 1965 by Houari
Boumédiène, his former ally and defence minister. Under Ben Bella, the
government had become increasingly socialist and authoritarian;
Boumédienne continued this trend. But, he relied much more on the army
for his support, and reduced the sole legal party to a symbolic role. He
collectivised agriculture and launched a massive industrialisation
drive. Oil extraction facilities were nationalised. This was especially
beneficial to the leadership after the international 1973 oil crisis.
In
the 1960s and 1970s under President Houari Boumediene, Algeria pursued a
program of industrialisation within a state-controlled socialist
economy. Boumediene's successor, Chadli Bendjedid, introduced some
liberal economic reforms. He promoted a policy of Arabisation in
Algerian society and public life. Teachers of Arabic, brought in from
other Muslim countries, spread conventional Islamic thought in schools
and sowed the seeds of a return to Orthodox Islam.[127]
The
Algerian economy became increasingly dependent on oil, leading to
hardship when the price collapsed during the 1980s oil glut.[128]
Economic recession caused by the crash in world oil prices resulted in
Algerian social unrest during the 1980s; by the end of the decade,
Bendjedid introduced a multi-party system. Political parties developed,
such as the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), a broad coalition of Muslim
groups.[127]
Civil War (1991–2002) and aftermath
In
December 1991 the Islamic Salvation Front dominated the first of two
rounds of legislative elections. Fearing the election of an Islamist
government, the authorities intervened on 11 January 1992, cancelling
the elections. Bendjedid resigned and a High Council of State was
installed to act as the Presidency. It banned the FIS, triggering a
civil insurgency between the Front's armed wing, the Armed Islamic
Group, and the national armed forces, in which more than 100,000 people
are thought to have died. The Islamist militants conducted a violent
campaign of civilian massacres.[129] At several points in the conflict,
the situation in Algeria became a point of international concern, most
notably during the crisis surrounding Air France Flight 8969, a
hijacking perpetrated by the Armed Islamic Group. The Armed Islamic
Group declared a ceasefire in October 1997.[127]
Algeria
held elections in 1999, considered biased by international observers
and most opposition groups[130] which were won by President Abdelaziz
Bouteflika. He worked to restore political stability to the country and
announced a ""Civil Concord"" initiative, approved in a referendum,
under which many political prisoners were pardoned, and several thousand
members of armed groups were granted exemption from prosecution under a
limited amnesty, in force until 13 January 2000. The AIS disbanded and
levels of insurgent violence fell rapidly. The Groupe Salafiste pour la
Prédication et le Combat (GSPC), a splinter group of the Armed Islamic
Group, continued a terrorist campaign against the Government.[127]
Bouteflika
was re-elected in the April 2004 presidential election after
campaigning on a programme of national reconciliation. The programme
comprised economic, institutional, political and social reform to
modernise the country, raise living standards, and tackle the causes of
alienation. It also included a second amnesty initiative, the Charter
for Peace and National Reconciliation, which was approved in a
referendum in September 2005. It offered amnesty to most guerrillas and
Government security forces.[127]
In
November 2008, the Algerian Constitution was amended following a vote
in Parliament, removing the two-term limit on Presidential incumbents.
This change enabled Bouteflika to stand for re-election in the 2009
presidential elections, and he was re-elected in April 2009. During his
election campaign and following his re-election, Bouteflika promised to
extend the programme of national reconciliation and a $150-billion
spending programme to create three million new jobs, the construction of
one million new housing units, and to continue public sector and
infrastructure modernisation programmes.[127]
A
continuing series of protests throughout the country started on 28
December 2010, inspired by similar protests across the Middle East and
North Africa. On 24 February 2011, the government lifted Algeria's
19-year-old state of emergency.[131] The government enacted legislation
dealing with political parties, the electoral code, and the
representation of women in elected bodies.[132] In April 2011,
Bouteflika promised further constitutional and political reform.[127]
However, elections are routinely criticised by opposition groups as
unfair and international human rights groups say that media censorship
and harassment of political opponents continue.
On
2 April 2019, Bouteflika resigned from the presidency after mass
protests against his candidacy for a fifth term in office.[133]
In
December 2019, Abdelmadjid Tebboune became Algeria's president, after
winning the first round of the presidential election with a record
abstention rate – the highest of all presidential elections since
Algeria's democracy in 1989. Tebboune is close to the military and he is
also accused of being loyal to the deposed president.[134]
History of Algeria
Data Government Agencies of Algeria
Prehistory of Central North Africa:
Early
inhabitants of the central Maghrib (also seen as Maghreb; designates
North Africa west of Egypt) left behind significant remains including
remnants of hominid occupation from ca. 200,000 B.C. found near Saïda.
Neolithic civilization (marked by animal domestication and subsistence
agriculture) developed in the Saharan and Mediterranean Maghrib between
6000 and 2000 B.C. This type of economy, so richly depicted in the
Tassili-n-Ajjer cave paintings in southeastern Algeria, predominated in
the Maghrib until the classical period. The amalgam of peoples of North
Africa coalesced eventually into a distinct native population that came
to be called Berbers. Distinguished primarily by cultural and linguistic
attributes, the Berbers lacked a written language and hence tended to
be overlooked or marginalized in historical accounts.
North
Africa During the Classical Period: Phoenician traders arrived on the
North African coast around 900 B.C. and established Carthage (in
present-day Tunisia) around 800 B.C. During the classical period, Berber
civilization was already at a stage in which agriculture,
manufacturing, trade, and political organization supported several
states. Trade links between Carthage and the Berbers in the interior
grew, but territorial expansion also brought about the enslavement or
military recruitment of some Berbers and the extraction of tribute from
others. The Carthaginian state declined because of successive defeats by
the Romans in the Punic Wars, and in 146 B.C. the city of Carthage was
destroyed. As Carthaginian power waned, the influence of Berber leaders
in the hinterland grew. By the second century B.C., several large but
loosely administered Berber kingdoms had emerged.
Berber
territory was annexed to the Roman Empire in A.D. 24. Increases in
urbanization and in the area under cultivation during Roman rule caused
wholesale dislocations of Berber society, and Berber opposition to the
Roman presence was nearly constant. The prosperity of most towns
depended on agriculture, and the region was known as the “granary of the
empire.” Christianity arrived in the second century. By the end of the
fourth century, the settled areas had become Christianized, and some
Berber tribes had converted en masse.
Islam
and the Arabs: The first Arab military expeditions into the Maghrib,
between 642 and 669, resulted in the spread of Islam. By 711 the
Umayyads (a Muslim dynasty based in Damascus from 661 to 750), helped by
Berber converts to Islam, had conquered all of North Africa. In 750 the
Abbasids succeeded the Umayyads as Muslim rulers and moved the
caliphate to Baghdad. Under the Abbasids, the Rustumid imamate (761-909)
actually ruled most of the central Maghrib from Tahirt, southwest of
Algiers. The imams gained a reputation for honesty, piety, and justice,
and the court of Tahirt was noted for its support of scholarship. The
Rustumid imams failed, however, to organize a reliable standing army,
which opened the way for Tahirt's demise under the assault of the
Fatimid dynasty. With their interest focused primarily on Egypt and
Muslim lands beyond, the Fatimids left the rule of most of Algeria to
the Zirids (972-1148), a Berber dynasty that centered significant local
power in Algeria for the first time. This period was marked by constant
conflict, political instability, and economic decline. Following a large
incursion of Arab bedouins from Egypt beginning in the first half of
the eleventh century, the use of Arabic spread to the countryside, and
sedentary Berbers were gradually Arabized.
The
Almoravid (“those who have made a religious retreat”) movement
developed early in the eleventh century among the Sanhaja Berbers of the
western Sahara. The movement's initial impetus was religious, an
attempt by a tribal leader to impose moral discipline and strict
adherence to Islamic principles on followers. But the Almoravid movement
shifted to engaging in military conquest after 1054. By 1106 the
Almoravids had conquered Morocco, the Maghrib as far east as Algiers,
and Spain up to the Ebro River.
Like
the Almoravids, the Almohads (“unitarians”) found their inspiration in
Islamic reform. The Almohads took control of Morocco by 1146, captured
Algiers around 1151, and by 1160 had completed the conquest of the
central Maghrib. The zenith of Almohad power occurred between 1163 and
1199. For the first time, the Maghrib was united under a local regime,
but the continuing wars in Spain overtaxed the resources of the
Almohads, and in the Maghrib their position was compromised by factional
strife and a renewal of tribal warfare. In the central Maghrib, the
Zayanids founded a dynasty at Tlemcen in Algeria. For more than 300
years, until the region came under Ottoman suzerainty in the sixteenth
century, the Zayanids kept a tenuous hold in the central Maghrib. Many
coastal cities asserted their autonomy as municipal republics governed
by merchant oligarchies, tribal chieftains from the surrounding
countryside, or the privateers who operated out of their ports.
Nonetheless, Tlemcen, the “pearl of the Maghrib,” prospered as a
commercial center.
The
final triumph of the 700-year Christian reconquest of Spain was marked
by the fall of Granada in 1492. Christian Spain imposed its influence on
the Maghrib coast by constructing fortified outposts and collecting
tribute. But Spain never sought to extend its North African conquests
much beyond a few modest enclaves. Privateering was an age-old practice
in the Mediterranean, and North African rulers engaged in it
increasingly in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries
because it was so lucrative. Algeria became the privateering city-state
par excellence, and two privateer brothers were instrumental in
extending Ottoman influence in Algeria. At about the time Spain was
establishing its presidios in the Maghrib, the Muslim privateer brothers
Aruj and Khair ad Din-the latter known to Europeans as Barbarossa, or
Red Beard-were operating successfully off Tunisia. In 1516 Aruj moved
his base of operations to Algiers but was killed in 1518. Khair ad Din
succeeded him as military commander of Algiers, and the Ottoman sultan
gave him the title of beylerbey (provincial governor). Under Khair ad
Din's regency, Algiers became the center of Ottoman authority in the
Maghrib. Subsequently, with the institution of a regular Ottoman
administration, governors with the title of pasha ruled. Turkish was the
official language, and Arabs and Berbers were excluded from government
posts. In 1671 a new leader assumed power, adopting the title of dey. In
1710 the dey persuaded the sultan to recognize him and his successors
as regent, replacing the pasha in that role. Although Algiers remained a
part of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman government ceased to have
effective influence there.
European
maritime powers paid the tribute exacted by the rulers of the
privateering states of North Africa (Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli [today
Libya], and Morocco) to prevent attacks on their shipping. The
Napoleonic wars of the early nineteenth century diverted the attention
of the maritime powers from suppressing what they derogatorily called
piracy. But when peace was restored to Europe in 1815, Algiers found
itself at war with Spain, the Netherlands, Prussia [Germany], Denmark,
Russia, and Naples [Italy]. In March of that year, the U.S. Congress
also authorized naval action against the so-called Barbary States.
France in Algeria:
As
a result of what the French considered an insult to the French consul
in Algiers by the dey [Husayn Dey] in 1827, France blockaded Algiers for
three years. France then used the failure of the blockade as a reason
for a military expedition against Algiers in 1830. By 1848 nearly all of
northern Algeria was under French control, and the new government of
the Second Republic declared the occupied lands an integral part of
France. Three ""civil territories Algiers, Oran, and Constantine were
organized as French départements (local administrative units) under a
civilian government. Colons (colonists), or, more popularly, pieds noirs
(literally, black feet) dominated the government and controlled the
bulk of Algeria's wealth. Throughout the colonial era, they continued to
block or delay all attempts to implement even the most modest reforms.
From 1933 to 1936, mounting social, political, and economic crises in
Algeria induced the indigenous population to engage in numerous acts of
political protest, but the government responded with more restrictive
laws governing public order and security. Algerian Muslims rallied to
the French side at the start of World War II as they had done in World
War I. But the colons were generally sympathetic to the collaborationist
Vichy regime established following France's defeat by Nazi Germany.
In
March 1943, Muslim leader Ferhat Abbas presented the French
administration with the Manifesto of the Algerian People, signed by 56
Algerian nationalist and international leaders. The manifesto demanded
an Algerian constitution that would guarantee immediate and effective
political participation and legal equality for Muslims. Instead, the
French administration in 1944 instituted a reform package based on the
1936 Viollette Plan that granted full French citizenship only to certain
categories of ""meritorious"" Algerian Muslims, who numbered about
60,000. The tensions between the Muslim and colon communities exploded
on May 8, 1945, V-E Day. When a Muslim march was met with violence,
marchers rampaged. The army and police responded by conducting a
prolonged and systematic ratissage (literally, raking over) of suspected
centers of dissidence. According to official French figures, 1,500
Muslims died as a result of these countermeasures. Other estimates vary
from 6,000 to as high as 45,000 killed.
In
August 1947, the French National Assembly approved the
government-proposed Organic Statute of Algeria. This law called for the
creation of an Algerian Assembly with one house representing Europeans
and ""meritorious"" Muslims and the other representing the remaining 8
million or more Muslims. Muslim and colon deputies alike abstained or
voted against the statute but for diametrically opposed reasons: the
Muslims because it fell short of their expectations and the colons
because it went too far.
War
of Independence: In the early morning hours of November 1, 1954, the
National Liberation Front (Front de Libération Nationale-FLN) launched
attacks throughout Algeria in the opening salvo of a war of
independence. An important watershed in this war was the massacre of
civilians by the FLN near the town of Philippeville in August 1955. The
government claimed it killed 1,273 guerrillas in retaliation; according
to the FLN, 12,000 Muslims perished in an orgy of bloodletting by the
armed forces and police, as well as colon gangs. After Philippeville,
all-out war began in Algeria.
From
its origins in 1954 as ragtag maquisards [resistance fighters]
numbering in the hundreds and armed with a motley assortment of weapons,
the National Liberation Army (Armée de Libération Nationale-ALN), the
military wing of the FLN, had evolved by 1957 into a disciplined
fighting force of nearly 40,000 that successfully applied hit-and-run
guerrilla warfare tactics. By 1956 France had committed more than
400,000 troops to Algeria. In 1958-59 the French army had won military
control in Algeria, but political developments had already overtaken the
French army's successes. During that period in France, opposition to
the conflict was growing, and international pressure was also building
on France to grant Algeria independence.
When
Charles De Gaulle became premier of France in June 1958, he was given
carte blanche to deal with Algeria. De Gaulle appointed a committee to
draft a new constitution for France's Fifth Republic, with which Algeria
would be associated but of which it would not form an integral part.
Muslims, including women, were registered for the first time with
Europeans on a common electoral roll to participate in a referendum to
be held on the new constitution in September 1958. Despite threats of
reprisal by the FLN, 80 percent of the Muslim electorate turned out to
vote in September, and 96 percent of them approved the constitution. In
February 1959, de Gaulle was elected president of the new Fifth
Republic.
Then,
in a September 1959 statement, de Gaulle uttered the words
""self-determination,"" which he envisioned as leading to majority rule
in an Algeria formally associated with France. Claiming that de Gaulle
had betrayed them, the colons, backed by units of the army, staged an
insurrection in Algiers in January 1960 that won mass support in Europe.
French forces defused the insurrection. However, in April 1961
important elements of the French army joined in another unsuccessful
insurrection intended to seize control of Algeria as well as topple the
de Gaulle regime. This coup marked the turning point in the official
attitude toward the Algerian war. De Gaulle was now prepared to abandon
the colons, the group that no previous French government could have
written off. Talks with the FLN reopened at Evian in May 1961. In their
final form, the Evian Accords allowed the colons equal legal protection
with Algerians over a three-year period. At the end of that period,
however, Europeans would be obliged to become Algerian citizens or be
classified as aliens with the attendant loss of rights. The French
electorate approved the Evian Accords by an overwhelming 91 percent vote
in a referendum held in June 1962. On July 1, 1962, some 6 million of a
total Algerian electorate of 6.5 million cast their ballots in the
referendum on independence. The affirmative vote was a nearly unanimous
mandate.
Independent Algeria, 1962-Present:
The
creation of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria was formally
proclaimed on September 25, 1962. The following day, after being named
premier, Ahmed Ben Bella formed a cabinet that linked the leadership of
the three power bases-the army, the party, and the government. However,
Ben Bella's ambitions and authoritarian tendencies ultimately led the
triumvirate to unravel and provoked increasing discontent among
Algerians.
The
war of national liberation and its aftermath had severely disrupted
Algeria's society and economy. In addition to the physical destruction,
the exodus of the colons deprived the country of most of its managers,
civil servants, engineers, teachers, physicians, and skilled workers.
The homeless and displaced numbered in the hundreds of thousands, many
suffering from illness, and some 70 percent of the work force was
unemployed. The months immediately following independence had witnessed
the pell-mell rush of Algerians, their government, and its officials to
claim the property and jobs left behind by the Europeans. In the 1963
March Decrees, Ben Bella declared that all agricultural, industrial, and
commercial properties previously owned and operated by Europeans were
vacant, thereby legalizing confiscation by the state.
A
new constitution drawn up under close FLN supervision was approved by
nationwide referendum in September 1963, and Ben Bella was confirmed as
the party's choice to lead the country for a five-year term. Under the
new constitution, Ben Bella as president combined the functions of chief
of state and head of government with those of supreme commander of the
armed forces. He formed his government with no need for legislative
approval and was solely responsible for the definition and direction of
its policies. Essentially, he had no effective institutional check on
his powers.
Opposition
leader Hosine Ait-Ahmed quit the National Assembly in 1963 to protest
the increasingly dictatorial tendencies of the regime and formed a
clandestine resistance movement, the Front of Socialist Forces (Front
des Forces Socialistes-FFS) dedicated to overthrowing the Ben Bella
regime by force. Late summer 1963 saw sporadic incidents attributed to
the FFS. More serious fighting broke out a year later. The army moved
quickly and in force to crush the rebellion. As minister of defense,
Houari Boumediene had no qualms about sending the army to put down
regional uprisings because he felt they posed a threat to the state.
However, when Ben Bella attempted to co-opt allies from among some of
those regionalists, tensions increased between Boumediene and Ben Bella.
On June 19, 1965, Boumediene deposed Ben Bella in a military coup
d'état that was both swift and bloodless.
Boumediene
immediately dissolved the National Assembly and suspended the 1963
constitution. Political power resided in the Council of the Revolution, a
predominantly military body intended to foster cooperation among
various factions in the army and the party. Boumediene's position as
head of government and head of state was not secure initially, but
following attempted coups and a failed assassination attempt in 1967-68,
Boumediene succeeded in consolidating power. Eleven years after he took
power and after much public debate, a long-promised new constitution
was promulgated in November 1976, and Boumediene was elected president
with a 95 percent majority.
Boumediene's
death on December 27, 1978, set off a struggle within the FLN to choose
a successor. As a compromise to break a deadlock between two other
candidates, Colonel Chadli Bendjedid, a moderate who had collaborated
with Boumediene in deposing Ben Bella, was sworn in on February 9, 1979
(and subsequently reelected in 1984 and 1988). In June 1980, he summoned
an extraordinary FLN Party Congress to produce a five-year plan to
liberalize the economy and break up unwieldy state corporations.
However, reform efforts failed to end high unemployment and other
economic hardships, all of which fueled Islamist activism. The
alienation and anger of the population were fanned by the widespread
perception that the government had become corrupt and aloof. The waves
of discontent crested in October 1988, when a series of strikes and
walkouts by students and workers in Algiers degenerated into rioting. In
response, the government declared a state of emergency and used force
to quell the unrest.
The
stringent measures used to put down the riots of “Black October”
engendered a groundswell of outrage. In response, Benjedid conducted a
house cleaning of senior officials and drew up a program of political
reform. A new constitution, approved overwhelmingly in February 1989,
dropped the word socialist from the official description of the country;
guaranteed freedoms of expression, association, and meeting; but
withdrew the guarantees of women's rights that had appeared in the 1976
constitution. The FLN was not mentioned in the document at all, and the
army was discussed only in the context of national defense. The new laws
reinvigorated politics. Newspapers became the liveliest and freest in
the Arab world, while political parties of nearly every stripe vied for
members and a voice. In February 1989, the Islamic Salvation Front
(Front Islamique du Salut-FIS) was founded.
Algeria's
leaders were stunned in December 1991 when FIS candidates won absolute
majorities in 188 of 430 electoral districts, far ahead of the FLN's 15
seats, in the first round of legislative elections. Faced with the
possibility of a complete FIS takeover and under pressure from the
military leadership, Benjadid dissolved parliament and then resigned in
January 1992. He was succeeded by the five-member High Council of State,
which canceled the second round of elections. The FIS, as well as the
FLN, clamored for a return of the electoral process, but police and
troops countered with massive arrests. In February 1992, violent
demonstrations erupted in many cities. The government declared a
one-year state of emergency and banned the FIS. The voiding of the 1991
election results led to a period of civil conflict that cost the lives
of as many as 150,000 people. Periodic negotiations between the military
government and Islamist rebels failed to produce a settlement.
In
1996 a referendum passed that introduced changes to the constitution
enhancing presidential powers and banning Islamist parties. Presidential
elections were held in April 1999. Although seven candidates qualified
for election, all but Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who appeared to have the
support of the military as well as the FLN, withdrew on the eve of the
election amid charges of electoral fraud. Bouteflika went on to win 70
percent of the votes. Following his election to a five-year term,
Bouteflika concentrated on restoring security and stability to the
strife-ridden country. As part of his endeavor, he successfully
campaigned to grant amnesty to thousands of members of the banned FIS.
The so-called Civil Concord was approved in a nationwide referendum in
September 2000. The reconciliation by no means ended all violence, but
it reduced violence to manageable levels. An estimated 80 percent of
those fighting the regime accepted the amnesty offer. The president also
formed national commissions to study reforms of the education system,
judiciary, and state bureaucracy. President Bouteflika was rewarded for
his efforts at stabilizing the country when he was elected to another
five-year term in April 2004, in an election contested by six candidates
without military interference. In September 2005, another
referendum-this one to consider a proposed Charter for Peace and
National Reconciliation-passed by an overwhelming margin. The charter
coupled another amnesty offer to all but the most violent participants
in the Islamist uprising with an implicit pardon for security forces
accused of abuses in fighting the rebels.