Algeria

Algeria (Fr. Algérie), a country on the north coast of Africa, which, since 1830, has been gradually taken possession of by the French, and is now regarded by them as an outlying part of France rather than as a colony. It lies between Morocco on the west side, and Tunis on the east, extending from west to east from about 2° 8' W. to 8° 50' E. long. It extends from the Mediterranean on the north side, to an ill-defined limit on the south side, which may, however, be generally taken at the extreme as the 30th parallel north, from Ghadames on the frontier of Tripolis on the east, to a point north of Gurara, an oasis of Tuat, on the west. The total area would thus be about 255,000 sq. m., or more than twice the size of Great Britain and Ireland.

Configuration of Surface.—The coast-line on the north, about 625 miles long, in the form of a very gentle curve, is little indented, steep and rocky, with only a few capes, and comparatively few good ports. From the coast inwards Algeria is marked off into three distinct regions: in the north, the Tell—mountainous, cultivated land, with fruitful valleys; in the middle, the region of Steppes—mountainous tableland, traversed from west to east by a string of brackish lakes or marshes, called Shotts; farther south—the Algerian Sahara, with oases. The Tell, on the north side, is marked by a series of mountain-chains, called by the French the Lesser Atlas or Coast Mountains, comprising the Mountains of Blidah, 5381 feet high, and Jurjura, with the peak of Little Khedija, 7572 feet. Farther south, forming the south limit of the Tell, is a parallel chain, the Middle Atlas, extending from west to east. The Tell, forming the mountainous, most fertile, and much the most populous section of Algeria, occupies an area altogether of about 54,000 sq. m., with an average breadth of about 47 miles. The central part of the country—the region of plateaux—extends farther south, from the borders of Morocco to those of Tunis. When the winter rains are past, the plateau, usually so bare and dreary, grows suddenly fresh with long grass and aromatic herbs, yielding fodder to the cattle that are there reared. The south limit of the middle tableland of Algeria is formed by the chain forming the north boundary of the Sahara, culminating in Sheliah, 7585 feet, the highest point of Algeria. The Algerian Sahara, constituting the third division of Algeria, and covering an area larger than that of both the divisions to the north of it, consists partly of sandy dunes, partly of country covered after rain with herbage; and there are oases round the wells. The Sahara is diversified by masses of rock, often ranged in long parallel chains. The Wady Igharghar is a channel 750 miles long, running from south to north.

The more considerable streams of Algeria rise in the middle region, and have therefore to seek their outlet in the Mediterranean, through passes in the middle and coast ranges. They are mostly of a slow current, with narrow mouths often choked with sand. Though swollen in the winter, they shrink in the summer to a thread, or even quite out of sight. Not one of them is navigable, but they are used for purposes of irrigation.

Climate.—The climate of Algeria is distinguished into only three seasons: winter, from November to February; spring, from March to June; summer, from July to October. In winter is the rainy season; rain falls especially in October and November. The season most congenial for Europeans is spring. In July begins the great heat, and on through the four summer months it is seldom that any rain falls. After a hot day, the night is often very cold. The climate of the Sahara is quite tropical and very oppressive to Europeans. The planting of forests, drainage, and irrigation, under the French, are effecting a great improvement in the climate. The draining of Lake Hallula in the plain of Metija has given 34,000 acres of good land to cultivation.

Products.—In the Sahara, by the sinking of artesian wells, desert tracts have been converted into cultivated land, and in ten years the inhabitants of the Sahara oases have increased from 6600 to 13,000, while about 517,000 palms and 90,000 fruit-trees are now counted. Algeria is coming to the front as a wheat-growing country, and between 1869 and 1885 had doubled its export of this cereal. Fruits and vegetables are grown in large quantities in the neighbourhood of the town of Algiers, for the markets in France, England, and Germany. The cultivation of the grape, silk, and tobacco is rapidly extending. Immense tracts of land, suitable for no other cultivation, are being successfully planted with vines, and Algeria promises to develop into a great wine-producing country. The forest vegetation of Algeria is extremely rich by nature, comprising pine, oak, cedar, pistachio, mastic, carob, olive, myrtle. Special exports are cork and alfa or esparto grass. In 1885, 45 million acres were occupied by an agricultural population, fifteen-sixteenths being in the hands of Europeans. Of this area, 7,300,000 acres were under cereals, 113,000 acres under vines, 21,700 acres under tobacco, 5 million acres under forest. The tablelands grow an inexhaustible supply of alfa. Algeria has been ascertained to have a very considerable wealth of metals, iron and copper being particularly abundant, though yet little worked. Over 100 mineral springs are counted in Algeria.

Population, Trade, and Industry.—Officially,

Algeria is divided into three civil departments, those of Algiers, Oran, and Constantine, to each of which is attached a military division, not yet organised under the civil administration, besides the vast Algerian Sahara, now recognised as French. The civil departments are frequently increased by taking in portions of the area heretofore under military government. At the census of 1891 the area and population were as follows :

The above figures comprised 500,000 foreigners, of whom 273,000 were French, and 120,000 Spanish, 35,000 Jews, about as many Italians, and some 20,000 Maltese (claiming English citizenship), with several thousand Germans and others. The native population is divided between Arabs and Berbers. To the former belong the Bedouins living in tents or travelling-huts, and dating mostly from the third Arab invasion in the 11th century. They live chiefly in the Tell, tilling the land and rearing cattle, but are also numerous in the Sahara, where they only rear cattle. The Moors, settled in towns, about 2 millions, are partly of Arabian and partly of the old Mauritanian or Berber stock; they are an impoverished and dwindling population. The Kabyles or old Berbers, about 700,000, inhabit mostly Constantine. There are also negroes employed as day-labourers and servants. In 1885, 1050 English miles of railway were open for traffic, and in 1887 the railway from Oran to Tunis, via Algiers and Constantine, between 800 and 900 miles long, was completed. The telegraph of Algeria, including branches into Tunis, measured in 1886, 11,142 miles of wire. Telephones are also set up in Algiers and Oran. Algeria possesses 192 post and 44 telegraph offices. The caravan routes of Western Algeria, starting from Oran and Tlemçen, lead first to Tuat and Insalah, and thence to the Sudan, the Negro lands, and Timbuctoo. These highways are equally in communication with the provinces of Algiers and Constantine.

The trade of Algeria shows a constant increase. Since the French occupation, the imports have increased fifty, and the exports one hundred-fold. The imports, three-fourths of which come from France, varied in the period 1881-91 from £8,800,000 to £12,000,000. The exports, two-thirds of which go to France, varied from £6,000,000 to over £10,000,000. The imports are chiefly manufactured cotton, hemp, linen, silk, and woolen stuffs; cloths, sugar, hides, paper, liquors, metals, building materials, &c. The exports are cereals, wool, raw hides, living animals, minerals, early fruit, alfa and other vegetable fibres, cork, iron, copper, and lead ores.

Administration and Religion.—From 1834 down to 1870 Algeria was entirely under military rule. At that date a civil governor-general, with residence at Algiers, was substituted for the former military governor, to administer the government of the colony. The new civil government extends, however, only over the settled districts, the Sahara and adjoining districts being still under military rule. The governor-general is assisted by a council whose function is purely consultative. The colonists send two deputies and one senator for each department to the French Chambers. Mediators between the native chiefs (sheikhs) and the government authorities are formed by the Bureaux Arabes, whose function it is to take care of the religious and civil interests of the Arabs on the one side, and of the colonists in their relations to the natives on the other.

The French troops in Algeria consist of one corps d'armée which, including gendarmerie, numbers upwards of 52,000. These are divided into a French corps remaining in garrison in Algeria a certain number of years, after which they return to France, and native troops which may quit Algeria only on extraordinary occasions. This latter division consists of three regiments of 'Tirailleurs Algériens' and three of 'spahis.' There are four regiments of 'Chasseurs d'Afrique' and of Zouaves, consisting solely of French officers and soldiers. A Foreign Legion, besides, of various nationalities, is mostly officered by Frenchmen. In general, all the inhabitants of Algeria are subject to the French tribunals. At the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Algeria is the Archbishop of Algiers, with four vicars-general. Though the mosques and their lands are declared to be state property, the Mohammedan cult is supported by the state.

History.—In the most ancient times we find the Numidians settled in the eastern part of the region, and the Moors (or Mauri) in the west. Under the Romans, the former was included in the province of Africa, while the latter was called Mauritania Cæsariensis. It had then populous cities, which were principally Roman colonies. But its conquest by the Vandals, about 440, threw it back into a state of barbarism, from which it only partially recovered after the Mohammedan immigrants had established their dominion. About the year 935, the city of Algiers (q.v.) was built by an Arabian prince, Zeiri, whose successors ruled the land till 1148, after which it was governed by the Almohades till 1269. It was then split up into many small territories. In 1492 the Moors and Jews who had been driven out of Spain settled in Algeria, and began to revenge themselves on their persecutors by piracy. Ferdinand, the Spanish monarch, attacked them on this account, and took the city of Algiers in 1509. One of the Algerine princes, the Emir of Metija, now invited to his assistance the Greek renegade, Horuk Barbarossa, who had made himself famous as a Turkish pirate chief. This laid the foundation of the Turkish dominion; for when Barbarossa arrived in 1516, he treacherously turned his corsair bands against the emir, whom he murdered, and then made himself sultan of Algiers. His subsequent successes alarmed the Spaniards, who marched an army against him from Oran. Barbarossa was defeated in many encounters, and, at last, being taken prisoner, was beheaded in 1518. His brother was then chosen sultan. He put himself under the protection of the Ottoman court, by the help of a Turkish army drove the Spaniards out of the country, and established that system of military despotism and piracy which the English, Dutch, French, Spaniards, and Americans from time to time in vain endeavoured to extirpate, and which lasted till 1830. In that year the town of Algiers capitulated to a French fleet, and the French took possession of the place.

After the revolution of 1830, General Clausel set about subduing the country, and giving it a regular government; but he encountered the most determined opposition in Abd-el-Kader (q.v.), who soon became the rallying-point of the 'holy war,' which the Marabouts had begun to preach. A disgraceful defeat suffered by the French army at Makta caused the recall of the first governor-general, D'Erlon. Clausel was now sent back to Algeria with the title of marshal; but Abd-el-Kader was soon more powerful than ever, and General Bugeaud had to be sent out from France with reinforcements. In February 1837 Marshal Clausel was recalled, and General Damré- mont succeeded him. He first attacked the Kabyles of the province of Algiers, and chastised them with severity, and then commenced his great work of taking Constantine, which he ultimately succeeded in storming in May. This victory laid the foundation for the entire subjugation of the province of Constantine.

In 1837 General Valée was appointed governor-general. He, like the others, misunderstood the character of Abd-el-Kader. New treaties were made, which only delayed hostilities. At last, however, deserted by most of his followers, and hemmed in on all sides, the Arab chief was forced to surrender to General Lamoricière at the close of December 1847.

In 1848 the Kabyles broke out into a new insurrection, which, however, was speedily quelled. The French troops penetrated into the far south, almost to the borders of Sahara. In 1853-4, and again in 1856-7, expeditions were organised against the Kabyles. The struggle was sanguinary and barbarous on both sides; and it was only after several defeats sustained by the Kabyles, that, in 1864, peace was restored by the submission of the conquered tribes. Pélissier having died in 1864, Marshal MacMahon was appointed to succeed him. In the following year the Emperor Napoleon made a journey to Algeria, and issued a proclamation, in which, although explaining to the Arabs that Algeria must continue to be united to France, he promised to maintain their nationality; and at the same time gave them assurance that they should always remain in undisturbed possession of their territories. There was peace till 1870, when, the Franco-Prussian war having begun, the emperor found it necessary to withdraw to Europe the greater part of the forces in Africa; and the natives began to entertain hopes of freeing themselves from the yoke of France. Movements were begun in the provinces of Constantine and Oran, which it required all General Durieu's vigilance and activity to hold in check. After this, again, some disorder arose among the colonists themselves, who strongly desired the abolition of the military government—a change which the new republican government at Paris soon gratified them by effecting. To Durieu's place was appointed a civil governor, and under him prefects for each of the three provinces. In 1881, when France entered on a campaign against Tunis, a chief raised the standard of revolt in Algeria, and inflicted considerable losses on the French colonists.

See works on Algeria by Niort (1884), Gaffarel (1883), Bécquet et Simon (1883), MacCarthy (Paris, 1857), Fillias (3d ed. 1874), Nettement (2d ed. 1871); also Réclus, Nouvelle Géographie (1877); A. Rambaud, France Coloniale (1886); Certeux and Carnoy, L'Algérie traditionnelle (vol. i. 1884); and De Lanessan, L'Expansion Coloniale de la France (1886).