Algeria - History

ALGERIA - HISTORY The history of Algeria, which constitutes the central part of Barbary or Moghreb, has almost always been bound up with that of Morocco and Tunisia, which are respectively the western and the eastern parts of that great natural region. The actual name of Algeria, or rather of the regency of Algiers, does not appear until the i6th century, when Turkish rule was established in the central Moghreb.

Northern Africa has from the most ancient times been a meet ing-ground for races of different origin. According to anthropol ogists the native populations of Algeria, taken as a whole, belong to a Hamitic strain which is stated to have occupied the whole of North Africa, including both the eastern and the western por tions, to have been represented by considerable groups in the heart of the African continent, and also to have contributed to the population of southern Europe. These peoples are generally known as Berbers; they are not, however, homogeneous, but differ considerably from one another both in bodily character istics and facial type. The Berber dialects, which belong to the so-called Hamitic or proto-Semitic group, are still spoken in Algeria by approximately one-quarter of the native population.

Algeria During Antiquity.

The history of Algeria is the history of successive conquests : the Carthaginian, the Roman, the Vandal, the Byzantine, the Arab, the Turkish and the French. As there was no one natural centre for the whole country, political divisions were constantly changing. The Berber tribes never suc ceeded in combining to form a properly organized and durable State; they only ceased their internecine strife to be swallowed up in some vast empire whose centre was elsewhere than in North Africa: sometimes in Spain, sometimes in the East. The succes sive empires sprang up suddenly and disappeared with equal rapidity. The history of Algeria has no unity; it is not the story of a nation or of a historical community. The Berber tribes were split up like the land which they inhabited; each small settlement and each tribe had a history of its own.

The Phoenician colonization marks the beginning of the histori cal age in North Africa. As early as the I2th century B.C. the Phoenicians founded settlements on the African coast. In the 8th century Carthage supplanted the earlier metropolis and imposed its suzerainty on the Phoenicians of the East. During the seven centuries for which it endured, the Punic civilization penetrated more or less deeply into the Berber districts, and the Punic tongue long continued to be spoken.

After the fall of Carthage (146 B.c.) Rome governed the country through native kings. The Roman occupation was at first limited and only extended itself little by little. Complete annexation only took place under Caligula (A.D. 4o). Algeria con stituted the provinces of Numidia and Mauretania Caesarea. Even at its height, Roman domination did not extend over the whole of present-day Algeria; the frontier passed south of the Aures, but then turned north, leaving out the steppe zone of the provinces of Algiers and Oran.

Roman colonization of the country was effected by three methods : introduction of colonists, intermarriage between Rom ans and natives and the transformation of natives into Romans. Probably it was the last method which everywhere gained the upper hand. By the middle of the end century A.D., Latinized Africans were to be found throughout the empire. The most famous authors produced by Latin Africa were Apuleius of Madaura among the pagans and St. Augustine of Thagasta among the Christians. Numerous and wealthy cities sprang up and roads were constructed. It was a period of great material prosperity, based mainly on agriculture. The wealthiest province was Con stantina, which was much more completely Romanized than the rest of Algeria. The main crops cultivated were wheat and olives.

For two centuries (A.D. 40-238) Roman Africa enjoyed a period of complete peace, until this was destroyed by religious disturb ances, native revolts, and finally the Vandal invasion, which was followed by a brief restoration of Byzantine rule.

The Middle Ages: Arabs and Berbers.

In the 12th century, what remained of Roman civilization in North Africa was finally destroyed by the Arab invasion. Algeria was thus detached from the Latin world and absorbed into that of Islam. The first Arab invasion, which took place in the 7th century, was the beginning of an era of anarchy and incessant warfare. The Berbers resisted at first and then embraced a heretical form of Mohammedanism known as Kharedjism. They were swept by the Mohammedans into the wars for the conquest of Spain and subsequently of Egypt. The second Arab invasion of North Africa, which was carried out in the 11 th century by the Hilal and Soleim tribes from the Hedjaz, completed the ruin of the country. The ethno graphical character of the population was not, however, so pro foundly affected by the invasion as was at one time believed. The invaders almost everywhere became amalgamated with the native population; the latter were, however, uprooted and thrown into confusion, and many of them took refuge in the mountainous dis tricts or in the Sahara. In the towns and in the plains the Arabs gradually imposed their language and religion.

The Berbers nevertheless set up large and powerful empires during the middle ages. Two dynasties of a religious and reform ing character were founded, that of the Almoravids and that of the Almohads, the former by the nomads of the Sahara and the latter by the Berbers of the Moroccan Atlas. Their rule extended not only to the whole of North Africa but also to Spain, and the civilizing influence of the latter country made itself felt upon them.

Three kingdoms were founded in the 13 th century on the ruins of the Almohad empire: that of the Merinids of Fez, that of the Abd-el-Ouadites of Tlemsen, and that of the Hafsides of Tunis. The three kingdoms corresponded approximately to the modern Morocco, Algeria and Tunis; but their Mohammedan sovereigns never succeeded in establishing their authority firmly over the territories in which their suzerainty was more or less recognized. Their history consists in incessant struggles between dynasties, chronic insurrections and disturbances, raids and the sacking of towns. By the beginning of the i6th century the Berber com munities were hopelessly disintegrated and incapable of joint action; anarchy had reached its high-water mark and the ruin of the country was complete. From that time onwards North Africa was contested for by the two dominant foreign influences in the Mediterranean : that of the Spaniards and Portuguese and that of the Ottoman Turks.

The Turkish Period (1518-1830).

Once they had recon quered the Iberian peninsula the Spaniards and Portuguese con tinued the struggle against the Mohammedans in North Africa. Cardinal Ximenes regarded the conquest of Algeria as necessary for the expansion of Spain. Oran was captured in 1 509 and Algiers in 151o; on a small island in the harbour of Algiers the victors built a fortress, the Penon, the guns of which could sweep the town from a distance of 3ooyd. Spain was soon mistress of a large part of the coast of Algeria.

The Spanish successes were not, however, lasting. The natives, wishing to be delivered from the Spaniards, called in two Greco Turkish corsairs, the brothers Barbarossa. The first, Aroudj, cap tured Algiers and Tenes, and destroyed the dynasty of the Abd el-Ouadites of Tlemsen. His brother, Kheir-ed-Din, succeeded him, and was the real founder of the regency of Algiers. He did homage for the conquered country to the sultan of Constanti nople, who conferred on him the title of Beylierbey (Bey of Beys), and authorized Turks to serve under his banner. In 1529 Kheir-ed-Din captured the Penon and built a mole to connect it with the mainland, thus forming the famous harbour which until 1830 was the impregnable stronghold of the corsairs. Charles V. attacked Algiers in 1541 but failed lamentably. The Spaniards only retained Oran, which was taken by the Turks in 1708, re captured by the Spaniards in 1732, and finally abandoned by them in 1791.

The first period of the Turkish rule in North Africa (1518-87) ended with the reign of Euldj-Ali, the last and the most notable of the African Beylierbeys. It was followed by the period of the triennial pashas (1587-1659), and then by that of the deys 1830). The three phases imply something more than a mere change of title of the rulers of the regency; they represent an increase in the independence of Algeria from Constantinople, and also a growing anarchy. The real rulers of the regency were the odjak, or militia, and the taiffe of the rais, or corporation of cor sairs. The militia was a military corps recruited in Asia Minor which governed itself on the most democratic lines; its members, the janissaries (q.v.), all received equal pay and were promoted by seniority only. The rais or corsair captains were mostly of Christian origin. The internal history of Algeria at this period consists entirely in the unending strife between these two rival powers, the odjak and the rais. The Turks governed the native tribes by setting them one against the other. They gained the support of certain tribes known as the makhzen tribes, which were liable for military service but not for taxation. The remaining tribes, known as the rains, bore the whole burden of taxation. The Turks did not interfere with the manners and customs of the natives, but only required them to pay taxes and allow them free passage through their territory. In theory the tribes were governed either by the Beylik of Medea or Titteri, that of Constantine, or that of Mascara, the capital of the last being later transferred to Oran. Most of them, however, were never really reduced to subjection.

For 30o years Algiers was the headquarters of piracy, the meeting-place of sea-robbers, and the terror of all civilized coun tries, which it defied with audacity born of long impunity. The punitive expeditions of the European Powers against the Algerians were generally undertaken haphazard and after insufficient prepa ration. Bombardments and blockades produced no lasting result. The principal expeditions were those of Duquesne (1683), Mar shal d'Estrees (1688), O'Reilly (1774) and Lord Exmouth (1816).