Algeria

Algeria was the beginning and the end of the French colonial empire. France started to move military forces to Algeria in the 1830s; before that happened, it was part of the Ottoman Empire led by Mahmud II. Even though Algeria was already part of an empire, it enjoyed some independence but that did not last long. During the Napoleonic Wars, France bought wheat from Algeria and the government refused to pay for this. A representative from Algeria protested and he hit the consul in the face; King Charles X wanted the raw materials of Africa and used the fight as an excuse to invade it. The French colonies stayed in Algeria through half of the 20th century, after the Ottoman Turks were forced to leave. Even though the Algerians were the majority, they were never respected and they were treated as slaves rather than people. By 1848 Algeria was part of the French territory, but the Algerians had to change their beliefs and become Christians if they wanted to become citizens. During World War I, Algerians fought for France and when the war was over some organizations like Étoile Nord-Africaine (ENA) and Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) were formed to help the Algerians gain more rights and freedom. This was the beginning of their independence. After World War II, the demands for freedom became violent and 88 French and more than a 1,000 Algerians were killed. The French Army divided into six groups throughout the country, which gave an advantage to FLN. The FLN started to gain more and more support from the people until it got to a point that almost all the revolutionaries and nationalists groups joined it. France did not want to give Algerians their independence, but finally on July 1, 1962, 92 percent of the people voted for independence. France left the country and Ahmed Ben Bella became the first president of Algeria. By the end of the war, 300,000 Algerians became refugees, 400,000 were in prison, and 8,000 villages had been destroyed.

France exploded the African people when they were there, but at the same time it led the country to independence and it helped them progress. I would pass France as a country that colonizes, but I would not say they did an excellent job. France went to Algeria with the excuse of revenged but what they really wanted was to explode the country and take all the raw material and gain new markets. Both of those reasons are bad starting points to colonize a country. Second, when the French established their colonies, many Algerians lost their lands and property. The French eliminated all the leaders and they took control over every aspect of their lives. Algerians were not treated as equal and even though they were the majority, most of them were living in farms control by French people or they moved to cities to have worst living conditions and no work. Muslims and Jews were not allowed to become French citizens unless they changed their beliefs and became Christians. Before France colonies were established, in 1830 the population of Algerians was 3 million people, but it decreased to 2.1 million by the end of 1872. Even though all of this happened under the French power; it all helped the country in the long run. The population grew again to 5 million by the 1920s. The health of the people improved insignificantly, also new social classes were formed. The French brought new ideas in the transportation and infrastructure, and the economy of the country expanded. The new ideas and thoughts that were coming from France inspired the Algerians to form a revolution and fight for their rights and independence. The war for independence began in 1954 and it ended until 1962. The Algerians received a lot of influenced from France through all the time the colonies stayed in the country.

Algeria won its independence from France in July 5, 1962 but that does not mean that their problems were solved. Algeria had some trouble right after the revolution and it took some time to stabilized things but it did a good job in getting back up and bringing the country together. There were some disagreements in the first months whether who would take the power, finally Ahmed Ben Bella took over with the support of the army. But not long after Ahmed Ben Bella became the president, Minister Boumédienne overthrew him on June 19, 1965. He took control of the country trying to protect the army from Ahmen Ben Bella. He established an economic program that increased the average growth rate by 13 percent between the years 1967 to 1978. One problem that Algeria had was that the agriculture needs never reached to the expectations; the country needed more food than the one that was being produced. Eleven years after becoming the president, he decided to write the National Charter which described the promises of the constitution. He died two years later and Chadli Bendjedid became the new president of Algeria. This president shifted the focused from the military to religion; the influenced of Islam increased in the whole country during the time. This situation became a problem when the Muslim activist were harassing women for the way of dressing, destroying places where alcohol was sold, and force to leave some of the religion leaders from the mosques. Later on under Bendjedid rule the country faced an economic crisis, and by the 1980s the unemployment rate was very high and there was shortage in consuming goods. Even though Algeria had some trouble stabilizing itself after the French were kicked out of the country, they were able to create a democracy and have stability in the country for most of the time. On February 12, 2011 there were some protests in Algiers demanding change in the government just like Egypt, Tunisia, and many other countries in the Middle East right now. The government promised new jobs and housing for the people, but corruption of the government in Algeria now is equal to Mubarak’s government. The New York Times talks about Algerian’s situation right now and it states “Conditions are ripe for revolt. But the upheavals in neighboring countries are unlikely to be immediately repeated in this vast desert nation, four times the size of France, say analysts and some political figures. The scars of a decade of civil war are still too fresh.” Algeria has Africa’s third-largest oil reserves and the government is stealing all the money. It was not that long ago when they had the revolution against France and with everything that is happening in all the countries of the Middle East, it is very likely that another revolution occurs in Algeria.

After the independence with Ahmed Ben Bella in power there were no international communities and the country was recovering from the war. When Boumédienne became the president of Algeria, he developed a new international economic order which said that Algeria would have control over the extraction, processing, and pricing of the natural resources. By doing this, he would have control over the natural resources instead of another country having control. He also made the holdings of foreign countries, like France, nationalized. In the present, NGO (Non Government Organization) is pressuring Algeria to take responsibility over the human rights violations that are occurring and to protect in some way or another population of Algeria. In the contrary; Mourad Medelci, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Algeria in the United Nations declared that the international community needs to assist the African countries to enable them to achieve some development goals. He also argues that the international community should make sure to be fair with the African countries so it could end conflicts. In the past, Algeria had to face the war against the French for independence and right now it has to face the crisis that is going around the Middle East of revolts and protests. Algeria is not doing as well as other countries in the world, but compare to Africans countries I believe that Algeria has work really hard to get to the place they are at right now.

Work Cited

Terry, Janice J. "Algeria under French Rule, 1750-1900." //Facts On Flie//. Modern World History Online. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. . Addario, Lynsey. "Algeria." //The New York Times//. 22 Feb. 2011. Web. 30 Mar. 2011. . Medelci, Mourad. "Algeria." //General Assembly of the United Nations//. 27 Sept. 2010. Web. 30 Mar. 2011. . Safra, Jacob E. //The New Encyclopedia Britanica//. 15th ed. Vol. 1. USA: Australian National University, 1998. Print.