Algeria

History

Early Algerian Civilizations

The earliest recorded history in Algeria dates back to 6000 BCE with a depicted in the wall art of Tassili n’Ajer (see “Art” section below for more details). Throughout ancient Algerian history, the majority of people lived in nomadic tribes, until these bands of nomads coalesced into larger groups to establish the Imazighen (the term Berber is pejorative) civilization. The Imazighen were the original inhabitants of the Maghreb, an area composed of modern day Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia.

“Amazigh,” or the plural “Imazighen” are the names they use to refer to themselves. As the Imazighen civilization was established, three The distinct Imazighen kingdoms arose —  the Mauri in Morocco, Massyli in Tunisia, and the Masaesyli in Algeria. Ruled by powerful kinds, the Massyli and Masaesyli had combined into the Kingdom of Numidia in the 2nd century BCE. The Imazighen kings had strong trade ties with Numidia and Rome. During Rome’s civil war  (130-30 BCE), Roman factions sought the Imazighen kings’ aid to control the empire. In 24 CE, the Romans annexed the Imazighen kingdom of Numidia.

Algeria was conquered by the Romans and then the Vandals occupied it in 429 for only four years. They then were drive out by the Byzantine occupation, which introduced Islam to Algeria.

The Introduction of Muslim Rule

Arabs’ arrival meant converting Maghreb residents to Islam. For the next four hundred years, various caliphates ruled the land. The Abbasid Caliphate succeeded the Umayyads in 750, which was then followed by the Rustumids until the 10th century. Two groups subsequently arose with the intention of spreading Islam beyond North Africa: the Almoravids and the Almohads. The Almoravids, a Imazighen tribe from southwestern Sahara, practiced a less strict version of Islam than the Almohads. The Almoravids marched their way into Spain through Morocco to rule the Maghreb from 1062-1147. The Almohads who replaced them until 1269, were an Amazigh tribe from Morocco that forced Christians and Jews to either convert or identify themselves as non-Muslim through their attire.

In 1492, after centuries of Muslim rule, the Spanish monarchs Isabel of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon occupied the Maghreb and expelled Muslims from Spain. The Spanish created fortress colonies, called presidios, along the Mediterranean coast and forced the Muslims to pay tribute to the Spanish crown. Barbary pirates from Algeria prevented Spanish ships from delivering supplies to the ruling presidios.

Algeria Under the Ottomans

Khayr al-Din, a pirate known as Barbarossa (“Red Beard”) to the Europeans, successfully resisted Spain. He knew that a handful of pirates were powerless to stop Spanish occupation, so he called upon the Ottoman Empire to conquer Algeria and protect it from the Spanish. The Ottomans accepted al-Din’s request and added Algiers to the empire as a tribute-paying vassal state. With the support of the Ottoman Empire and its forces, Khayr al-Din managed to defend Algeria and drive out the Spanish.

For the next three centuries, while the regency of Algiers remained a vassal state to the Ottomans. Algerians retained a great deal of independence under the Ottomans. Ruling elites were usually Turkish military men organized into a council and a Dey who was Algerian or council elected ruling office was installed by an Ottoman sultan. However, only an Ottoman official in Algiers was the judge of the Islamic court.

The autonomy granted to Algiers had both advantages and disadvantages. Their connection to the Ottoman Empire protected them from larger powers, and the dey engaged in trade and agreements directly. However, the dey held little legitimacy in the eyes of other powers. For example, in 1793 and 1798, the dey demanded payment for when Algiers lent France grain on credit.

French Colonization of Algeria

Decades passed and France did not repay the debt, despite numerous requests from the dey to do so. Relations between the then-Algerian dey Husayn Pasha and French consul to Algiers Pierre Deval soured, and friendly negotiations were terminated. Charles X, the king of France, used the “Fan Affair” as justification to blockade the port of Algiers in 1830. King Charles hoped that a victory over a foreign power would rally support for the monarchy in France, so he invaded Algeria, defeated the dey’s forces, and occupied Algeria. In 1832, Abdelkader ibn Muhieddine, who wished to free Algeria from colonial rule, led a revolt against the French. After he reclaimed a large portion of Algeria, he signed the Treaty of Tafna in 1836 for the French to recognize his state. By 1839, Abdelkader controlled two-thirds of present-day Algeria. In that same year, the French occupied Constantine, a city within Abdelkader's territory. He fought the French again but to no avail. By 1843, the French controlled all of Algeria again and imposed strict laws favoring French citizens. In 1848, the French government formally incorporated coastal Algeria into France as the départements of Algiers, Oran, and Constantine.

Over time, Muslim Algerians feared French discrimination. In 1865, native Imazighen and the Arab could only become French citizens if they converted to Christianity.

The Algerian War with France

Tensions between the French colonists and Algerians came to a head in late 1954, when the Front de libération nationale (National Liberation Front, or FLN) executed terrorist attacks in Algeria to put pressure on France. These attacks started the Algerian War with France from 1954 and 1962. The FLN and its supporters used guerilla tactics against military and immigrant targets. The French army relocated around two million Algerians from their villages to camps which prevented them from supporting the FLN in response to Algerian agency.

The French army took FLN’s strongholds in 1885 to regain control of Algeria. Some historians claim that the Algerian death toll was 1.5 million while the French claimed only 400,000 casualties from both sides. In 1961, the French public public opinion favored independence in Algeria, and soon talks opened between the FLN and French leaders. On July 3, 1962, France declared Algeria independent and installed the first president, Ahmed Ben Bella, a former leader of the FLN. To remember Algerian agency, the Battle of Algiers, a 1966 historical war film, detailed French occupation in Algeria. In the French language, there are references to Algerians like “Pied-Noir” and “Harki”. A "Pied-Noir" is a French person whose family lived in Algeria for several generations. Pied Noir means black feet because their feet resembled the black boots the French soldiers wore.  A "Harki" is an Algerian person who chose to fight on the side of France despite French support of Algerian independence.

The Sand War in 1963 started when Morocco tried to conquer a part of western Algeria. The Algerian army utilized hit-and-run tactics to hold the more advanced Moroccan army at bay. The Organization for African Unity coordinated a ceasefire in 1964, although it took eight years for an agreement to be reached.

20th Century Power Struggles

In 1965, Houari Boumediene, President Ben Bella’s chief of staff, seized power from Bella in a bloodless coup that abolished the government while creating a revolutionary council backed by the army. Boumediene nationalized the Algerian oil and agricultural industry to use revenues to industrialize the country. Algeria’s economy grew under his control, despite strict government censorship. The sécurité militaire (military police) effectively quelled any opposition to the new government. A constitution was formed to establish parliament and reinstated the office of the president for Boumediene to claim in 1978 for one year before dying from  a rare blood disease.

Chadli Bendjedid, Boumediene’s former minister of defense became president. Bendjedid received backlash from pro-statists who believed in a strong central government in the late 1980s. In 1988, Algerian youth protested against the lack of  economic growth and political reforms. The military stopped the riots by violently killing 500 and arresting 3,000 according to unofficial sources.  In response, Bendjedid moved the government toward a multi-party system to address the population’s concerns in 1991.

The Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), a fundamentalist group that sought to establish an Islamic state governed by Sharia law, won the local elections that year. The FIS won 188 seats out of 430 in the first multi-party parliament elections. Before the second round of voting took place for contested seats, the army intervened and cracked down on voters by the FIS as illegal and arresting their supporters. In 1992, the military removed the government and appointed a former leader in the FLN, Mohamed Boudiaf. Six months later, he was assassinated by a FIS sympathizer, leading to mass arrests of FIS supporters. The military declared an official state of emergency, effectively suspending Algerian citizens’ freedom of expression, assembly, and association for 19 years until the 2011 Arab Spring.

The Algerian Civil War

The Algerian Civil War broke out after conflicts between Islamist rebel groups and the Algerian government intensified in 1991. During the decade-long battle,  more than 150,000 Algerians died. In 1999, the government granted FIS members amnesty and eventually the group disbanded. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, a member of the FLN, was elected in 1999 with support from the military. He vowed to gain Algerian trust in national institutions, inclusion of all parties and groups in dialogue, including the then-outlawed FIS leaders. Bouteflika was reelected for his fourth and last term in April 2014. 

In 2006, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) and Al-Qaeda  renamed themselves as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). AQIM believes in a pure interpretation of the Quran and promised to destroy symbols of Western culture internally and externally to establish an Islamic State in Algeria. AQIM led a number of violent attacks against the government and Westerners. In June 2018, AQIM conducted a suicide bombing of the G5 headquarters in Mali. Since 2019, AQIM has been in rapid decline due to the assainatin of their leader, Abdelmalek Droukdel. Infighting ensued within the organization causing a failure to transition smoothly into the next generation. 

The Arab Spring in Algeria & the Hirak Movement

Boutefilka’s regime faced many serious economic and social problems, including a high unemployment rate, housing shortages, unreliable electrical and water supplies, and government corruption, among other obstacles. The wealth from oil was distributed inequitably, creating a gap between the wealthy and poor.

Those suffering from these unaddressed problems prompted protests and riots influenced by the Arab Spring in 2011. To appease the demonstrators, the Bouteflika government voted to lower taxes on certain foods, promote job creation and open the state-run television to other parties. They also lifted the 19-year state-of-emergency declaration. These acts restored Algerians’ freedom of expression, assembly and association. In addition, the government offered more than $23 billion in public grants to raise the wages of civil servants, funded more food subsidies and offered interest-free loans for young entrepreneurs. Around $65 billion were invested between 2010 and 2014 for infrastructure development. According to the Washington Post, “the housing occupancy rate [decreased] from 6.8 in 1999 to 4.3.” As of 2016, 905,000 units of housing have been built. Learn more about the Algerian response to the Arab Spring in this Teach Mideast article.

On February 16, 2019, millions of non-violent protesters began filling Algeria’s streets against President Bouteflika’s bid for a fifth term because of his corruption.  On April 1, 2019, the 82-year-old president was forced from power. The army chief of staff, Ahmed Gaïd Salah, a former Bouteflika ally, claimed that the president was physically unable to perform his role since his 2013 stroke. The country’s constitutional council ratified Bouteflika’s resignation on April 2, 2019. An interim government named by Bouteflika presided over by a Bouteflika ally bought the country time to organize elections. Anti-government rallies (designated Hirak, or “the movement”) took place throughout and after the election as protesters demanded the elimination of the entire political establishment. Peaceful protesters demanded the withdrawal of Bouteflika and his candidacy and the removal of Prime Minister Ahmen Ouyahia. Protesters walked for anti-corruption measurements like calling for the resignation of many corrupt officials and a new era of democracy and liberty.

Contemporary Government Reform

In December 2019, Abdelmadjid Tebboune was elected president in an election with the lowest turnout (40%) since Algerian independence in 1962. Many protestors viewed Tebboune as a Bouteflika loyalist and a close ally to army chief General Ahmed Gaid Salah.

On November 1, 2020 Algeria voted to cement changes made after Bouteflika left office such as the return of a two-term limit for president and ministers of parliament, the creation of  a “corruption-busting” unit, and the requirement for public institutions to guarantee the freedom of press. Though some demands were met, the president still controls key powers and appointments. The vote had a record low tournout with only 23.8% tournout since the referendum was seen as the government's way to silence the Hirak movement.

In 2020, Algerians voted to change the constitution in a referendum supported by Tebboune to meet the demands of the Hirak movement. The president was  allowed to appoint a prime minister as long as his political party held the majority in party. The PM could be removed by the National Assembly. A two term limit for presidents and ministers of parliament was reinstated. In addition,  the Constitutional court replaced the Algerian Constitutional council. The general public, however, were still hesitant of the governmentl; Hirak’s lack of leadership led to his downfall. Without proper leadership and a declining economic situation, tensions amongst Algerians have been rising, becoming exacerbated through the COVID-19 pandemic growth and low vaccine rollout rates and poor safety measures. Many believe that Hirak is poised for a rebirth.

With a new government in place, Bouteflika made few public appearances and passed away in September 2021.