History UsefulNotes / Algeria

* Creator/LynaKhoudri, an actress who moved to France with her family during the Civil War.

** Prime Minister: Aymen Benabderrahmane

** President of the People's National Assembly: Slimane Chenine

* ''VideoGame/CossacksEuropeanWars'' has 16th century Algiers as playable nation as well as a campaign for it in the ExpansionPack ''The Art of War''.

While the nation is mostly ignored in Anglophone media (UsefulNotes/{{Morocco}} is largely preferred by them, either as itself or as [[CaliforniaDoubling shooting location for anywhere]] in UsefulNotes/TheMiddleEast [[note]]due to the Ouarzazate studios being the largest and best equipped in Northern Africa[[/note]]), it maintains a reasonable place in French media, partly because of the colonial history between the two countries and the resulting sizeable Algerian diaspora in France. There's a lot of [[InternationalCoproduction co-productions]] between the two countries.

While the nation is mostly ignored in Anglophone media (UsefulNotes/{{Morocco}} is largely preferred by them, either as itself or as [[CaliforniaDoubling shooting location for anywhere]] in UsefulNotes/TheMiddleEast), it maintains a reasonable place in French media, partly because of the colonial history between the two countries and the resulting sizeable Algerian diaspora in France. There's a lot of [[InternationalCoproduction co-productions]] between the two countries.

In 1830, Algeria was invaded and annexed by UsefulNotes/{{France}}. Uniquely among its [[UsefulNotes/TheFrenchColonialEmpire African colonies]], France legally integrated it; in other words, the French didn't see Algeria as a colony, but rather a region of France that "just happened" to be located overseas. During 132 years of French rule, thousands of ethnic Spaniards, Italians, and French settled along the coast and became known as the ''pied-noirs'' (pyeh-nwahr) or 'black-feet'. Though the majority were not French by ethnicity, 'French' identity at the time was very much defined by cultural identity. This was reflected in the two tiers of citizenship in French North Africa: French, and French-Muslim. The latter were French ''subjects'' rather than ''citizens''. Algerian natives could only gain full French citizenship if they renounced UsefulNotes/{{Islam}}, something ''very'' few were willing to do. Notably a similar requirement was ''not'' imposed on Algerian Jews, who in 1870 were granted unconditional French citizenship by the Crémieux Decree. While the option to become French citizens was ''intended'' to promote assimilation into French culture, it had the opposite effect by declaring that French culture and Islam were incompatible. Even though in the 20th century these restrictions were loosened (in 1919, Algerian veterans of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI along with their parents could become fully "French" without renouncing Islam, as could their parents, those who married a French citizen and those who were employed by the French Army or government), but the majority of the population were still mere "subjects" who had no voting rights. In UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, after the fall of the Vichy regime and restoration of the French Republic, movements were made to extend citizenship to all Algerians, but it was far too late and marred by rampant continued discrimination against the "French-Muslim" population. By the time Algeria achieved independence, the pied-noirs numbered 1 million, forming 10% of the country's population.

Unlike UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, the Algerian War proved impossible to ignore as the revenge-killings, brutal gang-rapes and disembowlement of women and even pregnant women, extortion for funds, and bombings spread to mainland France through the French Muslim community and eventually the Pied-Noir community as well. The war also exposed the deep divisions within French Society and evoked the worst aspects of the Vichy regime and Nazi occupation - French Resistance members who had been tortured were called upon to torture FLN revolutionaries in turn. Vichy-era authority figures like Maurice Papon were called upon to organise and execute the brutal repression of dissent in North Africa and even Metropolitan France itself[[note]] most notoriously in the 'Paris Massacre' of 1962 in which Papon's policemen beat several thousand anti-war protestors senseless and imprisoned them without trial, killing some two hundred extrajudicially and dumping their bodies into the Seine. Papon also probably had something to do with the mysterious murders and disappearances of several vocal FLN supporters and anti-war figures [[/note]].

As their support for the war faded, the French right-wing turned on the country's moderates and left-wing for what it saw as their betrayal of France. Whereas the left-wing became increasingly disgusted with the cruelty and brutality it would need to use if it wanted to keep holding onto North Africa, the right continued to see it as being totally justified and argued that leaving North Africa would be a betrayal of the French People (and the Pied-Noirs in particular). Not only did Pied-Noir paramilitary groups begin their own terrorist campaign in mainland France, but part of the military (operating out of North Africa) attempted the 'Four Generals' Coup' to turn France into a military dictatorship and 'win' the war in Algeria through the adoption of the most brutal methods possible. The coup was foiled, but it brought General De Gaulle into the political spotlight. He announced that there would be a referendum on the future of French North Africa and tried to arrange a ceasefire in the meantime. In the referendum the French Muslims overwhelmingly voted for independence and the Pied-Noirs for continued union with France, with a result of 90% of the electorate being in favour of independence. France bowed to the will of French North Africa and soon granted it its independence as the new country of 'Algeria'.

The independent Algerian government then used its contacts with paramilitary groups to spread the message that the Pied-Noirs had a choice: "Suitcase or Coffin". In the ensuing panic the Pied-Noirs left almost all of their property behind, intact, in their haste to leave the country before the government-sanctioned militias started butchering them in earnest (as opposed to 'intermittently', which had been going on for six years by that point). A million Pied-Noirs fled to metropolitan France and those who remained - including the overwhelming majority of all the ''Harkis'' who had ever served with the French Army - were slaughtered in numerous and often quite horrible ways[[note]] Interestingly, the fate of the ''Harkis'' may have persuaded the USA and Australia to take on far more South Vietnamese refugees than they might otherwise have done in the aftermath of their own failed anti-partisan campaigns in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar[[/note]].

As the pied-noirs left, Algeria collapsed into civil violence that never ''quite'' became a proper Civil War because the whole country basically ''shattered'' once the Pied-Noirs and Harkis were gone. This changed when the country got its act together by the 1990s, only for a real [[UsefulNotes/AlgerianCivilWar Civil War]] to get going with the rise of the GIA (Groupe Islamique Armé, "Armed Islamic Group"), the radical military wing of the FIS (Front Islamique du Salut, "Islamic Salvation Front"), an Islamist political party whose 1992 election victory was annulled by a military coup, causing its supporters to rebel against the government in a decade-long war which only ended when the army proposed an amnesty plan. Ex-independence fighter Abdelaziz Bouteflika was elected president in 1999 and presided over the reconstruction of Algeria.

Algeria is a major exporter of oil and gas, particularly to UsefulNotes/{{Italy}} and France (and even moreso since since Western UsefulNotes/{{Europe}} cut off such importations from UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} due to the invasion of UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}}). The country has planned to diversify its economy away from oil, on which it is still dependent; when the oil prices fell in 2014, it took a big hit on government expenditure and put pressure on the increased state subsidy the government implemented to defuse the Arab Spring (and eventually resulted in the deposition of the Bouteflika government). State control continues to be pervasive, hampering foreign investment. The impact of the Algerian civil war means that unlike its neighbors UsefulNotes/{{Morocco}} and UsefulNotes/{{Tunisia}}, Algeria's tourism sector is relatively undeveloped and contributes little-to-nothing to the GDP.

More than four-fifths of the country's land area is part of the Sahara desert, supporting less than 10% of total population. The other is concentrated in the Mediterranean coastal strip bordered to the south by the Atlas Mountains. Despite its relative narrowness, the strip is complex in topography and vibrant in life. The Atlas in Algeria consist of two distinct ranges in the west: the Tell and the Saharan Atlases. The former is closer to the coast, while the latter is higher but drier. Between the ranges is a dry plateau called Hautes Plaines. The ranges merge near the city of Batna to form the Aurès range, which extends into Tunisia. In general, the eastern coast is more rugged than the west, although it still cannot compare with the ranges located deep in the Sahara, which have the country's highest peak, Mount Tahat.

See Myth/ArabMythology, Myth/KabyleMythology, and Myth/TuaregMythology for local myths.

While the nation is mostly ignored in Anglophone media (UsefulNotes/{{Morocco}} is largely preferred by them, either as itself or as [[CaliforniaDoubling shooting location for anywhere]] in UsefulNotes/TheMiddleEast), it maintains a reasonable place in French media, partly because of the colonial history between the two countries and the resulting sizeable Algerian diaspora in France. There's a lot of co-productions between the two countries.

While the nation is mostly ignored in Anglophone media (UsefulNotes/{{Morocco}} is largely preferred by them, either as itself or as [[CaliforniaDoubling shooting location for anywhere]] in UsefulNotes/TheMiddleEast), it maintains a reasonable place in French media, partly because of the colonial history between the two countries and the resulting sizeable Algerian diaspora in France.

Algeria is a major exporter of oil and gas, particularly to UsefulNotes/{{Italy}} and France. The country has planned to diversify its economy away from oil, on which it is still dependent; when the oil prices fell in 2014, it took a big hit on government expenditure and put pressure on the increased state subsidy the government implemented to defuse the Arab Spring (and eventually resulted in the deposition of the Bouteflika government). State control continues to be pervasive, hampering foreign investment. The impact of the Algerian civil war means that unlike its neighbors UsefulNotes/{{Morocco}} and UsefulNotes/{{Tunisia}}, Algeria's tourism sector is relatively undeveloped and contributes little-to-nothing to the GDP.

In 1830, Algeria was invaded and annexed by UsefulNotes/{{France}}. Unique among its [[UsefulNotes/TheFrenchColonialEmpire African colonies]], France legally integrated it; in other words, the French didn't see Algeria as a colony, but rather a region of Metropolitan France that "just happened" to be located overseas. During 132 years of French rule, thousands of ethnic Spaniards, Italians, and French settled along the coast and became known as the ''pied-noirs'' (pyeh-nwah) or 'black-feet'. Though the majority were not French by ethnicity, 'French' identity at the time was very much defined by cultural identity. This was reflected in the two tiers of citizenship in French North Africa: French, and French-Muslim. The latter were French ''subjects'' rather than ''citizens''. Algerian natives could only gain full French citizenship if they renounced Islam, something ''very'' few were willing to do. Notably a similar requirement was ''not'' imposed on Algerian Jews, who in 1870 were granted unconditional French citizenship. While the option to become French citizens was ''intended'' to promote assimilation into French culture, it had the opposite effect by declaring that French culture and Islam were incompatible. Even though in the 20th century these restrictions were loosened (in 1919, Algerian veterans of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI along with their parents could become fully "French" without renouncing Islam, as could their parents, those who married a French citizen and those who were employed by the French Army or government), but the majority of the population were still mere "subjects" who had no voting rights. In the mid-1940s after the fall of the Vichy regime and restoration of the French Republic, movements were made to extend citizenship to all Algerians, but it was far too late and marred by rampant continued discrimination against the "French-Muslim" population. By the time Algeria achieved independence, the pied-noirs numbered 1 million, forming 10% of the country's population.

The last 7 years of French Algeria, from 1955 to 1962, were marred by The Algerian War. This was not a Colonial War, though it was been portrayed that way subsequently, but a Civil War and the greatest existential dilemma of France's twentieth century. France's fundamentally self-contradictory status as a Democratic Empire, controlling liberator, and selfish benefactor had never been so apparent - or its human cost so high.

The independent Algerian government then used its contacts with paramilitary groups to spread the message that the Pied-Noirs had a choice: "Suitcase or Coffin". In the ensuing panic the Pied-Noirs left almost all of their property behind, intact, in their haste to leave the country before the government-sanctioned militias started butchering them in earnest (as opposed to 'intermittently', which had been going on for six years by that point). A million Pied-Noirs fled to metropolitan France and those who remained - including the overwhelming majority of all the ''Harkis'' who had ever served with the French Army - were slaughtered in numerous and often quite horrible ways[[note]] Interestingly, the fate of the ''Harkis'' may have persuaded the USA and Australia to take on far more South Vietnamese refugees than they might otherwise have done in the aftermath of their own failed anti-partisan campaigns in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar [[/note]].

!!Famous ''pieds-noirs''[[note]]Ethnically European (mostly French) people born in Algeria who left the country, specially after the Algerian War of the 1950s-1960s. Also concerns Sephardi Jews (whose ancestors settled in the area) who moved to France after the Crémieux Decree granted them French nationality, or moved to France because of the Algerian War.[[/note]] include: