Line #19 UsefulNotes/Algeria


1	[[quoteright:328:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/algeria-map_1401.gif]]
2
3	Algeria (Modern Standard Arabic: ''الجزائر al-Jazāʼir'', Algerian Arabic and Berber: ''Dzayer, ⴷⵣⴰⵢⴻⵔ'', French: ''Algérie''), officially known as '''The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria''' (Arabic: ''الجمهورية الجزائرية الديمقراطية الشعبية al-Jumhūriyya al-Jazā'iriyya ad-Dimuqrāṭiyya aš-Šaʿbiyya''), is the largest country in UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}. Even though the country adopts Modern Standard UsefulNotes/ArabicLanguage as an official language, is a part of the Arab League, and mostly speaks an Arabic variety (albeit one that is incomprehensible to Arabic speakers from UsefulNotes/TheMiddleEast), it is frequently not considered Arab. This is SeriousBusiness, so we'll say no more.
4
5	Like the rest of North Africa, ethnic Berbers have been living in Algeria since the Iron Age. The first major state in the region was a Berber kingdom called Numidia, centered in Cirta (modern-day Constantine), which rose in the late 1st millennium BCE. Numidia was a client state to the [[AncientRome Romans]], and before them [[UsefulNotes/PunicWars Carthage]]. After its fall, its eastern half was integrated to the Roman province of Africa, while its western half was taken by Mauretania, a fellow Roman client state. This western half later became a separate Roman province, Mauretania Caesarensis, after its capital city Caesarea (modern-day Cherchell). The region gradually distanced itself from Rome as the latter lost power from the 3rd century onward, something exacerbated by the the Vandal invasions in the 6th century.
6
7	After the Arab invasion in the 8th century, the region hosted several Arab-Berber kingdoms which fought for supremacy over North Africa. Some were foreign (the Zirids, Almoravids) while others were homegrown (Hammadids). During this period, the only dynasty which covered all of present-day Algeria was the Almohads. By the time the Ottoman Turks arrived in early 16th century, local rule had mostly vanished, with UsefulNotes/{{Spain}} effectively controlling the Mediterranean coast of Algeria. Under Hayreddin Barbarossa, a corsair, the Ottomans fought back the Spanish. As a result of this precedence, the region, known afterwards as Deylicate of Algiers, became mostly pirate-run; although the Ottomans nominally had supremacy, the ruler, the Dey, acted so autonomously that it might as well have been independent.
8
9	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 ''pieds-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.
10
11	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 CivilWar and perhaps 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 - and its human cost so high.
12
13	Ironically, it was this theoretically inclusive - and in practice, patronising and self-centred - mindset that caused France's left-wing to back heavy-handed repression of Algerian autonomy movements. It was ''unthinkable'' for France to just give up part of her country to secessionists, or so they said. Things quickly became rather violent, and the French military soon became involved in huge numbers. Half a million troops, many of them conscripts and with 150,000 French Muslim volunteers (Harkis) among them, were used for ''Quadrillage'' duty. Stationed in a series of garrisons right across the countryside they formed close ties with the locals and policed their districts. Some 2000 specialised military governors associated with the garrisons were given extraordinary powers to start and oversee programs contributing to economic growth and public education, though in practice they were perpetually short of funds and their main duty was overseeing the deportation of the rural population from areas sympathetic to the insurgency into more secure areas. Some 2 million French Muslims - a fifth of the entire region's population - were forced out of their villages and into state housing during the war. The other part of the French strategy was the use of mobile forces, including paratroops and fire-support (mostly artillery and airpower), for ''Search & Destroy'' duties. They would cordon off regions and use their superior numbers and firepower to kill all the rebels within. In areas where the insurgency sprang up again they would get the garrisons to deport the rural population to deny the rebels shelter, supplies, and conscripts before sweeping the area again until it was truly cleared.
14
15	The French military strategy worked, but at a price; the left-wing became increasingly disenchanted and eventually outright horrified with the actual conduct of the war, particularly the use of torture - which was supposedly only used at the 'transit camps' and in 'situations of urgent need' on people who they were sure had valuable knowledge, but in practice tended to be done on many if not most ordinary rebels, rebel sympathisers, suspected rebel sympathisers, and people who just happened to live in the same general area as the former three types ('let's pull all her nails out and drown her ''just in case'' she knows something important that we don't ''and'' feels like telling us', and so on).
16
17	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]]
18
19	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 UsefulNotes/CharlesDeGaulle 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 Pieds-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'.
20
21	The independent Algerian government then used its contacts with paramilitary groups to spread the message that the Pieds-Noirs had a choice: "Suitcase or Coffin". In the ensuing panic the Pieds-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 Pieds-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]]
22
23	As the pieds-noirs left, Algeria collapsed into civil violence that never ''quite'' became a proper Civil War because the whole country basically ''shattered'' once the Pieds-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.
24
25	The civil war, which killed over 150,000 people, traumatized the Algerians from rising up against the government for a long time. Suffice to say, [[HappinessInSlavery they chose stability over freedom]], which was why for the next twenty years, the country saw no large-scale protests, even during the height of UsefulNotes/TheArabSpring and even as Bouteflika became increasingly autocratic. This changed in 2019, however, when the people had enough and conducted weeks of peaceful protests that led to Bouteflika's resignation. The next election in December 2019 saw ex-Prime Minister Abdelmadjid Tebboune ascending as president, but because the army holds significant sway over the new order, the election was boycotted by more than half of the population.
26
27	Algeria is a major exporter of oil and gas, particularly to UsefulNotes/{{Italy}} and France (and even more so 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 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.
28
29	More than four-fifths of the country's land area is part of the Sahara, 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.
30
31	It's also the former home of the [[LegionOfLostSouls French Foreign Legion]].
32
33	See AlgerianMedia for media from there, and Myth/ArabMythology, Myth/KabyleMythology, and Myth/TuaregMythology for local myths.
34	----
35	!!Famous Algerians and Algerian diaspora include:
36
37	* Jean Amrouche, a pioneer of French language Algerian literature.
38	* Boualem Sansal, writer whose main subjects include the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the country. His books have been banned there since 2006 for criticizing the powers that be.
39	* Creator/SofiaBoutella, dancer and actress.
40	* Creator/ShirineBoutella, actress (based in France).
41	* UsefulNotes/MuayThai champion and actor Creator/DaliBenssalah (French-Algerian).
42	* Mohammed Dib, probably the country's most prolific writer.
43	* Director Creator/ClaudeZidi was born in France from an Algerian father and a Pied-Noir mother.
44	* Raï singer Cheb Mami.
45	* The father of actor Creator/SamyNaceri was from Western Algeria. Naceri played a UsefulNotes/WorldWarII soldier from the French colony of Algeria in 2006's ''Film/{{Days of Glory\|2006}}''.
46	* Creator/LynaKhoudri, an actress who moved to France with her family during the Civil War.
47	* Italian director Creator/LucaGuadagnino is half-Algerian on his mother's side.
48	* French actor Creator/JacquesVilleret was half-Kabyle on his father's side.
49	* The parents of French comedian and actor Creator/RamzyBedia were Algerian immigrants.
50	* Legendary UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball player Zinedine Zidane was born in France to Algerian parents.
51
52	!!Famous ''pieds-noirs'' include:
53
54	* Creator/AlbertCamus. The country is the setting of his first novel ''Literature/TheStranger''. In Anglophone translation, this is probably the most famous work that touches on the Algerian conflict.
55	* Philosopher Creator/JacquesDerrida.
56	* Writer Albertine Sarrazin.
57	* Voice actor Creator/AlainDorval, best known as the French voice of Creator/SylvesterStallone.
58	* Fashion designer UsefulNotes/YvesSaintLaurent.
59	* Sculptor Paul Belmondo (father of Creator/JeanPaulBelmondo).
60	* Actress Creator/MarleneJobert.
61	* Actor and director Creator/DanielAuteuil.
62	* Actor, director, screenwriter and comedian Creator/AlainChabat.
63	* Actor and comedian Didier Bourdon, of Creator/LesInconnus fame.
64	* Controversial French intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy was born in Beni Saf, near Oran.
65
66	!! Works set in Algeria
67
68	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, due to the Ouarzazate studios being the largest and best equipped in Northern Africa), 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.
69	* One rare Anglophone exception is ''Film/{{Algiers}}'' (1938), starring Creator/CharlesBoyer as a doomed French jewel thief hiding out in the native quarter of the capital.
70	* ''Literature/TheDayOfTheJackal'', where UsefulNotes/CharlesDeGaulle allowing Algeria to gain its independence is the impetus for the plot to assassinate him that takes up the story (which happened in RealLife).
71	* The Italian film ''Film/TheBattleOfAlgiers'', produced in cooperation with the Algerian government, is probably the best-known film about this topic.
72	* ''VideoGame/CossacksEuropeanWars'' has 16th century Algiers as a playable nation as well as a campaign for it in the ExpansionPack ''The Art of War''.
73	* ''Film/{{Days of Glory\|2006}}'', an Algerian-French coproduction war film about local men enlisting in the [[UsefulNotes/GaulsWithGrenades Free French Forces]] during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
74	* In ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'', when Maximus is made a {{gladiator\|Games}}, his first arena fight happens in the [[UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire Roman]] province of Mauretania Caesariensis, in Zucchabar (present-day Miliana, about 100 km South-West from Algiers).
75	* In ''Film/KungFuZohra'', the eponymous woman is Algerian, meets her future husband in the country and follows him to France.
76	* ''Film/TheLastQueen'', set in 1516 around the Ottoman capture of Algiers.
77	* ''[[Film/DesHommesEtDesDieux Of Gods and Men]]'', about the Trappist monks of Tibhirine who were massacred in 1996 during the Civil War.
78	* ''Film/OutsideTheLaw'', an Algerian-French coproduction (by the same team as ''Days of Glory'') about the Algerian war for independence that makes an interesting comparison to ''Film/TheBattleOfAlgiers''.
79	* ''Literature/TheSheik'' (1919 novel and 1921 film) is set in Biskra.
80	----
81	[[AC:The Algerian flag]]
82	https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/algeria_flag_8016.png
83	->The green left half symbolizes nature, the white right half peace, and the crescent and star stand for Islam, colored red to symbolize the blood of the fallen during the Algerian War.
84	----
85	[[AC:The Algerian national anthem]]
86
87	->قسما بالنازلات الماحقات
88	->و الدماء الزاكيات الطاهرات
89	->و البنود اللامعات الخافقات
90	->في الجبال الشامخات الشاهقات
91	->نحن ثرنا فحياة أو ممات
92	->و عقدنا العزم أن تحيا الجزائر
93	->فاشهدوا… فاشهدوا… فاشهدوا
94
95	->نحن جند في سبيل الحق ثرنا
96	->و إلى استقلالنا بالحرب قمنا
97	->لم يكن يصغى لنا لما نطقنا
98	->فاتخذنا رنة البارود وزنا
99	->و عزفنا نغمة الرشاش لحنا
100	->وعقدنا العزم أن تحيا الجزائر
101	->فاشهدوا… فاشهدوا… فاشهدوا
102
103	->يا فرنسا قد مضى وقت العتاب
104	->و طويناه كما يطوى الكتاب
105	->يا فرنسا ان ذا يوم الحساب
106	->فاستعدي و خذي منا الجواب
107	->ان في ثورتنا فصل الخطاب
108	->و عقدنا العزم ان تحيى الجزائر
109	->فاشهدوا… فاشهدوا… فاشهدوا
110
111	->نحن من أبطالنا ندفع جندا
112	->و على أشلائنا نصنع مجدا
113	->و على أرواحنا نصعد خلدا
114	->و على هاماتنا نرفع بندا
115	->جبهة التحرير أعطيناك عهدا
116	->و عقدنا العزم أن تحيا الجزائر
117	->فاشهدوا… فاشهدوا… فاشهدوا
118
119	->صرخة الأوطان من ساح الفدا
120	->فاسمعوها و استجيبوا للندا
121	->و اكتبوها بدماء الشهدا
122	->و اقرأوها لبني الجيل غدا
123	->قد مددنا لك يا مجد يدا
124	->و عقدنا العزم أن تحيا الجزائر
125	->فاشهدوا… فاشهدوا… فاشهدوا
126	[[note]]
127	->Qasaman bi-n-nāzilāti l-māḥiqāt
128	->Wa-d-dimāʾi z-zākiyāti ṭ-ṭāhirāt
129	->Wa-l-bunūdi l-lāmiʿāti l-khāfiqāt
130	->Fi-l-jibāli sh-shāmikhāti sh-shāhiqāt
131	->Naḥnu thurnā fa-ḥayātun ʾaw mamāt
132	->Wa-ʿaqadnā al-ʿazma ʾan taḥyā l-Jazāʾir
133	->Fa-shhadū! Fa-shhadū! Fa-shhadū!
134
135	->Naḥnu jundun fi sabīli l-ḥaqqi thurnā
136	->Wa ʾila stiqlālinā bi-l-ḥarbi qumnā
137	->Lam yakun yuṣğā lanā lamā naṭaqnā
138	->Fa-ttakhadhnā rannata l-bārūdi waznā.
139	->Wa-ʿazafnā nağamata r-rashshāshi laḥnā
140	->Wa-ʿaqadnā al-ʿazma ʾan taḥyā l-Jazāʾir
141	->Fa-shhadū! Fa-shhadū! Fa-shhadū!
142
143	->Yā Faransā, qad maḍā waqtu l-ʿitāb
144	->Wa-ṭawaynāhu kamā yuṭwā l-kitāb
145	->Yā Faransā ʾinna dhā yawmu l-ḥisāb
146	->Fa-staʿiddī wa-khudhī minnā l-jawāb
147	->ʾInna fī thawratinā faṣlu l-khiṭāb
148	->Wa-ʿaqadnā al-ʿazma ʾan taḥyā l-Jazāʾir
149	->Fa-shhadū! Fa-shhadū! Fa-shhadū!
150
151	->Naḥnu min ʾabṭālinā nadfaʿu jundā
152	->Wa-ʿala ʾashlaʾinā naṣnaʿu majdā.
153	->Wa-ʿala ʾarwāḥinā naṣʿadu khuldā.
154	->Wa-ʿala hāmātinā narfaʿu bandā.
155	->Jabhatu t-Taḥrīri ʾaʿṭaynāki ʿahdā.
156	->Wa-ʿaqadnā al-ʿazma ʾan taḥyā l-Jazāʾir
157	->Fa-shhadū! Fa-shhadū! Fa-shhadū!
158
159	->Ṣarkhatu l-ʾawṭāni min sāḥi l-fidā
160	->Ismaʿūhā wa-stajībū li-n-nidā
161	->Wa-ktubūhā bi-dimāʾi sh-shuhadāʾ
162	->Wa-qraʾūhā li-banī l-jayli ğadā.
163	->Qad madadnā laka yā majdu yadā
164	->Wa-ʿaqadnā al-ʿazma ʾan taḥyā l-Jazāʾir
165	->Fa-shhadū! Fa-shhadū! Fa-shhadū!
166	[[/note]]
167
168	--
169
170	->We swear by the lightning that destroys,
171	->By the streams of generous blood being shed,
172	->By the bright flags that wave,
173	->Flying proudly on the high mountains
174	->That we are in revolt, whether to live or to die,
175	->We are determined that Algeria should live,
176	->So be our witness, be our witness, be our witness!
177
178	->We are soldiers in revolt for truth
179	->And we have fought for our independence.
180	->When we spoke, nobody listened to us,
181	->So we have taken the noise of gunpowder as our rhythm
182	->And the sound of machine guns as our melody,
183	->We are determined that Algeria should live,
184	->So be our witness, be our witness, be our witness!
185
186	->O France, the time of reproof is over
187	->And we have ended it as a book is ended;
188	->O France, this is the day of reckoning
189	->So prepare to receive from us our answer!
190	->In our revolution is the end of empty talk;
191	->We are determined that Algeria should live,
192	->So be our witness, be our witness, be our witness!
193
194	->From our heroes we shall make an army come to being,
195	->From our dead we shall build up a glory,
196	->Our spirits shall ascend to immortality
197	->And on our shoulders we shall raise the Standard.
198	->To the nation’s Liberation Front we have sworn an oath,
199	->We are determined that Algeria should live,
200	->So be our witness, be our witness, be our witness!
201
202	->The cry of the motherland sounds from the battlefields.
203	->Listen to it and answer the call!
204	->Let it be written with the blood of martyrs
205	->And be read to future generations.
206	->Oh, Glory, we have held out our hand to you,
207	->We are determined that Algeria should live,
208	->So be our witness, be our witness, be our witness!
209	----
210	[[AC:Government]]
211	* Unitary semi-presidential constitutional republic
212	** President: Abdelmadjid Tebboune
213	** Prime Minister: Nadir Larbaoui
214	** President of the Council of the Nation: Salah Goudjil
215	** President of the People's National Assembly: Ibrahim Boughali
216	----
217	* '''Capital and largest city:''' Algiers ('''Arabic:''' ''الجزائر al-Jazāʾir'', '''Berber:''' ''ⴷⵣⴰⵢⴻⵔ Dzayer'', '''French:''' ''Alger'')
218	* '''Population:''' 44,700,000
219	* '''Area:''' 2,381,741 km
220	(919,595 sq mi) (10th)
221	* '''Currency''': Algerian dinar (دج) (DZD)
222	* '''ISO-3166-1 Code:''' DZ
223	* '''Country calling code:''' 213
224	* '''Highest point:''' Mount Tahat (3003 m/9,852 ft) (62nd)

Context UsefulNotes / Algeria