Algeria from withinBodley, R. V. C. (Ronald Victor Courtenay)
History
Algeria from within
Bodley, R. V. C. (Ronald Victor Courtenay)
Algeria -- Description and travel
The advance on Algiers was continued, but there were no roads,
and the hills of the Sahel were covered with thick scrub. On June
twenty-ninth, however, the army arrived before Algiers. The attack
on the fortress where Charles Quint had for a brief moment pitched
his tent was immediately commenced. For a time the Turks held out,
but, realizing the futility of their task, they set fire to the
powder-magazine and blew up the great pile, emblem of their long
rule. The French, meeting no longer with any opposition, pushed on,
and on July fifth made their triumphal entry into Algiers.
The immediate result of this victory was for the King of France,
Charles X, to lose his head. He believed that he was now in a
position to exercise absolute power, and he expressed himself
by publishing his famous _Ordonnances_. The consequence was
revolution. Charles X was deposed, and Louis Philippe, the son of
Philippe Egalité, mounted the throne. General Bourmont was relieved
of his post as Commander-in-Chief, giving way to General Clauzel.
As can be imagined, this did not tend to help matters across the
Mediterranean. The capture of Algiers had taken barely a month—the
subduing of the Arabs was to drag on for over thirty years.
In the first place, the new Government in Paris was very diffident
about pushing forward the conquest of the country. At first only
the coast was occupied. This was interpreted by the natives of the
interior as fear, and it was with little difficulty that the young
Emir, Abd-el-Kader, raised the population to a holy war. Until the
year 1847 this struggle continued with varying success, and it was
not until Bugeaud, an old warrior of the First Empire, took charge
of the operations that the unruly chief began to lose ground. The
capture of his _smala_ in 1843 at Taguine in the Sersou was the
beginning of the end. Four years later he surrendered and was
exiled, and he finally died at Damascus. His memory is venerated
by all the Arabs of the country.
Once the emir was out of the way, Bugeaud began to penetrate the
interior by colonization. His famous motto, _“Ense et aratro,”_
was to prove a veritable success, and little by little the country
began transforming itself. In the meanwhile he did not neglect
the conquest of the territory still unsubdued. In 1852 the Oasis
of Laghouat was captured after tedious fighting, and with it the
penetration of the Sahara began.
The last strongholds of the Berbers in the Kabyle Mountains fell in
1857. The country seemed turning toward peace. But in 1864 a fierce
revolt burst forth in southern Oranie; the French punitive column
was massacred, and the rebellion spread all over the department. It
took five years to quell it completely.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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