Imperialism In Algeria Essay

1243 Words3 Pages

Prior to French imperialist seizure of Algeria, Algeria was a part of the Ottoman Empire. Algeria was governed by the method of indirect rule, and Algeria essentially had freedom. Algerian sea explorers occupied the Mediterranean sea, and European states paid these explorers for the protection of their ships. In the late 18th century, the Ottoman Empire was in decline, which the European states took advantage of, in order to,“challenge corsair domination.” (History, Ottoman Rule) This background information could explain some of the motives for the French imperial conquest of Algeria. For example, terminating the presence of Algerian explorers in the Mediterranean could be applied to the excuse of the "civilising mission."
In France, the …show more content…

The monarch, Charles X, felt that a coup d 'état (hostile take over) of another country would increase his popularity, as well as delay a revolution. (Lutsky) Another reason for the French imperialist seizure of Algeria was the greediness of the French state, who desired to increase economic strength and gain new markets for the country of France. The French imperialists used the Long Depression (1873-79) as an excuse for the desire of an additional source of profit. (Jones) (Barga) To profit from their occupation of Algeria, French imperialists forced the growth of cash crops (such as cork-oak), which resulted in many detrimental events, such as famines (due to a lack of crops for the natives themselves). (Sivak) An additional motive was the "civilising mission". The French imperialists claimed that their invasion of Algeria was an attempt to restore order. (A brief history of French colonies) The French imperialists ' desire to eradicate the Algerian sea explorers could be attributed to their claim of the "civilising mission." (History, Ottoman …show more content…

In 1830, a ruler of Tunis, Husain II Bey, signed a treaty with the French. This treaty “abolished the monopoly on produce, prohibited acts of piracy, confirmed previous trade treaties, made France most favored, and allowed European consuls to try all cases involving Europeans.” (Beck) Due to this treaty being signed, Husain II Bey “refused to allow the Ottoman official Tahir Pasha to land in Tunis to challenge the French blockade of Algeria.” (Beck). By preventing the Ottoman leaders from occupying a strategic location, the French were able to steal control of Algeria. Another method by which the French imperialists were able to invade and take control of Algeria was through warfare and military supremacy. The native Algerians were only equipped with, "hunting rifles, shotguns, and home made bombs," when facing the French imperialists, where the French imperialists had more modern weapons due to industrialisation.(Algerian war: 1954 to 1962) In order to take power away from the Turkish in Algeria, 37,000 members of the French army invaded the west of Algeria in June of 1830, and fought against the Turkish. The Turkish surrendered on July 4th of 1830, and the French invaded Algeria the following day. (Lutsky) However, “this success brings France only a small region round Algiers.” (History of Algeria) French imperialists were still threatened by

Show More
Related

  • Algeria Imperialism

    694 Words  | 2 Pages

    Imperialism is when a big country takes over a smaller country to gain more land and materials. The age of imperialism started in the 1870’s when European countries started making empires in Asia, Africa, and the middle east. Algeria is a small country in Africa that was taken over by France in the 1830’s. In 1847 the Algerians wanted their land back so they fought for control but the French defeated the Muslim leader Abd al-Qadir and gained control of the land. Algeria had many positive and negative effects because of imperialism that shaped its culture, society and government. (Dipiazzia 66).

    Read More

  • European Imperialism Dbq Essay

    549 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the 19th century, European Imperialism had a major effect on Africa. As countries expanded in terms of wealth, resources, and innovation, more territory and workers were needed. The first solution to solve these problems was to begin colonizing in Africa. The driving force for imperialism in Europe and Africa was mainly economical. This economical approach was established through many ways including cultural and nationalistic ideas.

    Read More

  • Driving Force Behind European Imperialism in Africa

    631 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the main reasons Europeans colonized Africa was for their useful resources. There are countless assets in the African landscape that were wanted by other nations. The European countries had access to some of the worlds most needed resources such as cotton, oils, coal, gold, and diamonds because they controlled Africa. This is shown on a chart of African colonies and their exports. ("Selected African Colonies and Their Exports" 269). This shows how the European countries carefully selected the land they did, to get certain resources they needed or wanted to use to benefit from. Another chart from a book by Trevor Lloyd, (Lloyd, The British Empire), displays the large jump of exports to Africa from 1854 to 1900. What that means is once Great Britain established complete control of South Saharan Africa, they began to export the resources they found that they could use. These charts are proof of how the European's wanted resources, and that is one of the main reasons for the imperialization of Africa. Not only did the European nations want the continent's resources, but they had an equal hunger for power.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast American Imperialism

    582 Words  | 2 Pages

    The motivations behind U.S. imperialism were far different from the motivations of major European countries. Many European powers felt pressured to keep the balance of power among nations. The need to continue expanding was to make sure one country did not gain to much power over the others. The pressure to keep up with neighboring countries consumed European powers. The scramble for Africa changed Britain’s views on expanding when France started to colonize the country. Soon all major powers in Europe joined in the scramble to gain territory in Africa. The United

    Read More

  • Imperialism In Africa Dbq

    635 Words  | 2 Pages

    In conclusion, the motives concerning imperialism in Africa are a matter of expanding empires, helping natives, and natural resources. Europeans countries constantly tried to compete with their neighbors in fair ways to become the most dominating country. Just as much as they took possession of Africa, their will was also to assist Africa on their right path and put an end to any dilemmas they may be

    Read More

  • Similarities And Differences Between European Native American And African Societies

    1627 Words  | 4 Pages

    However, French lost its territory to the Spanish and the British, but most of France’s colonial wealth were extracted from their colonies in Africa, especially from its vast wealth of gold and diamond. “Like the Spanish the French preferred to rule their colonies under a direct rule, which urge more metropole culture spread upon colonized land. While Spanish colonial cities have plazas, the French colonial cities have Paris grid town planning and architecture that often remind one of France. They also introduced education system using French language, to help further brainwash and spread their own value” (Quora). “The French also wanted to spread their “French value” to its subject as part of their “civilizing” mission, to bless the barbaric of indigenous Africans and Asians with enlightenment (admittedly they were less successful than Americans, but did manage to spread the French language all over Africa)” (Quora). While Africa became more “France”, this failed in Indochina because the locals find French difficult to learn. The Africa colonization was pure and simple, to benefit the metropole at most while limiting the development of industry as to make Africa reliant on European

    Read More

  • A Critical Evaluation of Charles De Gaulle's Handling of the Algerian Insurrection

    2719 Words  | 6 Pages

    Before 1954, Algeria was not considered to be a French colony - rather it was seen as an integral part of France. The region was composed of departments, like those of the mainland. There were over a million white French nationals living in Algeria at the time and around eight million Muslims.3 This was a greater proportion of French nationals than in the other major North African colonies of France - Morocco, and Tunisia.4 Although there were benefits to remaining with France, the colonial administration was heavily weighed against the Muslims - particularly with regards to voting rights. In 1936, for instance, the Popular Front Government of Blum introduced legislation to the Assembly proposing to extend French citizenship to over twenty thousand Algerian Muslims.5 The initiative failed when all the European mayors of Algerian towns resigned in protest.

    Read More

  • Imperialism In The Third Republic

    758 Words  | 2 Pages

    The military managed to set up the foundations of Algeria and Indochina, which were the two most important French colonies. Most of the military was trained in the colonies since no major war required the full deployment. The French began to enter Algeria in 1830, during the last days of Charles X 's reign. Charles X was attempting to consolidate his power

    Read More

  • Motives for British Imperialism in Africa

    5625 Words  | 12 Pages

    Before the Europeans began the New Imperialism in Africa, very little was known about the inner parts of the continent. However, after some explorers delved deeper into the heart of Africa, the Europeans soon realized how economically important this area was, and how much they could profit from it. At the time, Britain had only small occupations of land in Africa, but after they realized that they could make money from the rich resources from the inner regions of Africa, they wanted to invade the African countries and take over. This led to the scramble and ultimately, the partition of Africa. During the Age of Imperialism, from 1870-1914, Britain was a major country, which proved to be true in the “carving up” and division of Africa. Britain was one of the strongest of the European countries, and had the power to take over much of the most valuable lands with the most rich and abundant supplies of raw materials and other resources. There were five main reasons for their imperialism. They were political and military interests, humanitarian and religious goals, ideological, exploratory, and lastly, but most importantly, economic interests.

    Read More

  • Imperialism in South Africa

    1086 Words  | 3 Pages

    Imperialism is the domination by one country of political, economic, or cultural life of another country or region and occurred during the 1800’s in Africa. Imperialism in Africa was caused by four factors in Europe: economy, politics/military, humanitarian/religion, and Social Darwinism (Ellis). The Industrial Revolution in Europe caused the need for oversea expansion because the manufacturers needed things like: rubber, petroleum, and palm oil all of which Africa had. Europe moving into Africa was also caused by nationalism, when France went into Africa so did Britain (Ellis). The difference between France and Britain was the way of rule they used. There are four different methods of imperialism: direct, indirect, protectorate, and sphere of influence. The most popular were direct and indirect. The French used direct, they sent officials and soldiers from France to administer their colonies and their purpose was to inflict French culture on their colonies and make them into French provinces (Ellis). The British, however, used indirect, they used chiefs to oversee their colonies and encouraged the children in the colonies to get education in Britain. The British “Westernized” their colonies and only used military force when threatened (Ellis).

    Read More

  • How Did Europe Colonize Africa

    646 Words  | 2 Pages

    What motives did Europe have to colonize Africa? Trans-Atlantic free trade in Africa was the biggest deportation in history and a determining factor in the world economy of the 18th century. Rule of occupation in the 18th century was the idea that a colonizing country must actually have roads, soldiers, and a working government in a country before it is considered an official one. Free trade throughout Africa was dealing with countries without restrictions; international trade left to its natural course without tariffs, or quotas. Economics, Cultural Attitudes, and Geopolitical Competition motivated Europe to colonize Africa.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Wretched Of The Earth Fanon

    1222 Words  | 3 Pages

    They let natives suffer through physical pain and leave them with psychological fears and terrors. Those poor people are brainwashed and made more coward because of the threats they have to face. Fanon explains that colonised people have to accept Western culture, values and laws. They are forced and brainwashed to hate themselves and accept themselves as the nation they would be under (European). In battle of Algeria Algerians were called “dirty Arabs” so they would loathe themselves. They were manipulated to let give themselves under France. Their mental and psychological state was shaken by the violence used. Families were separated and killed in front of their eyes. In the movie Battle of Algiers a little kid was hiding terrified, his relative saw him and was calling him towards them but he stood still with no courage to move. He was psychologically impaired and did not have even a little force to move himself. This attempt of decolonization of Algerians only left the them horrified and mentally

    Read More

  • Imperialism In China

    219 Words  | 1 Pages

    As a native of the French republic, I feel that imperialism is a shameful and ridiculous idea. Though I am, perhaps, in the minority, I feel that the rule of France should not extend to nations outside of our reach. Upon European soil, our

    Read More

  • The Algerian War Research Paper

    1532 Words  | 4 Pages

    Algerians were treated with harsh behavior by the government, which included the raising of taxes on them. This made it harder for the Algerians to support their family and so this resulted in the wanting of their independence. French made the Algerians seem like they were not actual people and that they are invisible to the French ever since they were conquered(Martin, Gilles). This was there land first but it did not seem that way, they were treated more like immigrants than citizens, they paid more taxes, and worked for jobs that gave them low income. It was just a hard time for them and that made them struggle even

    Read More

  • Colonialism In Africa Essay

    989 Words  | 2 Pages

    An overwhelming majority of African nations has reclaimed their independence from their European mother countries. This did not stop the Europeans from leaving a permanent mark on the continent however. European colonialism has shaped modern-day Africa, a considerable amount for the worse, but also some for the better. Including these positive and negative effects, colonialism has also touched much of Africa’s history and culture especially in recent years.

    Read More

More about Imperialism In Algeria Essay

Open Document