Algiers

With the recent uprising in France, caused by the police fatally shooting a teenager of Algerian descent, why don't we have a look at Algiers, the capital of Algeria.

The attractive Mediterranean city of Algiers, the capital city of Algeria, was founded in 944, around the same time as Cairo.

The city was known as a haven for Barbary pirates, who may have taken a total of a million people as slaves. The United States, as a new nation, fought a number of battles with Barbary pirates, which is why the hymn of the U.S. Marines refers to "the shores of Tripoli", which was another Mediterranean coast haven of the pirates, and later the power base of Libya's Moammar Gaddafi.

Algiers, after breaking free of Spanish rule, was under marginal Ottoman control. The rulers, until the French conquest of 1830, lived in a palace and were known as Deys. It was a walled city until the Nineteenth Century.

The histories of Algeria and France have been inextricably linked since 1830. This is seen in how the Monument des Martyrs in Algiers looks like it might be the Algerian version of the Eiffel Tower, and the Notre Dame D'Afrique being the Algerian equivalent of Notre Dame in Paris. It also shows in how the French Mediterranean city of Marseilles appears as just as much an Algerian colony today as Algiers was a French colony, and with France having the largest population of Moslems in Europe.

It has become practically a legend of how the pretext for the French invasion and occupation of Algeria was the last Ottoman Dey striking the French consul with a flyswatter during a dispute about French debts to Algerian merchants. The French took it as an act of war.

If Americans think the Vietnam War was a contentious issue in the 1960s, Algeria was a greater crisis for France in the 1950s. Vietnam had also been a French colony, and it seems that France let Vietnam go in order to concentrate on Algeria.

An uprising for Algerian independence began, and caused the collapse of the French Fourth Republic in 1958. This brought Charles De Gaulle back as president of the new Fifth Republic, with a stronger presidency. De Gaulle allowed a referendum on independence, and the country became independent in 1962. But the legacy of the relationship continues with millions of immigrants in France, and periodic crises such as the uprising in the Paris banlieus of 2005 and 2023.

Immediately after Algerian independence nearly a million French settlers, or their descendants, relocated to France. These returnees have been referred to since as Pied Noirs, literally "Black Feet". Most had been born in Algeria, and knew no other home. Many had never before been to their ancestral homeland of France. Their struggles to fit back into French society is another story in itself. Most Pied Noirs seemed to really miss life in Algeria.

In France, the change from one republic to the next means the adoption of a new constitution.
The First Republic was from the time of the French Revolution to the rise of Napoleon.
The Bourbon Dynasty made a comeback after the time of Napoleon, until their cadet branch were overthrown for good in the 1848 Revolution. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon's nephew also known as Napoleon III, became president of the Second Republic, but when his four-year term was over he simply, in true Napoleonic fashion, declared himself as emperor as the Second French Empire.
The Third Republic was from when presidential rule was reestablished in 1870, to Nazi occupation in 1940.
The Fourth republic was mostly a continuation of the Third Republic after the war, until the collapse over the Algerian Crisis in 1958.
The Fifth Republic, starting with Charles De Gaulle as president, eventually acknowledged Algerian independence and the Fifth Republic is still with us today.

Here are some photos of Algiers during the time that it was under French rule. It was not considered as a colony, but as actually a part of France.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Algeria#/media/File:Place_de_la_republique,_Algiers,_Algeria-LCCN2001697812.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Algeria#/media/File:Moorish_coffee_house,_Algiers,_Algeria-LCCN2001697835.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Algeria#/media/File:Moorish_women_making_Arab_carpets,_Algiers,_Algeria-LCCN2001697844.jpg

Here are scenes around the old Casbah area of Algiers. The Ketchaoua Mosque was built in 1794.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow you can then hide previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@36.7820125,3.0622976,3a,75y,107.17h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMQ6JJ1-3OKyNiHS0i0F-0grUvTUmQdiaNoiGzw!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMQ6JJ1-3OKyNiHS0i0F-0grUvTUmQdiaNoiGzw%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya132.0981-ro0-fo100!7i10752!8i3328

One of the best-known buildings in Algiers is the post office. here are some scenes from around there, which is also in the old part of town. It is the building with the three arched entrance ways.

https://www.google.com/maps/@36.7727235,3.058885,3a,75y,51h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-q37FjwSlLTI%2FV673epMMPpI%2FAAAAAAAAbh0%2FSSI0OUcSYjAGxA8-QCkP6L-36_az6zi5wCJkC!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2F-q37FjwSlLTI%2FV673epMMPpI%2FAAAAAAAAbh0%2FSSI0OUcSYjAGxA8-QCkP6L-36_az6zi5wCJkC%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya348.2198-ro-0-fo100%2F!7i6144!8i3072

Here are some more scenes, not far from the city center. Moslem countries vary in strictness regarding the prohibition of alcohol. Notice the bar that serves alcohol in Algiers. 

https://www.google.com/maps/@36.7764713,3.0511675,3a,75y,350h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-W1la2nAfnE4%2FVDD8gzlzKpI%2FAAAAAAAAR-g%2F5gVHv8XEcLQvDgi7KpHTsYsT4bTVRorUwCJkC!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2F-W1la2nAfnE4%2FVDD8gzlzKpI%2FAAAAAAAAR-g%2F5gVHv8XEcLQvDgi7KpHTsYsT4bTVRorUwCJkC%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya57.70368-ro-0-fo100%2F!7i10000!8i5000

Here is another part of town, away from the city center, known as Kouba.

https://www.google.com/maps/@36.7356945,3.0911659,3a,75y,80h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPvW5G5m5nzwF59xIf8YXEtjyou1EPUWYb_ZKMM!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPvW5G5m5nzwF59xIf8YXEtjyou1EPUWYb_ZKMM%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya86.000015-ro-0-fo100!7i10240!8i5120

The most visible landmark in Algiers is the Martyrs' Memorial. It looks like an Algerian version of the Eiffel Tower, but is actually three concrete palm leaves honoring those killed in Algeria's struggle for independence against French rule. This is thus an ideal symbol of Algeria's complex relationship with France, just across the Mediterranean. Image from Google Street View.

Finally, here is another symbol of the relationship between France and Algeria. This is the Basilica Notre Dame D'Afrique, built by European settlers, and named for Notre Dame in Paris, but built in a very Moorish or north African style.

https://www.google.com/maps/@36.8011744,3.0428766,3a,75y,266.78h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMIsmH1eP-ls6oUnGvBVbHqkOkPDZ_nsep_DgPt!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMIsmH1eP-ls6oUnGvBVbHqkOkPDZ_nsep_DgPt%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0-ya287.984-ro-0-fo100!7i11264!8i5632