Algeria

The indigenous Amazigh (Berber) peoples are the oldest population of Algeria, and in antiquity they were organised into the kingdom of Numidia, lying between Carthaginian territory and the western Mauretanians. Numidia was at first divided between two tribal confederations, the Massylii in the east and the Masaesyli in the west. During the Second Punic War the Massylian prince Massinissa allied with Rome against Carthage, and with Roman backing he overcame his rival Syphax to unite Numidia into a single kingdom around 202 BCE, reigning until his death in 148 BCE as a powerful client-king who encouraged settled agriculture and town life.

After Massinissa, the kingdom passed eventually to his grandson Jugurtha, whose attempt to seize sole power provoked the Jugurthine War with Rome (112–105 BCE). Defeated by the Romans, Jugurtha was betrayed, paraded in the triumph of Gaius Marius and put to death in 104 BCE. Numidia was progressively drawn into the Roman orbit and, after the civil wars, much of it was annexed; under the empire the region became part of Roman Africa, studded with prosperous cities. Timgad, founded by the emperor Trajan around 100 CE as a colony for veterans, and Djémila and Tipasa preserve to this day some of the finest Roman remains in the world.

The greatest of the Roman coastal cities was Hippo Regius, near modern Annaba, a wealthy port that shipped North African grain to Rome. There, Augustine—born at Thagaste in 354 CE—served as bishop from about 395 until his death in 430, writing the Confessions and the City of God and becoming one of the most influential of the Latin Church Fathers. Augustine died as the Vandals besieged Hippo, and his life marks both the height of Christian Roman Africa and the eve of its collapse.

Turning points

1. c. 202 BCEFormation

   Massinissa unites Numidia

   Allied with Rome in the Second Punic War, the Massylian king Massinissa defeats Syphax and unifies the Amazigh kingdom of Numidia, ruling until 148 BCE.

   [1] [2]

2. 112–105 BCEWar & Rupture

   The Jugurthine War

   Massinissa's grandson Jugurtha wars with Rome over control of Numidia; captured by treachery, he is led in Marius's triumph and executed at Rome in 104 BCE.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [2]

3. c. 100 CECulture & Ideas

   Trajan founds Timgad

   The emperor Trajan establishes Timgad (Thamugadi) as a Roman colony; its grid plan, forum, theatre and arch survive as one of the best-preserved Roman towns.

   [3] [4]

4. c. 395–430 CEReligion

   Augustine, bishop of Hippo

   Augustine serves as bishop of Hippo Regius from about 395 until his death in 430, writing the Confessions and City of God and shaping Western Christian thought.

   [5] [4]

Figures of the era

In 429 the Vandals, a Germanic people led by Genseric, crossed from Spain into North Africa; they took Hippo Regius and, in 439, Carthage, founding a kingdom that dominated the western Mediterranean. A century later the Byzantine emperor Justinian sent his general Belisarius, who landed in 533 and destroyed the Vandal kingdom within a year, restoring Roman imperial rule over the coast. Byzantine authority, however, never reached deep into the interior, where the Amazigh tribes retained their independence.

From the mid-seventh century Arab armies carried Islam westward across the Maghreb. The general Uqba ibn Nafi founded Kairouan (in modern Tunisia) around 670 as a base for conquest, but Amazigh resistance was tenacious: the Awraba chief Kusaila killed Uqba near Biskra about 683, and the warrior-queen known as the Kahina led the tribes of the Aurès mountains against the invaders before her defeat around 698, the year the Arabs finally took Carthage and ended Byzantine power. Over the following generations the Amazigh peoples gradually adopted Islam while keeping their language and tribal structures.

The central Maghreb that is now Algeria then passed through a sequence of Muslim dynasties. The Rustamids built an Ibadi imamate at Tahert; the Fatimids rose in the early tenth century before moving their centre to Egypt, leaving the Zirids (and their Hammadid kinsmen) to govern in their name. The Hammadids, ruling from 1011, founded the Qal'a of Beni Hammad and made Bejaïa a leading Mediterranean port. In the eleventh century the migration of the Arab Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym tribes, encouraged from Egypt, overran these states and accelerated the Arabisation of the countryside, before the great Almoravid and Almohad empires of the far west absorbed the region.

Turning points

1. 439War & Rupture

   Vandals take Carthage

   After seizing Hippo Regius, Genseric's Vandals capture Carthage in 439 and rule a kingdom commanding the western Mediterranean.

   ↗See the data

   [6] [7]

2. 533–534War & Rupture

   Byzantine reconquest

   Justinian's general Belisarius lands in 533 and within a year destroys the Vandal kingdom, restoring Byzantine imperial rule over coastal North Africa.

   ↗See the data

   [7] [6]

3. c. 683War & Rupture

   Kusaila defeats Uqba ibn Nafi

   The Awraba chief Kusaila ambushes and kills the Arab general Uqba ibn Nafi near Biskra, a high point of Amazigh resistance to the Islamic conquest.

   ↗See the data

   [8] [9]

4. c. 698War & Rupture

   The Kahina and the fall of Carthage

   The Amazigh queen known as the Kahina leads resistance from the Aurès before her defeat around 698, the year the Arabs take Carthage and end Byzantine rule in Africa.

   ↗See the data

   [10] [9]

5. 1011Politics & Power

   Hammadid dynasty and Beni Hammad

   The Berber Hammadid dynasty is established and founds the Qal'a of Beni Hammad; Bejaïa becomes one of the foremost ports of North Africa.

   [11] [12]

Figures of the era

Early in the sixteenth century, as Spain seized Algerian ports, the city of Algiers turned for protection to the corsair brothers Aruj and Hayreddin (the Barbarossa brothers). Aruj took Algiers around 1516; after his death his brother Hayreddin placed the city under the suzerainty of the Ottoman sultan, who granted him the title of beylerbey. The Regency of Algiers thus became a semi-autonomous Ottoman province on the Barbary Coast, succeeding the older Kingdom of Tlemcen and dominating the central Maghreb.

The regency was governed as a military state controlled by the janissary corps and the community of corsair captains (the ta'ifa of raïs). For much of the period real power lay with successive rulers titled pasha, agha and, from the late seventeenth century, dey—an elected military strongman. The state financed itself largely through privateering: Algerine corsairs raided shipping and coasts across the Mediterranean and beyond, taking European captives who were held for ransom or sold into slavery, while European powers paid tribute for protection.

Algiers in these centuries grew into a cosmopolitan port crowned by its Casbah, the fortified Ottoman old town that survives as a World Heritage site. The newly independent United States fought the Barbary Wars of the early nineteenth century in part over the regency's demands, and European navies bombarded the city repeatedly. By 1830 the dey's regency, weakened and increasingly isolated, was vulnerable to the French invasion that would end more than three centuries of Ottoman-era rule.

Turning points

1. c. 1516Formation

   Barbarossa brothers seize Algiers

   The corsair Aruj takes Algiers; his brother Hayreddin places it under Ottoman suzerainty, founding the Regency of Algiers.

   [13] [14]

2. 1518Politics & Power

   Ottoman suzerainty established

   After Aruj's death, Hayreddin Barbarossa submits Algiers to the Ottoman sultan and is made beylerbey, binding the regency to Istanbul.

   [13] [14]

3. 1671Politics & Power

   Rule of the deys

   Power in the regency passes to elected military rulers titled dey, heading a janissary state financed by corsairing and ransom.

   [14] [5]

4. 1827Politics & Power

   The "fly-whisk" incident

   A dispute over French debts ends with the dey of Algiers striking the French consul with a fly-whisk, a slight France later uses as a pretext for invasion.

   [15] [5]

Figures of the era

Using the 1827 fly-whisk slight against its consul as a pretext, France invaded in 1830 and captured Algiers in July, ending the Ottoman regency. The coastal towns fell quickly, but the interior resisted for nearly two decades. The most formidable opponent was Abd al-Qadir, amir of Mascara from 1832, who built a state across much of western and central Algeria and waged a holy war against the French. Driven across the border and pursued with a scorched-earth campaign, he finally surrendered in 1847; large-scale resistance, including the great Kabyle revolt of 1871, continued for a generation.

France made Algeria not a mere colony but, from 1848, an integral part of metropolitan France divided into départements. Land was expropriated on a vast scale for European settlers—French, Spanish, Italian and Maltese colonists collectively known as pieds-noirs—who came to dominate the economy, administration and the best farmland. The Muslim majority, the great bulk of the population, was governed under a separate and unequal legal regime, largely excluded from citizenship and from political power, while indigenous landholding, education and customary authority were undermined.

A modern nationalist movement took shape in the twentieth century, spurred by the service of Algerian soldiers in the world wars and by the failure of reform. On 8 May 1945, as Europe celebrated victory, a nationalist demonstration at Sétif was met with mass repression in which thousands of Algerians were killed; the Sétif massacre radicalised a generation and is often seen as a turning point on the road to revolution.

Turning points

1. 5 July 1830Colonisation

   France captures Algiers

   A French expeditionary force takes Algiers, ending the Ottoman regency and beginning 132 years of French rule in Algeria.

   ↗See the data

   [15] [5]

2. 1832–1847War & Rupture

   Abd al-Qadir's resistance

   Proclaimed amir in 1832, Abd al-Qadir builds a state across much of Algeria and leads armed resistance to the French until his surrender in 1847.

   ↗See the data

   [16] [15]

3. 1848Colonisation

   Algeria annexed to France

   Algeria is organised into French départements and declared an integral part of France, opening the way to large-scale European settlement and land expropriation.

   ↗See the data

   [5] [17]

4. 1871War & Rupture

   The Mokrani (Kabyle) revolt

   A major uprising in Kabylia is crushed, followed by further confiscations of land that deepen the dispossession of the Muslim population.

   ↗See the data

   [5]

5. 8 May 1945Colonisation

   Sétif massacre

   A nationalist demonstration at Sétif on VE Day is met with mass killing of thousands of Algerians, radicalising the independence movement.

   ↗See the data

   [5] [18]

Figures of the era

On 1 November 1954—the "Toussaint Rouge," Red All Saints' Day—the newly formed National Liberation Front (FLN) launched coordinated attacks across Algeria, opening the war of independence. The conflict was waged by guerrilla insurgency and met with mass repression; both sides committed atrocities, and the French army's systematic use of torture, exposed during the Battle of Algiers of 1956–57, drew international condemnation even as the army gained the upper hand militarily in the cities.

The war convulsed France itself. The struggle over Algeria brought down the Fourth Republic in 1958 and returned Charles de Gaulle to power; settler ultras and rebel army officers, fearing abandonment, mounted coups and formed the terrorist Organisation Armée Secrète (OAS) to keep Algeria French. The human cost was immense: estimates of Algerian dead range widely, commonly cited from several hundred thousand into the hundreds of thousands and beyond, alongside the uprooting of millions through forced resettlement.

Negotiations between France and the FLN produced the Évian Accords, signed on 18 March 1962, which provided for a ceasefire and a referendum. On 1 July 1962 Algerians voted overwhelmingly for independence; France recognised the new state on 3 July, and independence was proclaimed on 5 July 1962. In the months around independence nearly the entire pied-noir community—around a million people—fled to France, as did many harkis, the Algerians who had served with the French army.

Turning points

1. 1 November 1954War & Rupture

   Toussaint Rouge: the war begins

   The FLN launches coordinated attacks across Algeria on 1 November 1954, opening the war of independence against French rule.

   ↗See the data

   [18] [5]

2. 1956–1957War & Rupture

   Battle of Algiers

   A fierce urban campaign in the capital pits FLN cells against French paratroopers; the army's use of torture turns world opinion against the war.

   ↗See the data

   [18] [19]

3. 1958Politics & Power

   The war topples the Fourth Republic

   The Algerian crisis brings down France's Fourth Republic and returns Charles de Gaulle to power, opening the way to eventual negotiations.

   [5]

4. 18 March 1962Independence

   Évian Accords

   France and the FLN sign the Évian Accords, agreeing a ceasefire and a self-determination referendum that will lead to Algerian independence.

   ↗See the data

   [18] [19]

5. 5 July 1962Independence

   Independence proclaimed

   After a referendum on 1 July and French recognition on 3 July, Algeria proclaims its independence on 5 July 1962, ending 132 years of French rule.

   ↗See the data

   [20] [21]

Figures of the era

Ahmed Ben Bella governed the new republic until June 1965, when his defence minister, Colonel Houari Boumédiène, deposed him in a coup. Boumédiène ruled until his death in 1978, building a centralised one-party state under the FLN, nationalising the oil and gas industry and pursuing an ambitious programme of state-led industrialisation funded by hydrocarbon wealth, while championing Third World and non-aligned causes abroad. His successors maintained single-party rule until economic crisis and the riots of October 1988 forced a turn toward political opening.

Multiparty elections followed, but when the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) swept the first round of legislative voting in December 1991, the army intervened in January 1992, cancelling the elections and forcing President Chadli Bendjedid to resign. The result was a savage civil war between the state and armed Islamist groups, including the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), through the 1990s—the period Algerians call the "black decade," in which around 200,000 people were killed and thousands disappeared.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika, elected president in 1999, brought the war to a close through a Civil Concord and a 2005 Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation that offered amnesty to combatants, and he went on to rule for two decades. When the ailing Bouteflika sought a fifth term in 2019, millions took to the streets in the peaceful protest movement known as the Hirak; he resigned on 2 April 2019. Abdelmadjid Tebboune was elected president in December 2019 amid continuing protest, and Algeria—Africa's largest country and a major oil and gas exporter—has continued to navigate the legacy of its revolution and the demands of a young population for renewal.

Turning points

1. 19 June 1965Politics & Power

   Boumédiène seizes power

   Colonel Houari Boumédiène overthrows Ahmed Ben Bella and installs himself as president, beginning thirteen years of centralised socialist rule.

   [23] [24]

2. 1971Economy & Trade

   Nationalisation of oil and gas

   Boumédiène nationalises the hydrocarbon industry, using oil and gas revenues to fund state-led industrialisation and a socialist development model.

   ↗See the data

   [23] [5]

3. January 1992War & Rupture

   Elections cancelled; civil war begins

   After the Islamic Salvation Front leads the December 1991 vote, the army cancels the elections and ousts the president, triggering the civil war of the 1990s.

   ↗See the data

   [25] [26]

4. 1999–2005Politics & Power

   Bouteflika and national reconciliation

   Elected in 1999, Abdelaziz Bouteflika ends the civil war through a Civil Concord and the 2005 Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation.

   [27] [25]

5. 22 February – 2 April 2019Politics & Power

   The Hirak and Bouteflika's fall

   Mass peaceful protests known as the Hirak erupt against Bouteflika's bid for a fifth term; he resigns on 2 April 2019, and Abdelmadjid Tebboune is elected president that December.

   [27] [28]

Figures of the era