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| Etymology | |
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The country's name is derived from the city of Algiers. The most common etymology links the city name to al-Jazā'ir (الجزائر, "The Islands"), a truncated form of the city's older name Jazā'ir Banī Mazghanna (جزائر بني مزغنة, "Islands of the Mazghanna Tribe"),[14][15] employed by medieval geographers such as al-Idrisi. Others[who?] trace it to Ldzayer, the Maghrebi Arabic and Berber for "Algeria" possibly related to the Zirid Dynasty King Ziri ibn-Manad and founder of the city of Algiers[16]
[edit] Tags:Arabic,Berber,Dz,Maghreb,Algiers,Al-idrisi,Maghrebi Arabic,Zirid Dynasty,Ziri Ibn-manad,Zirid, | |
| History | |
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Main article: History of Algeria
Algeria has been populated since 10.000 BC, as depicted in the Tassili national Park. It makes it one of the first populated countries in the world.
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| Ancient Numidia | |
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Massinissa, the most famous king of Numidia
In Antiquity, Algeria was known as the kingdom of Numidia and its people were called the Numidians.[citation needed]
The indigenous peoples of northern Africa are a distinct native population, the Berbers.[17]
[edit] Tags:Africa,Massinissa,Numidia,Numidians,Berbers, | |
| Arrival of Islam | |
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Great Mosque of Algiers
When Muslim Arabs arrived in Algeria in the mid-7th century, a large number of locals converted to the new faith. After the fall of the Umayyad Arab Dynasty in 751, numerous local Berber dynasties emerged. Amongst those dynasties were the Aghlabids, Almohads, Abdalwadid, Zirids, Rustamids, Hammadids, Almoravids and the Fatimids.[citation needed] converted the Berber Kutama of the Lesser Kabylia to its cause, the Shia Fatimids overthrew the Rustamids, and conquered Egypt, leaving Algeria and Tunisia to their Zirid vassals. When the latter rebelled, the Shia Fatimids sent in the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym Arabian tribes who unexpectedly defeated the Zirids.[citation needed]
The Berber people controlled much of the Maghreb region throughout the Middle Ages. The Berbers were made up of several tribes. The two main branches were the Botr and Barnès tribes, who were themselves divided into tribes, and again into sub-tribes. Each region of the Maghreb contained several tribes (for example, Sanhadja, Houaras, Zenata, Masmouda, Kutama, Awarba, and Berghwata). All these tribes were independent and made territorial decisions.[18]
Several Berber dynasties emerged during the Middle Ages in Maghreb, Sudan, Andalusia, Italy, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Egypt, and other nearby lands. Ibn Khaldun provides a table summarizing the Zirid, Banu Ifran, Maghrawa, Almoravid, Hammadid, Almohad, Merinid, Abdalwadid, Wattasid, Meknassa and Hafsid dynasties.[19]
[edit] Tags:Sudan,Tunisia,Mali,Umayyad,Aghlabids,Almohads,Abdalwadid,Zirids,Rustamids,Hammadids,Almoravids,Fatimids,Kutama,Lesser Kabylia,Shia,Zirid Vassals,Banu Hilal,Banu Sulaym,Sanhadja,Zenata,Masmouda,Berghwata,Ibn Khaldun,Banu Ifran,Maghrawa,Almoravid,Hammadid,Almohad,Merinid,Wattasid,Meknassa,Hafsid, | |
| Spanish enclaves | |
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See also: Oran#Spanish period
This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2011)
The Spanish fort of Santa Cruz, Oran
The Spanish expansionist policy in North Africa began with the rule of the Catholic monarchs Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon and their regent Cisneros. Once the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula was completed, several towns and outposts on the Algerian coast were conquered and occupied by the Spanish Empire: Mers El Kébir (1505), Oran (1509), Algiers (1510) and Bugia (1510). On 15 January 1510 the King of Algiers, Samis El Felipe,[clarification needed] was forced into submission by the king of Spain. King El Felipe[clarification needed] called for help from the corsairs Hayreddin Barbarossa and Oruç Reis who previously helped Andalusian Muslims and Jews escape from Spanish oppression in 1492. In 1516, Oruç Reis conquered Algiers with the support of 1,300 Turkish soldiers on board 16 galliots and became its ruler, with Algiers joining the Ottoman Empire.
The Spaniards left Algiers in 1529, Bugia in 1554, Mers El Kébir and Oran in 1708. The Spanish returned in 1732 when the armada of the Duke of Montemar was victorious in the Battle of Aïn-el-Turk; Spain recaptured Oran and Mers El Kébir. Both cities were held until 1792, when they were sold by King Charles IV of Spain to the Bey of Algiers.
[edit] Tags:Cite,References Or Sources,Reliable Sources,Challenged,Santa Cruz,Oran,Isabella I Of Castile,Ferdinand Ii Of Aragon,Cisneros,Spanish Empire,Mers El Kébir,Bugia, | |
| Barbary pirates | |
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Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha
Algeria was made part of the Ottoman Empire by Hayreddin Barbarossa and his brother Aruj in 1517. After the death of Oruç Reis in 1518, his brother succeeded him. The Sultan Selim I sent him 6,000 soldiers and 2,000 janissaries with which he conquered most of the Algerian territory taken by the Spanish, from Annaba to Mostaganem. Further Spanish attacks led by Hugo of Moncada in 1519 were also pushed back. In 1541, Charles V, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, attacked Algiers with a convoy of 65 warships, 451 large ships and 23,000 men, 2000 of whom were mounted. The attack resulted in failure however, and the Algerian leader Hassan Agha became a national hero as Algiers grew into a center of military power in the Mediterranean.[citation needed]
The Ottomans established Algeria's modern boundaries in the north and made its coast a base for the Ottoman corsairs; their privateering peaked in Algiers in the 17th century. Piracy on American vessels in the Mediterranean resulted in the First (1801–1805) and Second Barbary Wars (1815) with the United States. The pirates forced the people on the ships they captured into slavery; when the pirates attacked coastal villages in southern and Western Europe the inhabitants were forced into the Arab slave trade.[20]
The Barbary pirates, also sometimes called Ottoman corsairs or the Marine Jihad (الجهاد البحري), were Muslim pirates and privateers that operated from North Africa, from the time of the Crusades until the early 19th century. Based in North African ports such as Tunis in Tunisia, Tripoli in Libya and Algiers in Algeria, they preyed on Christian and other non-Islamic shipping in the western Mediterranean Sea.[citation needed]
Ali Khoja, ruler of Algiers 1816-1818, resplendent in a green turban and wearing a fine sword, is surrounding by the severed heads of vanquished enemies after the bombardment of 1816
Their stronghold was along the stretch of northern Africa known as the Barbary Coast (a medieval term for the Maghreb after its Berber inhabitants), but their predation was said to extend throughout the Mediterranean, south along West Africa's Atlantic seaboard, and into the North Atlantic as far north as Iceland and the United States. They often made raids, called Razzias, on European coastal towns to capture Christian slaves to sell at slave markets in places such as Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Algeria and Morocco.[21][22] According to Robert Davis, from the 16th to 19th century, pirates captured 1 million to 1.25 million Europeans as slaves. These slaves were captured mainly from seaside villages in Italy, Spain and Portugal, and from farther places like France, England, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Russia, Scandinavia and even Iceland, India, Southeast Asia and North America.[citation needed]
French friars buying back French slaves.
In 1544, Hayreddin captured the island of Ischia, taking 4,000 prisoners, and enslaved some 9,000 inhabitants of Lipari, almost the entire population.[23] In 1551, Turgut Reis enslaved the entire population of the Maltese island of Gozo, between 5,000 and 6,000, sending them to Libya. In 1554, pirates sacked Vieste in southern Italy and took an estimated 7,000 slaves.[24]
In 1558, Barbary corsairs captured the town of Ciutadella (Minorca), destroyed it, slaughtered the inhabitants and took 3,000 survivors to Istanbul as slaves.[25] In 1563, Turgut Reis landed on the shores of the province of Granada, Spain, and captured coastal settlements in the area, such as Almuñécar, along with 4,000 prisoners. Barbary pirates often attacked the Balearic Islands, and in response many coastal watchtowers and fortified churches were erected. The threat was so severe that the island of Formentera became uninhabited.[26][27]
Between 1609 to 1616, England lost 466 merchant ships to Barbary pirates.[28] In the 19th century, Barbary pirates would capture ships and enslave the crew. Later American ships were attacked. During this period, the pirates forged affiliations with Caribbean powers, paying a "license tax" in exchange for safe harbor of their vessels.[29] One American slave reported that the Algerians had enslaved 130 American seamen in the Mediterranean and Atlantic from 1785 to 1793.[30]
Plague had repeatedly struck the cities of North Africa. Algiers lost from 30,000 to 50,000 inhabitants to the plague in 1620–21, and again in 1654–57, 1665, 1691, and 1740–42.[31]
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| Relations with the US | |
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The bombardment Algiers a 1820 painting
Decatur and the Dey of Algiers (1881 engraving)
US ships paid the tribute demanded by the rulers of Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli and Morocco, preventing attacks on their shipping by Mediterranean corsairs, no longer covered by Great Britain after independence. In 1794 US Congress voted for funds appropriation for warship construction, to counter Mediterranean threats. Despite this the US signed a treaty of $10M (20% of the US annual revenue in 1800) with Algerian Dey to ensure 12 years of attack free shipping in the Mediterranean sea.
After the Napoleonic wars Algeria found itself at war with Spain, Netherlands, England, Prussia, Denmark, Russia and Naples. In March of this year the US government authorized war against the Barbary States, giving place to what is known as Barbary wars. The next year after those wars Algeria was weaker, Europeans with an Anglo-Dutch fleet commended by the British Lord Exmouth attacked Algiers. After a nine hours bombardment, they obtained a treaty from the Dey that reaffirmed the conditions imposed by Decatur (US navy) concerning the demands of tributes. In addition the Dey agreed to end the practice of enslaving Christians.[32]
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| French rule | |
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Market of Biskra in 1899
Main article: French rule in Algeria
On the pretext of a slight to their consul, the French invaded and captured Algiers in 1830.[33] The conquest of Algeria by the French was long and resulted in considerable bloodshed. A combination of violence and disease epidemics caused the indigenous Algerian population to decline by nearly one-third from 1830 to 1872.[34]
The six historical Leaders of the FLN
Between 1825 and 1847, 50,000 French people emigrated to Algeria,[35]
These settlers benefited from the French government's confiscation of communal land and the application of modern agricultural techniques that increased the amount of arable land.[36] Algeria's social fabric suffered during the occupation: literacy plummeted,[37] while land development uprooted much of the population.[citation needed]
Starting from the end of the 19th century, people of European descent in Algeria (or natives like Spanish people in Oran), as well as the native Algerian Jews (classified as Sephardi Jews), became full French citizens.[citation needed]
After Algeria's 1962 independence, the Europeans were called Pieds-Noirs ("black feet"). Some apocryphal sources suggest the title comes from the black boots settlers wore, but the term seems not to have been widely used until the time of the Algerian War of Independence and it is more likely it started as an insult towards settlers returning from Africa.[38]
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| Post-independence | |
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In 1954, the National Liberation Front (Front de Libération Nationale or FLN) launched the Algerian War of Independence which was a guerrilla campaign. By the end of the war, newly elected French President Charles de Gaulle held a plebiscite, off Tags: | |
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