Walcot Gibson, Frank R. Cana and Arthur Girault

“ The Phoenicians, the Romans, the Vandals, the Byzantines, the Arabs, the Turks and the French, all came from the east or from the north. The history of Africa Minor is the history of all those foreigners who have successively endeavoured to exploit this land, the history of their divers civilizations struggling against an ever-renascent barbarism. ”

“ The decree of 1896, which was of a provisional character, was replaced by another, dated the 23rd of August 1898, defining the powers of the governor-general under the new scheme. By a law of the 19th of December 1900, Algeria was constituted a legal personality, with power to own goods, contract loans, &c., and a decree of 1901 placed the customs department, until then directed from Paris, under the control of the governor-general, whose hands were also strengthened in various minor matters.
It will be seen that the form of government is entirely dependent on the will of France. ”

“ An effort was made to attract French colonists to Algeria by gratuitous concessions of land. Some lands were granted in particular to natives of Alsace-Lorraine, who preferred to retain French nationality after the war. Peasants from the south of France, whose vines had been destroyed by the phylloxera, crossed the Mediterranean and established in Algeria an important vineyard. This double current of immigration notably increased the French population of North Africa. The tendency then was to treat Algeria as a piece of France. ”

“ From time immemorial, indeed, this coast has had an evil reputation among mariners, quite apart from the pirates who for centuries made it the base of their depredations. A violent current, starting from the Straits of Gibraltar, rushes eastward along the shore, and, hurled back from the headlands, is deflected to the West. In summer the east wind brings dense and sudden fogs; while in winter the northerly gales blow straight into the mouths of the harbours. ”

“ The Turks, though for a considerable period the dominant race, were never very numerous in Algeria. The majority of them were repatriated by the French. The Kuluglis, descendants of Turks by native women—once a distinct race noted for their energy, bravery and pride—have almost ceased to exist as a separate people, being merged in the Moors. Jews have long been settled in Algeria. Some are supposed to have fled thither when expelled from Cyrenaica in the reign of the emperor Hadrian, and others on their banishment from Italy in 1342. ”

“ It is a mountainous country intersected with rocky canons and fertile valleys, which occasionally broaden out into alluvial plains like that of the Shelif, or the Metija near Algiers, or those in the neighbourhood of Oran and Bona. Behind the Tell is a lofty table-land with an average elevation of 3000 ft., consisting of vast plains, for the most part arid or covered with esparto grass, in the depressions of which are great salt lakes and swamps (Arabic, shats) fed by streams which can find no outlet to the sea through the encircling hills. ”

“ The French chambers alone possess the legislative power, though in the absence of express legislation decrees of the head of the state have the force of law. To the legislature in Paris Algeria elects three senators and six deputies (one senator and two deputies for each department) . The franchise is confined to “citizens,” in which category the native Jews are included by decree of the 24th of October 1870. The Mahommedans, who number nearly eight-ninths of the population, are not, however, “citizens” but “subjects,” and consequently have not the vote. ”

“ Towns in the Sahara.—On the southern slopes of the Great Atlas, 2437 ft. above the sea, looking out on the Saharan desert, and 200 m. in a straight line S. W. of Algiers, is the ancient town of El Aghuat (erroneously written Laghouat) ; pop. 5660. It formerly belonged to Morocco, by whom it was ceded to the Turks towards the close of the 17th century. It was stormed on the 4th of December 1852 by the French, who almost entirely destroyed the Arab town. The modern town contains little of interest, but is an important military station. ”

“ From a geographical point of view Algeria, together with Morocco and Tunisia, from which it is separated only by artificial and purely political frontiers, forms a distinct country, Africa which it is convenient to designate by the name of Africa Minor. Both historically and geographically, Africa Minor belongs much more to the Mediterranean Africa Minor.world than to the African. All the foreign invaders who successively established their dominion over this country either crossed the Mediterranean or followed its shores. ”

“ For the purpose of creating villages, land was put at the disposition of societies or individuals, who undertook to people them with immigrants fulfilling the same conditions as independent settlers. Two-thirds of the villagers were to be French immigrants, the other third Frenchmen or naturalized Frenchmen already settled in Algeria. To favour the establishment of special industries, the governor-general was given power to authorize the introduction of foreign instead of French immigrants. ”

“ Attempts are made to assimilate the Mahommedan population by means of Franco-Arab primary and secondary schools, which supplement the purely French and purely Arab establishments of the same character. These attempts meet with little success, owing in part to racial prejudice and in part to the indifference of the Arabs to education. Few Moslems attend the secondary schools. Purely Mahommedan higher schools exist at Algiers, Tlemçen and Constantine. ”

“ Red deer (Cervus elaphus barbarus) , which differ from the typical European species only in the fact that the second tine is absent from their antlers, a peculiarity which they share with the red deer of Spain and Corsica, are still found in the forest of Beni Saleh in the department of Constantine, but are being exterminated by forest fires and poaching Arabs. Of domestic animals the camel and sheep are the most important. The chief wealth of the Arab tribes of the plateaus consists in their immense flocks of sheep. The horses and mules of Algeria are noted ”

“ For the most part, the Arab tribes have been reluctant to avail themselves of their new powers, and where they have done so the hasty reversal of the traditions of centuries has proved demoralizing to the natives, without any sufficient equivalent in the way of healthy French colonization. ”

“ The purely “African” Jew is now found only in the oases in the extreme south of the country. In the towns the “native” Jews have intermarried with later arrivals from Europe. A remarkable feast is kept annually by the Algerian Jews to commemorate the defeat by the Turks of the emperor Charles V.’s attempt to capture Algiers (1541) . The Jews, who enjoyed religious freedom under the Mahommedans, believed that the success of the Spaniards would but lead to their own persecution. ”

“ The only lands at the outset available for settlement were, in fact, the confiscated domains of the dey. The obvious solution of the difficulty was to encourage the free movement of real estate by substituting private ownership for the traditional system. Before doing this, however, it was necessary to define the limits of tribal properties already existing—a work of great difficulty—with a view to their ultimate division, and at the same time to guard against any premature traffic in the rights of Arabs in the lands about to be divided. ”

“ The average annual fall is 29 in. On the mountains and the high plateaus the winter is often very severe; snow lies for six months on the higher peaks of the Kabyle mountains. On the plateaus the temperature passes from one extreme to the other, and rain seldom falls. (For the climate of the Saharan region see Sahara.) Throughout Algeria, especially in the summer, there is a great difference between day and night temperature, notably in the inland districts. ”

“ The number of Mahommedans who avail themselves of this rule is very small; naturalizations do not exceed an average of thirty persons a year. For certain specified objects, financial and municipal, Mahommedans are, however, permitted to exercise the franchise.
The actual form of government may be summarized thus:—At the head of the administration in Algeria is a governor-general, who exercises control over all branches, civil and military, of the administration, except the services of justice, public instruction and worship (as far as concerns Europeans) and the treasury. ”

“ From these establishments the ranks of native officials are recruited. There is one secondary school for Moslem girls. The education provided for Europeans resembles in most respects that given in France. (The lycees at Algiers, Oran and Constantine are open to Mahommedans, but few take advantage of them.) Besides the government schools there are establishments conducted by clerics and laymen. The best girls' schools are generally those kept by nuns. At Algiers there is an establishment with faculties of law, medicine and pharmacy, science and letters. At Oran is a college for European girls. ”

“ Fauna and Flora.—The fauna of Algeria resembles that of the Mediterranean system generally, though many animals once common to South Europe and North Africa—such as the lion, panther, hyena and jackal—are now extinct in Europe. Lions, formerly plentiful, have disappeared, and leopards and panthers are rare ”

“ The communes with full powers have each for centre a town with a considerable European population.
By decree of the 14th of August 1905, the frontier between Saharan territory dependent on Algeria and that attached to French West Africa was laid down. The Algerian Sahara was divided into four territories, officially named Tuggurt, Ghardaia, Ain Sefra and the Saharan Oases (Tuat, Gurara and Tidikelt) . The governor-general represents the territories in civil affairs; the budget is distinct from that of Algeria and an annual subvention is provided by France. ”

“ Shipping and Commerce.—The carrying trade between Algeria and France is confined, by a law passed in 1889, to French bottoms. The largest port is Algiers, after which follow Oran, Philippeville and Bona. There is a considerable coasting trade. The average number of vessels entering and clearing Algerian ports each year has been, since 1900, about 4000, with a total tonnage of some 6,500,000. In the coasting trade some 12,000 small vessels are engaged. ”

“ Climate.—Although Algeria enjoys a warm climate, the temperature varies considerably in different parts, according to the elevation and configuration of the country. Along the coast the weather is very mild, the thermometer rarely falling to freezing-point even in winter. The coldest month is January, the hottest August. The mean annual temperature in the coast plains is 66° F. Heavy rains prevail from December to March, and rain is not uncommon during other months also, excepting June, July, August and September, which are very hot and rainless. ”

“ It has a good harbour, is the outlet for the produce of several fertile valleys, and the starting-point of a railway which penetrates into the Sahara. This railway passes Saida (6256) , 106 m. south of Arzeu, one of the capitals of Abd-el-Kader, and serves to bring down from the high plateaus their rich crops of esparto grass. Four miles S.E. of Arzeu is a Berber village, where are interesting ruins of a Roman settlement, identified by some authorities as the Portus Magnus of Pliny; other authorities claim Oran as occupying the site of Portus Magnus. ”

“ Profoundly troubled as Algeria was in the last years of the 19th century by the anti-Semitic agitation, which occasioned frequent changes of governors, it appears to-day to have turned aside from sterile political struggles to interest itself exclusively in the economic development of the country. ”

“ The principal ranges of the Little Atlas—from west to east—are the Tlemcen (5500 ft.) ; the Warsenis (with Kef Sidi Omar, 6500 ft.) ; the Titeri (4900 ft.) ; the Jurjura, with the peak of Lalla Kedija (7542 ft.) and Mount Babor (6447 ft.) ; and the Mejerda (3700 ft.) , which extends into Tunisia. The Jurjura range, forming the background of the plains between Algiers and Bougie, extends through the district of Kabylia, with which for grandeur of scenery no other part of Algeria can compare. ”

“ Of the crops raised, wheat, barley and oats are the principal cereals. A great variety of vegetables and of fruits, especially the orange, is exported. A considerable amount of cotton was grown during the American Civil War, but the industry afterwards declined. ”

“ In the 73,799 the troops, French and native, are included) . The total European population, in which category are reckoned the Jews, other than those of Mzab, was 680, 263. Compared with the census of 1901 the figures of 1906 showed a decrease of 14,000 French, 36,000 Spaniards and 5000 Italians, but an increase of nearly 100,000 in the foreigners naturalized. Of other races: (1) The Berbers (q.v.) constitute 75% of the entire population. The Kabyles (q.v.) , a division of the Berbers, occupy chiefly the more mountainous parts of the Tell, but some live in the plains and valleys. ”

“ Both these items are borne by France. The Algerian budget for 1906 showed revenue and expenditure balancing at £3,820,000. The country has a debt (1905) , including capital, annuities and interest, of some £3,400,000.
Defence.—The military force constitutes the XIX. army corps of the French army. There are in addition a territorial army reserve and a special body of troops, largely Arab, for the defence of the Saharan territory. The troops quartered in Algeria exceed 50,000. The defence of the coast is provided by the French navy. ”