Comment by mytailorisrich | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mytailorisrich | Hacker News Reader

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Algeria wasn't considered a colony. It was annexed in 1848 and as such a fullblown part of France, and it saw large European settlement but with a segregated/apartheid system. Independence was therefore a very nasty and bloody affair on both sides that ended with all the Europeans having to live with nothing effectively on pain of death (114 years after Algeria had been annexed so enough time to create deep feelings).

The French invasion of Algeria has always seemed unique and odd to me: Annexing an Arab territory especially while denying equal rights to the "indigenous" population (the term that was used) was a recipe for disaster and ultimately it proved untenable.

In contrast Tunisia was only a protectorate after the French invaded from Algeria in 1881.

> The French invasion of Algeria has always seemed unique and odd to me

It began with centuries of piracy and enslavement in the Mediterranean sea, leading to the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Wars , which in turn led to the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardment_of_Algiers_(1816) . All this doesn't set a path for the invader to offer equal rights to the "indigenous" population.

All quite beside the point.

A military action, even a colonial invasion, to "pacify" a place and to take control of it has little to do with a full annexation. The US did not make Afghanistan a State... And even among European colonial empires Algeria is quite unique.

France had lost most of its Empire during the Revolution and Napoleonic period so was keen to rebuild one. France did not have a settled Canada or Australia, either, so perhaps this also played a role but it seems unrealistic to believe that trying that with an Arabic Muslim country could have ever worked.

> "pacify" a place and to take control of it has little to do with a full annexation

Indeed. No objective is intangible. Actions taken to reduce an aggressive enemy to inaction can lead to a promising discovery (in this case, that of what would become Algeria, which was then a rich agricultural and pleasant territory occupied by non-unified tribes) leading to a desire to seize it.

Why do you have the deciding vote on whose narrative is right, wrong and what is final?

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