375. Algerian Revolution: The French Invasion (Ep 1)

19:00Anita:So I'm not picking a city. I'm not picking any one of these towns. I'm not picking the place where I lived. It's going to be on, you know, pretty much not on wheels, but it's going to move. OK, so it's a vast traveling city, Zmala. Tents, workshops, smithies, armorers, you know, treasury, hospital, like the schools, all of this loaded onto horseback, loaded onto camel. And whenever you feel you need to, you load up and you move out. And so they are always one step ahead of the French. Abdelkader has a mobile city. And just to give you a sense of the size of it, no fewer than 60 ,000 people. And whenever he wants, at a moment's notice, he can move fast and he can move it out.

19:43Anita:So what are the French going to do? They're like, what the hell? They've never seen anything like this, Willie. And they've got an accidental colony. Now they have a completely implausible enemy as well. So it's a tricky situation for them.

19:59William:He's an extraordinary man, Abdelkader. He learns French and he starts reading French newspapers and diplomatic reports in order to master the French on their own grounds. And he understands instinctively, you know, not to fight the French in open battle in a set piece. It's guerrilla warfare, hence the mobile capital and hence these raids. as the French begin to decide that they want to not only seize Algiers, but to take the rich countryside around it. And I think what perhaps people don't necessarily understand when they think of Algeria, if they haven't been there, is that this is remarkably like a northern Mediterranean country.

20:43William:You've got a coastal plain, which is very nice for grain. You then have this lovely hilly region, which is perfectly suited for vines. and the French eye all this. The first 100 miles from the coast is some of the richest countryside in the Mediterranean. Perfect for French farmers. And the French begin to encourage people to come here and very quickly, large numbers of Frenchmen and a few Italians and a few Spanish rock up and begin to take over the land. And Abdelkader steps up his resistance and begins attacking these people. A few years into his resistance, he's got 8 ,000 infantry, 2 ,000 cavalry, 240 artillerymen with 20 cannons.

21:28William:It's a proper army. It's not, you know, beaugest with a bunch of sort of guys in turbans riding in on camels as a sort of tribal rabble. Although it is a guerrilla army, it's a properly trained one with modern weaponry. He understands how he can win this war. He says it directly to a French prisoner at one of his fortress towns. You will die of disease in our mountains, and those whom sickness shall not carry off, my horsemen will send to death with their bullets. And he's right. He twice forces the French generals to negotiating tables on his terms. The Tafna Treaty in 1837 grants him sovereignty of two-thirds of Algeria.

22:05William:And for a period, and it's a big surprise really, France recognizes Abdul Qadir as the ruler of most of the country he claims to have conquered. And as I say, what makes him formidable is his intelligence. He captures French papers. He reads them. And at one point, the French discover that he's been reading verbatim accounts of debates in the French chamber of deputies, following every argument about the war in Paris. He knows how unpopular it is. He knows how much it's costing the French his resistance. And he's monitoring the pressure on the government to cut its losses and negotiate. And he's bringing this up in negotiations himself.

22:41Anita:And negotiations are important because, you know, just to underline what's going on in France, you know, the French are saying, you know, we are knackered and tired and poor and we got rid of that Charles X. Why are we having to put up with his old policy and pay for it? And so, you know, there's a great deal of discomfort. Abdelkader reading all of these dispatches and sort of becoming quite confident in the fact that if he can just sort of prick the, you know, the big bear, he might be able to get somewhere. he starts negotiating and he signs a treaty with the French who are at this point not consolidated in what they want and how they're going to get what they want, even if they decide what they want.

23:22Anita:So this treaty, the Treaty of Demichel in February 1834, and actually, the treaty grants him quite a lot. We're going to take a break now. Join us after the break where we tell you what he gets for his negotiating and just a little something to maybe leave you with thinking about before the break. The French who come in at this time, they start becoming known as the pied noir, the black feet. That is going to be really important because it's going to be a real important term in the 1850s. But we're talking about the 1830s. And that's the first sort of reported use of it because these soldiers who came in from France wore black boots.

24:02William:I didn't know that.

24:03Anita:And the local population wore sandals. There is another theory that actually, you know, those slaves who were brought over, the Europeans, the white-skinned slaves, many of them forced to work in the vineyards to tread the grapes. And treading the grapes makes your feet change colour. And so they were the pied noir for that. But I sort of, because of the way it will be used in 20 years from now, I sort of favour this idea of the black boots are coming, the pied noir are coming. Anyway, join us after the break.

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25:50William:Do you hear that? Sounds like breakfast is ready. Because Quaker's coming in hot with morning nutrition. 100 % whole grain oats. And a good source of fiber. To fuel the rhythm of your morning and kickstart your day. and that sounds absolutely delicious fuel to start whatever's next quaker official sponsor of fifa world cup 26 so welcome back just before the break willie we were talking about you know

26:25Anita:he gets the french to sign this treaty what does he get i said quite a lot well actually yes he does because the French are forced to recognise Abdelkader's authority over roughly two-thirds of Algeria.

26:37William:It's a big country too, Algeria.

26:39Anita:But it doesn't, you know, not just in a titular role, it gives him the right to import arms. Basically, you know what, we acknowledge you as the sovereign of the Algerian interior and we are going to let you do whatever you do. It's going to be a big mistake to think that in a minute. But, you know, that's what they do. And, you know, he uses the peace to consolidate his state. So he starts building fortifications and he starts training his army and he starts extending the reach of this Calderia network, you know, the brotherhood network, if you like. So right under the noses of the French, he's building armed resistance in a way.

27:17William:And his letters survive to Louis-Philippe, which are extraordinary. he's writing in French to Louis Philippe and he is they're incredibly civilised and wonderful letters and he writes one leader to another as equals asking Louis Philippe to be a gentleman and honour the treaties that he's made but it is France that violates the treaty

27:45Anita:you can write as many lovely letters as you like thanks for the treaty within a year will he France violates the treaty. So, you know, after two years of fighting, there's a new treaty. Now, the Treaty of Tafna in 1837 is even more favourable to Abdelkader. But you know what happens to treaties? France violates it again. I mean, you know, pretty soon after, you know, two years in October 1839, and starts advancing into territory that it had said it was going to leave to Abdelkader and his followers. And, you know, I think by this second treaty violation, the Algerians knew that treaties aren't going to be honoured and a war is coming.

28:27Anita:So when France violates the Tafna Treaty and pushes into the territory that it had agreed to leave to Abdelkader, it doesn't just resume fighting. He, you know, he doesn't just resume fighting. He writes to the French governor general, first of all, you know, as a civilised man. It is a great document. November 1839. And he tells the Algerian story. And Willie, do you want to read it? You got it to hand because it's a great piece, powerful piece of writing. Go for it.

28:57William:We were at peace and the limits between your country and ours were clearly determined. You have published the claim that all the lands between Algiers and Constantine should no longer receive orders from me. This rupture comes from you. However, Ever so that you do not accuse me of betrayal, I warn you that I will resume the war. Prepare yourselves. Warn your travelers, all who live in isolated places, take every precaution you see fit. I mean, that's chivalrous stuff, isn't it?

29:24Anita:I'm going to hurt you, but let me give you notice. But it's got that sort of gentility about it that would have appealed to the French people. And dignity. Yeah. But I mean, you know, what it is, I mean, it is still a warning. I'm going to kill you all. But it is sort of done with this argument, you know, that would appeal to French sensibility, that it is not I that has decided to do this. I didn't start this, but I'm going to finish it to use the Friday night nomenclature of a pub lock-in.

29:53William:So, Anita, tell us about General Thomas Robert Bougot.

29:57Anita:Well, you know, ironically, and I don't even know if you know this, he is the same General Thomas Robert Bougot who signs the Treaty of Tafna that then gets broken up. Yeah, his ink is on that page. So let me tell you about him. Okay, he served in the Napoleonic Wars, a very good tactician. He's appointed Governor General of Algeria in 1840. And he immediately sees what has been going wrong with the French campaigns that, you know, the French have been thinking with the mentality of a conventional European army that is at war with another European army in terrain that they know. None of that is true.

30:34Anita:None of that is true here. So what he decides is that he is going to use another strategy, and it's called RAZIO, the Scorched Earth Policy. It's something that we normally associate with Kitchener and the Boa War, but Scorched Earth is exactly what it says on the tin.

30:54William:He was Napoleonic general, and he'd been on the Russian campaign. And, of course, what happens with the Napoleonic invasion of Russia is the Russians burn everything around the French. He then begins to just burn out the countryside of Abdul Qadir's supporters. fast moving troops traveling like strike deep into abdul kadir's territory and mercilessly burn crops destroy granaries slaughter all the livestock destroy the olive groves demolish wells and he reduces a significant part of this incredibly beautiful countryside to a wasteland it's you know more or less what the israelis are doing in southern lebanon at the moment It's that thing where just destroying towns, destroying farmland, making the land uninhabitable.

31:47William:And this is accompanied by a whole pattern of atrocities. Tell us what happens in the caves, Anita.

31:52Anita:So this is really deeply distressing and, you know, just a warning because it's awful. So in June 1845, French soldiers chase around a thousand people to some caves, a cave system in the Dara Mountains. and you know these people seek refuge and when I say people I'm not just talking about soldiers I'm talking about women children their pets their livestock all on the run and what happens is the French colonel instead of just laying siege and you know trying to starve them out he sends a message he says I want you to surrender they don't so he orders his men to light fires at the mouths of the caves and to keep them burning.

32:35Anita:Now, what that does is if you have an enclosed system with, you know, limited oxygen and you're lighting fires, they choke people out near the fires with smoke. They also burn up the oxygen inside. And for 24 hours, he knows what he's doing. For 24 hours, he keeps the fires burning. And when finally those last embers go out, The French go into the caves and they find the bodies of somewhere between 500 and 1 ,500 people. So again, that's men, women, children, animals, all asphyxiated or burned to death if they happen to be near those fires that were set alight. When the news gets out, France is outraged.

33:23Anita:So you've got deputies condemning it in the assembly. You've got newspapers denouncing this as barbarism.

33:29William:But they're not that outraged in that they promote the guy who does it, don't they?

33:33Anita:True. I mean, they do. You know, you have a massacre like that, as we've seen in India with, you know, it becomes a lightning rod of resistance as well. And what you have as a result of the news of what happens, and by the way, this is not an isolated case. There are other French outrages, two very notable ones I can think of, that target men, women and children in such a way. Abdelkader is even more of a magnet for those who want to throw the French out. If the French can do this, just like we saw in Jenny Malabar, if the British can do this, we're going to get him out under any circumstances.

34:07Anita:So he goes on for two more years. This to despite the fact that you've got a man now opposing him who understands the terrain and knows how to fight dirty. Two more years he fights on, but then eventually he gets cornered, he gets outgunned.

34:19William:And he gets betrayed.

34:21Anita:Betrayed, yeah. I mean, without the betrayal, maybe you would not have lost. I mean, you pick up the story because this happens in the mobile capital, right?

34:29William:Exactly. The mobile capital, the Zamala, is the key to his success because it's not stationary. It's not somewhere that the French can go and attack and surround with cannon and blow up. It's always on the move and it's always ahead of them. And they don't know where it is. But in May 1843, he is betrayed by, I think, his own people. Some of his own people are so exhausted at this warfare. They think that if they betray him, that it will end and there'll be peace. What happens instead, and Abdul Qadir is not with the Zamala when it happens. He's gone out on a raid. and three days afterwards he discovers when it's too late to do anything except absorb the news that the french have attacked all the women and children who've been left behind they've killed at least a tenth of everyone inside the zemala mainly women and children and the elderly the treasury is lost the workshop is destroyed his armories are gone um it was as abdul qader later tells his French captors the beginning of the end.

35:39William:The tribes that have sheltered under his protection now begin to turn away. They think of him as a loser. They've lost faith in him. And they simply feel they can't afford to share his fate.

35:52Anita:So, you know, you've got biographers of Abdelkader who pour over what happened here. One of them, the way he puts it is interesting. The mind boggles when we think that it took seven years of combat and 100 ,000 men of the greatest army in the world to destroy what the Emir built in two years and five months. So even though they may have disapproved of things like caves, France does celebrate his surrender as a triumph.

36:19William:And they also recognize him. And this is the beginning of this sort of period of Orientalism when the French and other Europeans are sort of begin to romanticize the romantic Arab. Although Abdelkader, after his surrender, arrives in Toulon in chains, they actually put him in Mary Queen of Scots's old chateau in Amboise. It's the most beautiful town. It's one of the most gorgeous towns in Loire Valley. Leonardo da Vinci is buried there. And he has a household of 80 people he's allowed to bring with him, but the French climate does for them. And one by one, they begin to die. And he's corresponding with Napoleon III, And Napoleon III listens to this piteous tale of these Algerians who can't cope in the damp French climate.

37:05William:And so he is allowed to retire to Damascus to spend the rest of his life as a private citizen, but one of the most admired figures in the Islamic world. And he becomes a great friend of Sir Richard Burton, the explorer, and his wife, Isabel, who the consul in Damascus at this period. and the life that he builds in Damascus is extraordinary he moves into this beautiful courtyard house you know I like a good courtyard house by the time he's been there a few years and he's such a hero he has 1200 armed Algerians on his payroll in Damascus and he's sort of leading the life that he you know never quite managed because of warfare he's preaching in the Umayyad mosque and this sort of thing.

37:52William:So something I'd love to mention at this point is what happens in Damascus in 1860. And Abdul Qadir is the great hero. Eugene Rogan has actually written a whole book on Damascus in 1860, which I strongly recommend. But what happens is sectarian violence breaks out in Damascus between the Druze community and the Christians. And several thousand Christians are killed. And Abdul Qadir takes them in and shelters them. The French, who are the people that have destroyed his life, have killed his people, but have allowed him to retire to Damascus, have many missionaries inside Damascus. And he opens his house to them and he personally shelters them, leads armed escorts to bring the Christians to safety.

38:36William:And he ends up saving the lives and sheltering 12 ,000 people. And when Ottoman forces restore order, the European governments honor him. Napoleon III sends him the Grand Cross of the Légion d 'Ordre. Lincoln from America sends him a pair of pistols. And the former prisoner of French Algeria ends up becoming the protector of the French in Damascus. So he's a very sort of honourable figure. He's remembered in the Arab world, particularly in Algeria, as a sort of Saladin figure, this hero of resistance, who was also enormously chivalrous and guarded his enemies. Right.

39:12Anita:So, I mean, it's sort of almost a happily ever after for Abdelkader, the hero in Damascus. But what about Algeria? What about the French? What about what he's left behind? So, look, that's what we're going to concentrate on. Suffice to say that after this surrender, and now France has really probably got a colony and crushed resistance in North Africa, you will see the arrival of a million European settlers, the Blackfeet, the Pien Noir. And what you will see very quickly is this stratification of Algerian society. It's going to leave Algerian Muslims as second class citizens. you're going to have two wars that will make this majority see actually the French aren't unbeatable and I'm talking about World War II and I'm talking about the Vietnamese uprising that takes place that shows them actually you know what the Pien Noir can walk out the door anyway you'll have to wait and see but this is going to be a corking series until the next time we meet is goodbye from me Anita Arnon and goodbye from me William de Rumpel

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