Most of France's actions in Algeria, not least the invasion of Algiers, were propelled by
contradictory impulses. In the period between Napoleon's downfall in 1815 and the revolution of
1830, the restored French monarchy was in crisis, and the dey was weak politically, economically,
and militarily. The French monarch sought to reverse his domestic unpopularity. As a result of what
the French considered an insult to the French consul in Algiers by the dey in 1827, France
blockaded Algiers for three years. France used the failure of the blockade as a reason for a military
expedition against Algiers in 1830.

Invasion of Algiers

Using Napoleon's 1808 contingency plan for the invasion of Algeria, 34,000 French soldiers landed
twenty-seven kilometers west of Algiers, at Sidi Ferruch, on June 12, 1830. To face the French, the
dey sent 7,000 janissaries, 19,000 troops from the beys of Constantine and Oran, and about
17,000 Kabyles. The French established a strong beachhead and pushed toward Algiers, thanks in
part to superior artillery and better organization. Algiers was captured after a three-week campaign,
and Hussein Dey fled into exile. French troops raped, looted (taking 50 million francs from the
treasury in the Casbah), desecrated mosques, and destroyed cemeteries. It was an inauspicious
beginning to France's self-described "civilizing mission," whose character on the whole was cynical,
arrogant, and cruel.

Hardly had the news of the capture of Algiers reached Paris than Charles X was deposed, and his
cousin Louis Philippe, the "citizen king," was named to preside over a constitutional monarchy. The
new government, composed of liberal opponents of the Algiers expedition, was reluctant to pursue
the conquest ordered by the old regime, but withdrawing from Algeria proved more difficult than
conquering it. A parliamentary commission that examined the Algerian situation concluded that
although French policy, behavior, and organization were failures, the occupation should continue for
the sake of national prestige. In 1834 France annexed the occupied areas, which had an estimated
Muslim population of about 3 million, as a colony. Colonial administration in the occupied areas--the
so-called régime du sabre (government of the sword)--was placed under a governor general, a
high-ranking army officer invested with civil and military jurisdiction, who was responsible to the
minister of war.

Data as of December 1993

Information Taken from the Library of Congress:
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+dz0026)