French Conquest
France seized Algiers in 1830, using as justification an alleged insult to the French consul by the reigning Dey of Algiers. The conquest of Algeria by the French faced long and bitter opposition, led from 1832 to 1847 by the Algerian resistance leader Abd-el-Kader. The French Army used scorched-earth tactics and there were heavy losses amongst the indigenous Kabyle and Arab peoples (estimated to have numbered about 2 million in 1830). It was not until 1857 that the country was physically occupied and complete pacification was not achieved until 1881. The conquest was not technically completed until the early 1900s when the last Tuareg were conquered and the Sahara came under full French control.
Read more about this topic: Military History Of Algeria
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“Sanity is the lot of those who are most obtuse, for lucidity destroys one’s equilibrium: it is unhealthy to honestly endure the labors of the mind which incessantly contradict what they have just established.”
—Georges, French novelist, critic. L’Abbé C, pt. 2, ch. 17 (1950)
“Have I in conquest stretched mine arm so far
To be afeared to tell greybeards the truth?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)