Pieds Noir proper were refugees from Alsace and Lorraine following the 1870 war. They had to choose between becoming German to retain their own property or leave if they chose to remain French. Many who chose France went to Algeria and the term Pieds Noir referred to their black Alsatian boots.
Why Were French People Settling Algeria?
- Thread starter TickTock The Witch's Dead
- Start date
It isn't a natural law that Europe and North Africa must be separate states and even cultures. The Mediterranean coast is one big connected region. Of course it makes sense for an expansionist France to settle the closest 'uncivilized'* coast.
*translation: 'people who cannot defend themselves adequately'
French Algeria tended to attract immigrants from the Mediterranean basin, from various countries. Traditionally, far fewer Frenchmen emigrated from their homeland than other European countries, and by the 1850s France was experiencing net immigration. The few French who emigrated tended to be middle-class merchants to Argentina, California, Uruguay etc. Also, by 1954 79% of the 984,048 non-Muslims in Algeria were born in Algeria.
Here is a breakdown of the Europeans in Algeria by ancestry:
40% Spanish (Alicante, Murcia, Valencia and Menorca)
25% mainland France (mostly Languedoc and Provence and to a lesser extent Paris)
20% Italian (mostly Naples and Sicliy), Corsican and Maltese
12% Naturalised Jews (Granted in 1870 by the Crémieux Decree)
3% German (German, Swiss, Alsatian)
France turned to foreigners to settle not only Algeria, but Tunisia and Morocco as well. France was much more open to allowing foreigners in their colonies that most of the other colonial powers, offering them land grants for instance. In addition, the Third Republic established inclusive model of citizenship that allowed these foreigners to become French citizens. Also, the Jews of Algeria were naturalized and given the status of citizens, increasing the numbers of "Europeans" in the colony. These actions together allowed a heterogeneous mix of ethnicities to embrace their French identity, especially because they enjoyed privileges vis-a-vis the Muslim majority.
The largest single group of settlers were Spaniards, overwhelmingly from southern Spain (Provinces of Alicante, Almeria and Murcia), many came early on working as seasonal farm labourers in Western Algeria, especially Oran, which was just a ferry ride away. By the early 1900s around 30,000 arrived each year, with the majority returning to Spain. However, some remained permanently, another 30,000 Spaniards arrived as exiles during the Spanish Civil War. When independence came, some 40,000 Pieds Noirs settled in Franco's Spain.
From France, settlers came mostly from the Mediterranean basin. With the largest group coming from Corsica, nearly 100,000 Pieds Noirs were of Corsican origin by 1954, and Pieds Noirs resettled in large numbers on that island. The second largest contingent of settlers from France were from Provence and Languedoc. In addition, Algeria was used as a penal colony early on and prisoners from Paris were often exiled to Algeria during the reign of Louis Philippe. The Alsatians were fewer than 12,000 in total arriving, and they settled after 1871. There were also German-speaking Swiss and a small number of Germans that settled in small numbers earlier on.
Ethnic Italians and Maltese settled overwhelmingly in the Eastern portion of Algeria. Just as in Tunisia where over 2/3rds of the Europeans were Italians, they were mostly from Sicily. The region of Bône (Annaba) in Eastern Algeria had a non-Muslim population that was overwhelmingly Italian.
Here is a breakdown of the Europeans in Algeria by ancestry:
40% Spanish (Alicante, Murcia, Valencia and Menorca)
25% mainland France (mostly Languedoc and Provence and to a lesser extent Paris)
20% Italian (mostly Naples and Sicliy), Corsican and Maltese
12% Naturalised Jews (Granted in 1870 by the Crémieux Decree)
3% German (German, Swiss, Alsatian)
France turned to foreigners to settle not only Algeria, but Tunisia and Morocco as well. France was much more open to allowing foreigners in their colonies that most of the other colonial powers, offering them land grants for instance. In addition, the Third Republic established inclusive model of citizenship that allowed these foreigners to become French citizens. Also, the Jews of Algeria were naturalized and given the status of citizens, increasing the numbers of "Europeans" in the colony. These actions together allowed a heterogeneous mix of ethnicities to embrace their French identity, especially because they enjoyed privileges vis-a-vis the Muslim majority.
The largest single group of settlers were Spaniards, overwhelmingly from southern Spain (Provinces of Alicante, Almeria and Murcia), many came early on working as seasonal farm labourers in Western Algeria, especially Oran, which was just a ferry ride away. By the early 1900s around 30,000 arrived each year, with the majority returning to Spain. However, some remained permanently, another 30,000 Spaniards arrived as exiles during the Spanish Civil War. When independence came, some 40,000 Pieds Noirs settled in Franco's Spain.
From France, settlers came mostly from the Mediterranean basin. With the largest group coming from Corsica, nearly 100,000 Pieds Noirs were of Corsican origin by 1954, and Pieds Noirs resettled in large numbers on that island. The second largest contingent of settlers from France were from Provence and Languedoc. In addition, Algeria was used as a penal colony early on and prisoners from Paris were often exiled to Algeria during the reign of Louis Philippe. The Alsatians were fewer than 12,000 in total arriving, and they settled after 1871. There were also German-speaking Swiss and a small number of Germans that settled in small numbers earlier on.
Ethnic Italians and Maltese settled overwhelmingly in the Eastern portion of Algeria. Just as in Tunisia where over 2/3rds of the Europeans were Italians, they were mostly from Sicily. The region of Bône (Annaba) in Eastern Algeria had a non-Muslim population that was overwhelmingly Italian.
Interesting, I take it many of these non French European immigrants sort of assimilated into French culture and then went to France after decolonisation?
Yes the vast majority went to France, including the Jews. However, lesser numbers of pieds noirs went to Spain and Israel. Keep in mind that Pieds Noirs had begun leaving Algeria before 1954 to settle in Metropolitan France, mostly due to the greater economic opportunities present there. The non-Muslim population declined from 946,013 in 1936 to 922,272 in 1948. The reasons were primarily economic though, the average pied noir only earned 80% of his counterpart in Metropolitan France by 1954. The economy in French Algeria was based primarily on agriculture, especially viniculture (Algeria was the fifth largest wine producer in the world). The same was true for Algerian Muslims who took advantage of the labour shortage at the beginning of the "Trentes Gloriueses" in France.
The interesting thing is that Pieds Noirs at the time were often looked down upon by Metropolitan French, so there was always a distinction. However, they themselves often looked down upon the Jews and Muslims themselves. So there was a complicated ethnic hierarchy present. Keep in mind that the Pieds Noirs were supportive of Vichy and the 1940 repeal of the Crémieux Decree that had granted Algerian Jews citizenship in 1870.
This, the pied noirs were the most far-right segment of the French population, which is explained by their insecure socio-economic position as a society dominated by the lower middle class in many times either working in the agriculture or working for the State. Indeed, one of the odd things was how they organised themselves so well to exercise excellent pressure on the politics on France as curiously they also became one of the biggest sources of support for the Radical Party (Léon Martinaud-Deplat, René Mayer, Henri Borgeaud). Viriato I don't know if you've read Horne's book on the Algerian War but the term of mediterranéen-et-demi (Mediterranean and a half), which imho fitted them quite well (they weren't really culturally French tbh, they were their own thing) sounds like it has a certain negative connotation.
According to Alistair Horne and Geogette Elgey, the hierarchy went something like this: French > Spanish > Italian > Maltese > Jew > Arab. In fact, even though most spoke only French, the Spanish-descendants were located usually in close-knit neighbourhoods in the cities beyond their traditional stronghold in the Oranais and so on, each community, even if pied-noir, tended to live with their own people. Although of course the Maltese were in a weird position, they spoke Arab but were Christians so they'd be sort of Pied-noir. It'd be interesting to see their perception of the war and the social stratification of Algerian society.
For alternatives, maybe more South? I'm not sure, Africa wasn't well explored at that time. Madagascar perhaps? Algeria was really next door from Marseilles, huge advantage. To better answer you, may I ask why are you asking the question? Is it for a particular story, something about Algeria...? Algeria was rich and right there but if you reformulate I might be able to help more
I speculated it was a governmental program to control the colony.
And since the settlers were force to flee when Algeria became independent, I was wondering why would they do it in the first place and if anywhere else would have been a more permanent home.
I highly doubt Madagascar would work. Its climate would not appeal to farmers. Kind of like parts above South Africa when settlers struggled to make a living on a soil they never learned to use.
most weren't French at all, they were Spanish Italian, Maltese and Alsatian, areas that were poor or in the case of the Alsatians occupied by a foreign power.
Presumably, they never anticipated that Algeria would become independent. The bulk of the settlement occurred in the late 19th century.
twovultures
Donor
And according to Alistair Horne, it was after colonialism that Algeria really had a population boom due to the spread of Western medicine.
It's possible the settlers felt that the Algerians would die out in the face of 'civilization', like it was assumed the Native Americans and Australian Aborigines were going to do at the time. Even if they didn't, they didn't outnumber the Europeans by the tens of millions at the time.
This is true as the bubonic plague continued to haunt North Africa and the Ottoman Empire much later than Western Europe. Between 1552 and 1784, Algiers had around 30 epidemics. 1786-87, 1793-97, 1799 and 1816-21 were the most noteworthy in North Africa. The last was particularly deadly and left North Africa's population lower than it had been a millennium earlier.
I don't think you're right on this one, Algiers was part of the ottoman Empire and one of the major port of the Mediterranean, it wasn't some backwater tribe and the Europeans were aware of it. I think them thinking a plague would wipe everyone out when they arrived is ASB because they were already there and there already was a lot of contact. It would be the same as the Russians thinking a plague would wipe out German resistance in Russia during WWII
The Arabs and Berbers in Algeria were not going to get wiped out by smallpox like the inhabitants of the Americas or Australia, however their population was largely stagnant and actually declined before around the 1880s. This was not dissimilar to the situation in much of Europe before 1700. Subsaharan Africa itself had a relatively stagnant population population for even later. The introduction of European medicine did cause mortality rates to decline to a point where populations began growing. The Muslim population of Algeria grew from fewer than 4 million in 1900 to nearly 40 million largely because of the introduction of western medicine and sanitation.