Sands

After 1815, France maintained a consul in Algiers to negotiate trade agreements and insure that piracy did not resume (against French ships, at least).(below a fixed bayonet 54mm soldier that I make and sell) In 1830, the French king used a minor incident to justify an invasion of Algiers on July 5 which quickly captured the city but did nothing to prevent resistance by Berbers from the interior. France fought two wars against forces led by Abd al-Kader of Mascara (southeast of Oran) in 1832-4 and 1835-1837 without either side prevailing. During a third war with Abd al-Kader in 1840-1841, the French resorted to terror tactics, filling in desert wells and destroying farms. The Moroccan sultan allowed al-Kader to hide in Morocco, so the French invaded Morocco in 1844 where they captured al-Kader. The Moroccan sultan, as the leader of an independent country, was angered by the invasion and other European powers supported his demands for compensation. In the end, the French signed the Treaty of Tangier on September 10, 1844 and recognized Moroccan independence. Six months later, the Convention of Lalla Maghnia (March 18, 1845) established a river called the Oued Kiss as the border between Morocco and Algeria along the Mediterranean Coast. The border was left undefined further inland, laying the basis for many further border disputes.
Although Kader was defeated, Berber uprisings continued in central Algeria to the 1870s until the French occupied the oasis of El Golea (modern name: El Meniaa, above) in 1873. Resistance continued deeper in the desert, and resulted in the complete destruction of a railroad surveying mission (the Flatters Expedition) in 1880-1881.The ill fated Flatters Expedition of 1880-1881 was the result of an ill conceived scheme to build a transsaharian railroad that would connect Algeria with the French Sudan and central Africa. While debating the details of the half-baked idea the below michael love joy creations in 28mmTranssaharian Committee decided to send an expedition to reconnoiter the unexplored regions south of Ourgla for possible routes. To command the expedition they chose Lt. Col. Paul Flatters, a 48 yeqar old lack luster colonial officer from the Arab Bureau considered an expert on Arab matters.below memorial in paris However he lacked the drive and necessary command experience for such an expedition.After an abortive start in March 1880, Flatters set out again in December with 97 men (including 11 Frenchmen, 47 Algerian tiraillers, and 31 Chaamba cameleers) and 280 camels. Several hundred miles into the desert the expedition began to run out of water after incompetent (treacherous) guides missed a critical water hole. On February 16, 1881 Flatters guided by treacherous Tauregs took an advance party (a third of the men and all the camels) to collect water at some nearby wells. On reaching the wells the party was ambushed and destroyed, a few survivors fleeing back to the camp.The rest of the expedition under lieutenant Dianous sought to make their way back to Ourgla, without camels and stalked by hostile Tauregs. At each successive waterhole they had to fight or negotiate for water relying on their firepower to drive off or keep hostile Tauregs at bay. The dates were poisoned, killing some, driving others mad. After Lieutenant Dianous was killed by a sniper the expedition disintegrated. The leaderless remnant resorted to cannibalism and eventually a dozen or so survivors straggled into Ourgla in early April. The last resistance ended in the desert in 1932, in the region of Mali north of Timbuktu. One byproduct was the creation of a system of fortified French posts in the interior, staffed by soldiers of the Foreign Legion, with their headquarters at Colomb Bechar (located west of Ghardaia).below e.toys
In the colonial period, government policy focused on encouraging French settlement in the Algerian coastal plain and, to a lesser extent, modernizing the Muslim population. French immigration was successful and by 1956, the French settlers represented roughly nine percent of Algeria's population. The rest was divided between Arabs (50%), Berbers (25-30%) and other groups (Khabylie, M'zab, etc: 10%). As late as 1960, the goal of French policy was to integrate Algeria into the French nation as a province just like Brittany, Corsica, Savoy, or Alsace.