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This article is an overview of the History of Algeria. Please refer to the individual sections of the series for more complete commentary.

1 Historical setting

In geography, the fertile coastal plain of North Africa, especially west of Tunis, is often termed the Maghrib. Modern Algeria is mainly Arabic-speaking, but a large minority still speak the indigenous Berber language, surviving from Neolithic times. The most significant forces in the country's history have been the spread of Islam, Arabization, Ottoman and French colonization, and the struggle for independence.

The introduction of Islam and ArabicArabic is a Semitic language, fairly closely related to, for instance, the Hebrew language and the Aramaic language, spoken throughout the Arab world and widely known outside it. It has been a literary language for over 1500 years, and is the liturgical l had a profound impact on North Africa (or the Maghrib) beginning in the seventh century. The new religion and language introduced changes in social and economic relations, established links with a rich culture, and provided a powerful idiom of political discourse and organization. From the great Berber dynasties of the Almoravids and AlmohadThe Almohad Dynasty (From Arabic al-Muwahhidun i. the monotheists" or "the Unitarians," the name being corrupted through the Spanish), a Berber Muslim religious power which founded the fifth Moorish dynasty in the 12th century, and conquered all northerns to the militants seeking an Islamic state in the 1990sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s Years: Events and trends Computers, technology Explosive growth of the Internet; decrease in the cost of computers and other techn, the call to return to true Islamic values and practices has had social resonance and political power. For 300 years, beginning in the early sixteenth century, Algeria was a province of the Ottoman Empire under a regency that had Algiers as its capital. During this period, the modern Algerian state began to emerge as a distinct territory between Tunisia and Morocco.

The French occupation of Algeria, beginning in 1830, while having a profound impact, was immediatlely met by a rebellion led by Abdel Kadir. In addition to enduring the affront of being ruled by a foreign, non-Muslim power, many Algerians lost their lands to the new government or to colonists. Traditional leaders were eliminated, coopted, or made irrelevant, and the traditional educational system was largely dismantled; social structures were stressed to the breaking point. Viewed by the Europeans with condescension at best and contempt at worst - never as equals (a pattern typical of colonialism around the world) - the Algerians endured 132 years of colonial subjugation. Nonetheless, this period saw progress in health, some infrastructures, and the overall expansion of the economy of Algeria, as well as the formation of new social classes, which, after exposure to ideas of equality and political liberty, would help propel the country to independence. During the years of French domination, the struggles to survive, to co-exist, to gain equality, and to achieve independence shaped a large part of the Algerian national identity.

The massacres of 1945 marked a turning point in algerian history. In april 1945 the French arrested the most popular algerian leader Messali Hadji. On May 1st the followers of his party the PPA(Parti du peuple algérien) participated in manifestations which where violently suppressed by the police. Several deads where left behind. But it was on may 8th, when France celebrated Germany's unconditional surrender, that more deads provoked a violent uprising by the algerian population in and around Sétif . The army set the villages on fire. 6.000 to 8.000 people were killed, according to Yves Bénot. From now on it seemed evident to all nationalists that independence could not be won by peaceful means.

The Algerian War of Independence (1954-62), brutal and long, was the most recent major turning point in the country's history. Although often fratricidal, it ultimately united Algerians and seared the value of independence and the philosophy of anticolonialism into the national consciousness. The systematic use of torture by the French did not secure military victory.

It should be remembered, however, that more than one million of Algerians (or 10% of the population of Algeria at the time) were forced to flee the country in 1962 due to the unbridgeable rifts opened by the civil war: these were the Algerians of European or Jewish descent (so-called pieds-noirs) and the Muslim Algerians who had supported a French Algeria (so-called harkis).

In 1965 the military toppled Ahmad Ben Bella and Houari Boumedienne became head of state. The military has been dominating algerian politics up to today.