Robert Aldrich. Greater : A History of French Overseas Expansion (European Studies Series). New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996. x + 369 pp. $37.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-312-16000-5.

Patricia M. E. Lorcin. Imperial Identities: Stereotyping, Prejudice and Race in Colonial (Society and Culture in the Modern Middle East). London: I.B. Tauris, 1995. x + 323 pp. $69.95, cloth, ISBN 978-1-85043-909-7.

Reviewed by Leland Barrows

Published on H-France (March, 1999)

The two books being reviewed refect to vary‐ fore or after the independence of the in ing degrees two intellectual currents that have which they worked. been gaining momentum since the early 1980s: a These books are of quite diferent genres. general interest in what is called post-colonial Robert Aldrich has written an introductory sur‐ studies and a rekindling of interest, particularly vey destined, as are all the volumes in the "‐ in France, in French imperial/colonial history. The pean Studies Series" of St. Martin's Press, to be frst of these currents tends to be both interna‐ read by anglophone undergraduate university tional and interdisciplinary, owing much to the students. An associate professor at the University publication of Professor Edward Said's, Oriental‐ of Sydney, Aldrich is a specialist in French history ism (New York: Vintage, 1979). The other, a more with a strong interest in the current French pres‐ discipline-based current, refects both French nos‐ ence in the Pacifc.[1] Like fellow-Australian, talgia for the former colonies and the coming to Stephen Henry Roberts,[2] in whose footsteps he maturity of numbers of French scholars with colo‐ is to a greater or lesser extent treading, he has a nial and/or Algerian backgrounds. Some of these particularly Australian interest in "the other em‐ are teachers who began their careers overseas be‐ pire" that from an Australian geographical per‐ H-Net Reviews spective is almost as much present today as in the ments on the colonial heritage in France today, 1920s when Roberts wrote. particularly the presence of immigrant communi‐ Patricia Lorcin's study is considerably more ties, the continuation of colonial trade links, the specialized and focused. The revised version of continued existence under the French fag of the her Columbia University doctoral dissertation in DOM's and the TOM's (overseas departments and history, it is a study of category formation, of why territories), and in the latter case, the anti-colonial and how the French rulers of Algeria came to dis‐ agitation in . tinguish between the Berber-speaking inhabitants Lorcin's deconstruction of the so-called of Kabylie, the mountainous area of north-central Kabyle myth combines chronological sequencing Algeria, and the -speaking inhabitants of and thematic analysis of a period of Franco-Alge‐ the plains. Lorcin focuses on the ways in which rian history running from approximately 1830 to this distinction not only afected many aspects of 1900. By "Kabyle myth," Dr. Lorcin refers to a the French perception of Algeria and of the native body of beliefs, beginning almost as soon as Gen‐ policies they developed here and elsewhere in eral Louis Auguste Victor Bourmont's expedi‐ French North , but also on the evolution in tionary army had captured . According to nineteenth-century France of anthropology, eth‐ this myth, the mountain-dwelling Berber-speak‐ nology, sociology, and other academic disciplines. ing sedentary peoples, particularly those of the In short, her study is a contribution to the intellec‐ Kabylie region of north-central Algeria, were tual history of colonialism as well as to French in‐ somehow "superior" to the Arabic-speaking "no‐ tellectual history, even if it is published as part of madic" peoples of the plains; the former were a series entitled "Society and Culture in the Mod‐ more like the French themselves than were the ern Middle East." latter, and they could therefore be more easily as‐ Aldrich's book is a tour d'horizon of the histo‐ similated to French culture than the . ry of overseas France, particularly in the nine‐ Lorcin holds that although the body of opin‐ teenth century. In 325 pages of narrative and topi‐ ion which arose about the Kabyles never led to cal description distributed among twelve chap‐ special French legislation in Algeria for them as ters, it summarizes the history of the French over‐ distinct from the other indigenous peoples (and seas possessions and examines a number of relat‐ here she somewhat contradicts the view of ed questions. These questions include the debates Charles-Robert Ageron, the dean of French histo‐ in France about the pros and cons of colonial ex‐ rians of post-1830 Algeria),[3] these opinions had pansion, the personnel of , including sol‐ a tremendous infuence on the development of diers and settlers, theories of colonial administra‐ French ethno-racial attitudes as refected in prac‐ tion, and colonial economic policy. Two chapters tice, popular attitudes, and in many academic dis‐ evoke some of the ground which Lorcin has cov‐ ciplines. Thus, Lorcin has elaborated a synthesis ered: Chapter Six on "The French and the 'Na‐ of French attitudes towards the , tives,'" particularly a discussion of "Racism and particularly the attitudes of persons of various oc‐ Cultural Superiority," and Chapter Seven, "Colo‐ cupational categories having a link to French Al‐ nial Culture in France," with its references to geria during distinct periods of military Pierre Loti, Alphonse Daudet, and Louis Bertrand (1830-1870) and then of civilian rule. She has and to the infuence of the overseas possessions traced the infuence of these attitudes not only as on French literature, scientifc research, art, pho‐ they afected native (versus settler) policies in tography, and cinema. There are also rubrics on pre-independence Algeria but also in regard to missionaries and explorers. An epilogue com‐ the evolution of French indigenous policies else‐

2 H-Net Reviews where, particularly in Morocco after 1912, and f‐ myth almost as a dialectical progression, thus nally as a major divisive factor in independent Al‐ transforming "Kabyle-Arab imagery" into "the geria. Kabyle Myth" (p. 3). Three sets of motivations have shaped Although Lorcin makes certain veiled criti‐ Lorcin's work: a desire to study the intellectual cisms of Ageron, she has to a great extent used his history of European imperialism, "an interest in writings[5] as the foundation for her study. She the mechanics of marginalization and the forma‐ nevertheless displays great originality in present‐ tion of social hierarchies" the elites of which ing and analyzing the links between trends in an‐ "emerge to impose their will or [to] exercise con‐ thropology, sociology, medical science, and litera‐ trol over areas beyond the realms of politics and ture in France and the French conquest and set‐ economics" (p. 1), and fnally, her disagreement tlement of Algeria. In a sense, Lorcin has put the with some of Ageron's views. icing on Ageron's cake, but she has done consider‐ Although Lorcin credits Ageron with coining ably more as well. She has provided a fascinating the terms "Berber Vulgate" and "Kabyle Myth," post-colonial study of the evolving intellectual re‐ she takes issue with what she considers to be his sults of and justifcations for French rule in Alge‐ overly political explanations for the origins and ria. utilization of the Myth as a simple question of di‐ Both narrative and thematic chapters depend vide and rule[4] (what in diferent contexts and in to a great extent on the biographical approach a later era Generals Joseph Simon Gallieni and which Lorcin has adopted in regard to the many Hubert Gonzalve Lyautey would call "la politique individuals who made important contributions to des races," as described by Aldrich, p. 106). She thought, images, and policy. She stresses the im‐ fnds that the idea of Kabyle superiority, i.e., "no‐ portance of graduates of the Ecole polytechnique-- tions of the good Berber and the bad Arab," came including Juchault de la Moriciere, Ernest Carette, to permeate more than simply the political realm. Louis Leon Cesar Faidherbe, and Louis Joseph They also infuenced the humanities, social sci‐ Hanoteau--who continued a scholarly tradition ences, religion, and art in so far as they touched the roots of which go back to Bonaparte's Egyp‐ Algeria and were refected by the Algerian experi‐ tian campaign. She examines the role of the medi‐ ence back to France itself. The way Lorcin cal corps, particularly the writings and theories of presents the situation, this myth, that really began Dr. Auguste Hubert Warnier, one of the best as a legitimate French reaction to certain realities known French specialists on the Kabyle people, of Kabyle society, developed a force and an auton‐ and of Dr. Louis-Adrien Berbrugger, an Arabist omy of its own. who helped set up the National Library in Algiers. The evolution of the myth was infuenced by She evokes the work of scholarly societies found‐ the realities of a difcult conquest, by the role of ed in France and in Algeria, including the Societe and of Arabic-speaking so-called nomads in de geographie de (1821) and the Societe an‐ the Algerian resistance to conquest, by the socio- thropologique de Paris (1859), and the work of economic and cultural evolution of the Kabyles such anthropologists as Paul Broca and Paul Top‐ themselves, by military versus civilian concep‐ inard. Finally, she identifes and analyses a "set‐ tions of colonial domination, and by the links to tler myth" that by the early twentieth century, ac‐ all of the above to nascent ideas on race, ethnicity, cording to her, had eclipsed the Kabyle myth. The culture, and government which developed in new myth was given particular ideological and in‐ France in the nineteenth century in various mi‐ tellectual respectability by the French writer and lieux. These emerging ideas in turn reinforced the

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Academician Louis Bertrand, whose work Lorcin sented as much an emotional as an intellectual ef‐ describes in some detail. fort. Both books refect varying degrees of disap‐ Just as some of the early categorizations of Al‐ proval of colonialism. For both authors, disap‐ gerians made by French observers came to be set proval seems primarily to be a refection of the in stone, Lorcin seems to leave some of her own fact that they are studying and writing about a premises unquestioned. For instance, must of the phenomenon--a period in history--that, if not to‐ time she seems to accept the Arab-Kabyle (Berber) tally discredited, is a thing of the past. It still be‐ dichotomy as a reality while criticizing contempo‐ hooves a historian working in this area to be care‐ rary observers who made too much of it. Yet most ful not to moralize after the fact or to forget that experts today consider that the actual numbers of what fnally occurred was not inevitable and that Arabs who settled in Algeria were quite small. the protagonists at the time did not have the bene‐ They simply had a major and lasting religious and ft of the hindsight possessed by the contemporary linguistic infuence. historian. Lorcin appears to accept, almost without These words are particularly applicable to Dr. question, the idea that the Arabs were nomads Lorcin. While castigating so many of the writers, and that the Kabyles were sedentary. Without soldiers, ethnologists, anthropologists, medical doubting that the Kabyle were and are sedentary doctors, and administrators for having created (as are also the Arabic-speaking Chaouia peoples and then for having derived stupid and some‐ of the Aures Mountains), one regrets that the au‐ times harmful conclusions from the premises of thor did not include some estimate as to how truly the Kabyle myth, she has nevertheless been nomadic the Arabs were (and also as to how forced to admit that the social, cultural, economic, many of the nomadic tribes in Algeria, like the and religious characteristics of the Kabyle people Ouled Nail, were in fact Berber speakers). There is upon which the Kabyle myth was based did exist a diference between fully nomadic peoples and and that for the most part French observers those who practice transhumant semi-nomadism, recorded them correctly.[6] And yet while insinu‐ the situation that seems to have been characteris‐ ating that so many of these observers drew the tic of the rural Algerian "Arabs" of the Tell (coastal wrong conclusions from correct evidence, she zone) and of the High Plateaux at the time of the rarely suggests to the reader what the "correct" French conquest. conclusions should have been. Likewise, a hint What seems, however, to prove a degree of lurks throughout the study that Lorcin too fnds fxity on the part of the Arabs is that the French the Kabyle myth beguiling. She also appears a bit could defeat them by destroying their "interests": annoyed that the French authorities in Algeria sequestering or burning the stocks of grain which were not able to do more in the way of assimilat‐ they stored in underground--therefore fxed--silos; ing a major Algerian population group which did cutting down or burning fruit trees, burning have more in common with the French them‐ crops before they could be harvested, and captur‐ selves than did other Algerian groups. But since ing herds of livestock.[7] Ultimately the French she knows the fnal outcome, she would prefer used much the same tactics, the destruction of "in‐ not to explore the might-have-beens while never‐ terests," to quell the Kabyles only with some adap‐ theless wishing that some of the personages in tation to a mountainous terrain and a with a her account had been more prescient. One sus‐ greater emphasis on the destruction of physical pects that for Dr. Lorcin writing this book repre‐ property (homes). The similarity of tactics, howev‐

4 H-Net Reviews er, suggests that the "enemies" in both cases had tors who played the role of Othello as Blacks, he much in common. editorialized that such a practice was a "facheux Then throughout her study Lorcin insists that contre-sens, qui n'a pu exister dans l'idee de the factor which most separated the French from Shakespeare et qui rend invraisemblable le plus the indigenous inhabitants of Algeria was race. beau des chefs d'oeuvres dramatiques. Supposez Yet she also makes particularly clear near the end qu'Othelle soit reellement un de ces beaux types of her study that she is exploring a conception of de la race arabe, de cette race enthousiaste, poet‐ race that is not racial--or at least not racial in the ique et passionnee, que tout le monde connait biological sense. She writes that "Race became the maintenant en France par ces deputations de infexible determinant that indefnitely separated chefs qu'on a envoyes, a plusieurs reprises, visiter the indigenous and settler sectors of the popula‐ Paris, et le drame d'Othelle est une oeuvre par‐ tion" (p. 253). Moreover, "the notion of race in Al‐ faite. Mettez a sa place un negre au cheveux cre‐ geria under civilian rule was predominantly a pus, et tout devient faux et contre nature; tout cultural one" because "A clear racial distinction l'interet s'en va avec la vraisemblance, et Desdea‐ had to be maintained between the settler and the mona n'est plus qu'une espece de monstre aux indigenous population, and if this could not be gouts depraves.[8] done physically it had to be done culturally" (p. Another French military man of a later peri‐ 253). But if perceived racial distinctions are not od, General , also made the point based on physical criteria, then can one really be clear. A strong partisan of the recruitment of speaking of race? Would it not be more accurate Black African troops into the for use to designate the ensuing racism that clearly was in an eventual European war, he argued that be‐ not based on race as bigotry, ethnocentrism, xeno‐ cause the nervous systems of Blacks were "less de‐ phobia, in short, as pseudo-racism rather than as veloped" than those of Whites causing Blacks to racism? In other words, the fact that a number of lack foresight and thus not to feel anxiety, Black nineteenth-century French luminaries developed soldiers would make excellent shock troops ft for theories of race that confused ethnicity, language, the most dangerous of missions.[9] General Paul religion, and political economy--and that were Azan, on the other hand, a prolifc military histo‐ mistaken--should have made the author leery of rian specializing in the history of the French con‐ accepting any of them as an explanation as to quest of North Africa and having a penchant for what went wrong between the French residents North African indigenous troops, argued strongly of Algeria and the indigenous inhabitants, other that the North African "native" Army would al‐ than the fact of foreign conquest itself. ways be superior to the Black Army because "la One notes that articulate who race blanche est incontestablement plus intelli‐ were involved both with North Africa and with gente..., et guerriere que la race noire."[10] In Black Africa were quite clear in their understand‐ short, these examples of "real" racism illustrate a ing that Algeria was part of White Africa, and that somewhat diferent type of mind-set than that Black Africa, from a racial point of view, was evoked by attempts to distinguish between Arab something diferent from the . Worth cit‐ and Berber as well as between the French colons ing is an early publication by Louis Leon Cesar in Algeria and the indigenous by refer‐ Faidherbe, whose later anthropological writings ring to cultural and religious diferences (even if in collaboration with Paul Topinard and inspired the actual material and psychological efects on by Paul Broca, Dr. Lorcin cites favorably. Refer‐ the indigenous people who had to bear the brunt ring to the English practice of disguising white ac‐ of this pseudo-racism might be the same as in sit‐

5 H-Net Reviews uations of true racism in colonial Kenya or in Al‐ occupied a more powerful position in France (al‐ abama of sixty years ago). beit undergoing serious crisis) than that held by Other than the intrusiveness and exploitive‐ Urbain at the time of the Senatus Consulte of 1865 ness of France as a conquering power, the basic (fxing the terms whereby Algerian Muslims problem between the French and the Algerians could, at their request, become full French citi‐ was religious.[11] The problem became perma‐ zens) when he had some infuence on Emperor nent because of the failure of the French govern‐ Louis Napoleon regarding Algeria. ment to impose the full naturalization of the in‐ In response to the oft-repeated claim that the digenous peoples, en masse, particularly after Algerians themselves rejected full French citizen‐ 1865, and not really the immutability of Muslim ship (and many sources make this point),[13] it law and unwillingness on the part of Muslims to would be fair to state that the French authorities commit apostasy, the explanation which Lorcin never ofered them full citizenship under accept‐ has adopted unquestioningly, as have most stu‐ able circumstances until too late, nor imposed it dents of the subject. Nevertheless, it is not clear on them when imposition might have been possi‐ that adopting a French civil status in order to be‐ ble. In describing the Senatus-consulte of 1865, come a full French citizen was tantamount to re‐ Charles-Andre Julien recognizes that there was a pudiating one's Muslim faith. A Muslim would reluctance on the part of the Muslims to seize the simply have had to give up certain non-essential opportunity but also reluctance on the part of the practices, for instance, polygamy. French to allow them to seize it: "Les Arabes con‐ Individual Algerians (albeit very few of them) sidererent comme une apostasie d'abandonner did take full French citizenship, and they certain‐ leur statut personnel et l'administration repugna ly did not stop being Muslims. Indeed, there were a accorder la citoyennete aux elements les plus in‐ a few Frenchmen who converted in the other di‐ struits ou les plus independents, qui echappaient rection, Ismael Urbain, for instance. He continued de ce fait a son arbitraire...."[14] The second half to be a French citizen after his conversion and of the sentence explains it all. was very much part of the French establishment The Algerian Jews, although already more as‐ in Algeria, particularly during the Second Empire. similated than the Muslims, were nevertheless Indeed, one is curious about the few cases which subject to the dictates of a personal status based Lorcin cites of prominent French ofcers and on Mosaic Law. As Cremieux, himself a secular functionaries who married indigenous Muslim Jew, recognized, they were no more eager to take women: Rene Francois Edouard de Neveu and advantage, voluntarily, of the terms of the Sena‐ Louis-Adrien Berbrugger, among others. Did these tus-Consulte than were the Muslims: " Ne leur men, as required by Sharia law, convert to Islam? dites pas: Soyez Francais si vous le voulez, car, How did their wives infuence their feelings about volontairement ils n'abandonneront pas la loi de Islam?[12] Dieu."[15] It required the fat of the Government The tragedy for was the fail‐ of National Defense to make the Jews of Algeria ure of a Muslim Adolphe Cremieux to emerge in full French citizens. France, a person whose political activities at the Possibly the problems of "native policy" and center could have led to the imposition of French of the cohabitation of Muslim and Christian com‐ citizenship on the Muslims of Algeria the way the munities would have been easier for Lorcin to un‐ so-called Cremieux decree of 24 October 1870 im‐ derstand and to explain if she had been less insis‐ posed full French citizenship on the native Jews. tent on viewing Algeria as a French "colony"[16] Cremieux, who was minister of justice at the time, rather than as a possession which never had the

6 H-Net Reviews legal status of a colony, however much a colonial Any evaluation of these two books must take situation may have come into being between the into account the question of language. Being writ‐ French administration and the settlers, on one ten in English, they are bound to be read by Eng‐ hand, and the indigenous peoples, on the other. lish-speakers many of whom will probably not The same could be said of Aldrich's conception of know any French (particularly the case of Greater Algeria. The French ministry of war had responsi‐ France, a broad introductory textbook). Their bility for the conquest, defense, and administra‐ readerships will be skewed. Many more English- tion of Algeria until October 1870.[17] After that speakers, for the most part non-specialists, will be date, Algeria came under the purview of the min‐ drawn to Aldrich's book simply because they may istry of the interior, just as in metropolitan be unable to read books of higher quality in France, through a decree the intention of which French on the same subject. On the other hand, was to "assimilate Algeria to France."[18] Imperial Identities may not gain the francophone In the opinion of this reviewer, the best anal‐ readership that it deserves. One can only hope ogy to draw in regard to the French experience in that it will be translated into French very soon. Algeria, one which is an aid to understanding be‐ Those students who can read French and wish to cause it defects one's mind away from an imme‐ ofer themselves a good introduction to the histo‐ diate attempt to make comparisons with Indo-Chi‐ ry of the French empire would be better advised na, , and other tropical colonies, is that of to read the fve volumes of the Editions Denoel se‐ the English experience in Ireland (even though ries.[21] French rule in Algeria did not come near to last‐ Certain parts of Aldrich's book are very good, ing as long). Here too one has the example of a particularly those that present facets of the intel‐ subject people in a land with a temperate climate, lectual history of French colonialism and of the separated from its conquerors and the country reciprocal contacts of the French and non-west‐ from which they came by diferences in socio-po‐ ern peoples. They carry the subject beyond the litical organization (decentralized Ireland seemed scope of the usual political and economic studies "tribal" in comparison to even the England of of colonialism. Yet there remains a problem of su‐ Henry II), by salt water,[19] and then, following perfciality in this book which is probably in‐ the Reformation, by religion. evitable given its broad sweep and scissors-and- The parallel with Ireland seemed clear to cer‐ paste approach to synthesis. More serious is the tain French leaders at the start of the French in‐ number of errors which crept into the text: for ex‐ volvement in Algeria. As early as 1834, the Duke ample, a map of colonial North Africa fails to of Aumale was reported to have warned that "Il show the boundaries of the Spanish Protectorate ne faut pas que l'Algerie puisse devenir une nou‐ in Morocco (p. xii). Another map confuses Port- velle Irlande."[20] Having had the Anglo-Irish ex‐ Etienne (Nouadhibou) in Mauritania, with Nouak‐ perience clearly in mind might have directed chott, the post-1960 capital (p. 13). The sixteenth- Lorcin (as well as Aldrich) if not to a more accu‐ century Bastion de France in Algeria is placed rate at least to a more original perception of the near Bone (Annaba) rather than at La Calle (El settler/indigenous inhabitant confrontation in Al‐ Kala) (p. 24). Cayor, a major coastal Wolof king‐ geria and have made clearer that the basic prob‐ dom lying between Saint-Louis and Dakar in lem between France and Algeria, other than the Senegal, is included among the polities of the French desire to dominate and not to share pow‐ Southern Rivers in Guinea-Conakry (p. 38). Con‐ er, was religious. trary to what Aldrich writes, no Black African troops (i.e., Senegalese ) took part in the French occupation of Saigon in 1859 (pp. 76-77).

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The troops to which he is referring were Algerian fail to place all notes and references in books at tirailleurs (some of whom might have been dark- the foot of the text pages concerned. skinned) on loan from the . As for the usefulness and value of both books, Lorcin's study is of a very diferent order. In Greater France is recommended as a rapid survey addition to its high intellectual level, one must of French colonial history for persons--undergrad‐ mention the elegant English in which the author uate students--who cannot read better books writ‐ writes that is in no way blemished by any use of ten in French--or to more advanced students, in "politically correct" vocabulary. She has, for in‐ various domains of history, who are seeking an stance, retained the French transliterations of all introduction to the historiography of French colo‐ Algerian names and terms, and she uses the desig‐ nial history. Imperial Identities, on the other nation "Berber" throughout, rather than hand, is strongly recommended as a major contri‐ "Amazigh." Unfortunately Aldrich's writing is con‐ bution to French intellectual history. It is a schol‐ siderably less elegant. ar's book, to be read by specialists seeking new in‐ Both books will reward those wishing to read sights in regard to a problem as old as French in‐ further, for the sources upon which they are volvement with Algeria. It also ofers lessons on based are clearly indicated--in a more user-friend‐ how to approach, defne, do research on, and ly way in the case of Aldrich's book than in the write about a complicated historical problem case of Lorcin's study. In addition to reference drawing upon a myriad of sources in a variety of endnotes, Aldrich has included an eight-page bib‐ disciplines. liographical essay (pp. 343-51) highlighting recent Notes French colonial historiography. Unfortunately, [1]. He has written two books on the subject: Lorcin has not chosen to provide the same sort of The French Presence in the South Pacifc, comprehensive bibliography for her book (as she 1849-1990 (London, 1990) and France and the did for her doctoral dissertation). Interested read‐ South Pacifc since 1940 (London, 1993). ers in search of specifc references must peruse [2]. History of French Colonial Policy: the endnotes of which there are many (pp. 255-95) 1870-1925, 2 vols. (London, 1963 reprint). and a short "Bibliographical Note" (pp. 310-14). This note lists several general bibliographies of Al‐ [3]. In his article, "La France a-t-elle eu une geria, a few general works on racism and other politique kabyle," Revue historique, 223 (April- broad topics related to the subject, the archival se‐ June, 1960), pp. 311-352, Charles-Robert Ageron ries which Lorcin consulted at the Section Outre- indicates that for a short period (1881-1885) there Mer (ANSOM) of the French National Archives in was an efort on the part of the judge and admin‐ Aix-en-Provence and at the Bibliotheque de istrator, Camille Sabatier, and the Governor-Gen‐ l'Arsenal in Paris, and fnally, the titles of thirty- eral of Algeria, Louis Tirman, to initiate if not a three specialized journals. The fact that notes are special Kabyle policy at least certain special dispo‐ placed at the end of both books rather than at the sitions to apply to the "Grande Kabylie." These in‐ foot of the page concerned is an inconvenience to cluded the founding of public lay primary schools, the reader, particularly in the case of Imperial a taxation measure purporting to be in line with Identities, the notes and references of which are Kabyle customary law, and a local regulation ban‐ essential reading. It is difcult to understand how ning the facial tattooing of Kabyle women so as to in this era of word processing and computer-as‐ make them more attractive to French men. Unfor‐ sisted printing it is still possible for publishers to tunately, Lorcin's treatment of Sabatier (pp. 159-63 and 307) does not make clear how much he wanted to encourage the assimilation of the

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Kabyles, particularly through intermarriage be‐ "raison d'etat"; because "Ce ne seraient plus les in‐ tween French settlers and Kabyle women so as to digenes qui seraient administres par les Francais, "confer aux fancs feconds des flles kabyles la mais les Francais par les Indigenes...." (Ageron, perpetuation de notre race" (Ageron, "La France a- "La France a-t-elle eu une politique kabyle," p. t-elle eu une politique kabyle," p. 337). 327, n. 2). [4]. Ageron himself credits Dr. August Hubert [11]. A typical French view of 1912 was that of Warnier as "le veritable auteur du 'mythe Kabyle'" Achille Sebe, who wrote in La Conscription des In‐ (ibid., p. 314). Lorcin and Ageron likewise do not digenes d'Algerie (Paris, 1912), p. 90: "Entre nous always agree on terminology. For instance, what [the French] et lui [the Muslim Algerian] le fosse she calls the "Berber Vulgate," he calls the "Algeri‐ est toujours beant et il y aura une barriere infran‐ an vulgate" or the "Kabyle mirage." chissable: la religion". [5]. Particularly Ageron, "La France a-t-elle eu [12]. In a diferent place and era (1926-28), the une politique kabyle?"; Ageron, "La politique Turkish government of Kemal Ataturk proved kabyle sous le Second Empire," Revue francaise that when a will existed to impose a western Eu‐ d'histoire d'Outre-Mer, 52, 186 (1965): pp. 67-105; ropean conception of citizenship along with Euro‐ Ageron, Les Algeriens musulmans et la France pean civil, criminal, and commercial law on a (1871-1919), 2 vols. (Paris, 1968); and Histoire de Muslim people, and to disestablish Islam as the l'Algerie contemporaine, vol. 2, De l'insurrection state religion, the task could be accomplished suc‐ de 1871 au declenchement de la guerre de libera‐ cessfully. To carry the analogy a bit further, one tion: 1954 (Paris, 1979). should note the parallels between French settler [6]. Lorcin writes, "much of the ethnological attitudes towards even secularized Muslims and information on the Arabs and Kabyles was exact; the strong resistance within the it was the value judgements, so often attached to today to the full admission of Turkey as a member the facts, that created the distortions" (p. 3). state. [7]. Bugeaud to Esclaibes, 26 mai 1838, Lettres [13]. Notably, Ageron, Histoire de l'Algerie inedites du marechal Bugeaud, duc d'Isly, contemporaine, I, pp. 31-33; Achille Sebe, Con‐ 1808-1849), comp., Capitaine Tattet (Paris, 1923), scription, pp. 88-96. pp. 179-182. [14]. Julien, Histoire de l'Algerie contempo‐ [8]. Faidherbe, "Les Berberes et les Arabes des raine: la Conquete et les debuts de la colonisation bords du Senegal," Bulletin de la Societe de ge‐ (1827-1871) (Paris 1964), p. 434. ographie de Paris 4, 7, (1854), pp. 129-130. [15]. Ibid., p. 467. [9]. Mangin, La Force noire (Paris, 1910), pp. [16]. She writes, "Algeria... was the frst formal 77-80 & 89. colony in France's nineteenth-century or second [10]. Azan, L'Armee indigene nord-africaine ," completely neglecting Senegal et (Paris, 1925), p. 58. Even when advocating very re‐ Dependances, where plans to expand territorially, pressive measures, Azan always recognized in a beyond Saint-Louis and Goree, had been put for‐ non-racist albeit perverse way the human equali‐ ward in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early ty of the Muslim and the non-Muslim (settler) nineteenth centuries. populations of Algeria. Indeed, his advocacy of re‐ [17]. Except for a brief period when it shared pressiveness was a tacit admission of his belief in authority for Algeria with a ministry of Algeria this equality. In an article that he wrote in 1903 on and the colonies which had an ephemeral exis‐ the "native question" he opposed assimilation for tence between June 1858 and November 1860.

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During this period, the true French colonies, that were normally administered by the ministry of the navy, were taken over by this new ministry. [18]. Julien, Histoire de l'Algerie contempo‐ raine, p. 465. Lorcin recognizes that "In November 1848 the colony was ofcially declared a part of France and divided into three departments" (p. 7), and this while Algeria was still under military rule. The basic French military corps in Algeria, the Army of Africa, which was designated in 1873 as the 19th Corps of the French Army, was part of the Metropolitan Army despite the special forma‐ tions it engendered. [19]. That came to be viewed as a major dele‐ gitimizing factor; see A. F. Thornton, Doctrines of Imperialism (New York, 1965), particularly the au‐ thor's statement that salt water corrodes . [20]. Ageron, L'Algerie algerienne de Napoleon a de Gaulle (Paris, 1980), p. 27, n. 1. [21]. The series includes the following: Jean Martin, L'Empire renaissant, 1789-1871 (Paris, 1987); Gilbert Comte, L'Empire triomphant, 1871-1936, vol. 1, Afrique occidentale et equatori‐ ale francaise (Paris, 1990); L'Empire triomphant, 1871-1936, vol. 2, Maghreb, Indochine, Madagas‐ car, Iles et comptoirs (Paris, 1990); Paul-Marie de la Gorce, L'Empire ecartele, 1936-1946 (Paris, 1988); and Jean Planchais, L'Empire embrase, 1946-1962 (Paris, 1990). Copyright (c) 1999 by H-Net, all rights re‐ served. This work may be copied for non-proft educational use if proper credit is given to the au‐ thor and the list. For other permission, please con‐ tact [email protected].

If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at http://www.uakron.edu/hfrance/

Citation: Leland Barrows. Review of Aldrich, Robert. Greater France: A History of French Overseas Expansion (European Studies Series). ; Lorcin, Patricia M. E. Imperial Identities: Stereotyping, Prejudice

10 H-Net Reviews and Race in Colonial Algeria (Society and Culture in the Modern Middle East). H-France, H-Net Reviews. March, 1999.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=2910

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