The Arab Bureau, Land Policy, and the Doineau Trial in French Algeria, 1830-1870
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“It is Not in a Day That a Man Abandons His Morals and Habits”: The Arab Bureau, Land Policy, and the Doineau Trial in French Algeria, 1830-1870 by K.A. Bowler Department of History Duke University Date:___________________ Approved: ______________________________ William Reddy, Supervisor ______________________________ Malachi Hacohen ______________________________ Akram Khater ______________________________ Donald Reid ______________________________ Alex Roland Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History in the Graduate School of Duke University 2011 ABSTRACT: “It is Not in a Day That a Man Abandons His Morals and Habits”: The Arab Bureau, Land Policy, and the Doineau Trial in French Algeria, 1830-1870 by K.A. Bowler Department of History Duke University Date:___________________ Approved: ______________________________ William Reddy, Supervisor ______________________________ Malachi Hacohen ______________________________ Akram Khater ______________________________ Donald Reid ______________________________ Alex Roland An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History in the Graduate School of Duke University 2011 Copyright 2011 by K.A. Bowler Abstract This dissertation revises influential scholarship on nineteenth-century French colonial policy in Algeria. After French troops conquered Algeria in 1830, French civilian and military administrations competed for control. There were two major points of conflict between the civilian and military administrative branches: the extent to which the French should adopt or tolerate pre-existing political and social norms; and, most important, the process by which Europeans acquired and settled the land belonging to the indigenous population. In general, the military, especially the Arab Bureau, advocated a tolerance for and acceptance of local legal and social customs and supported a slow process of European colonization. The French settlers and their champions in the French civilian administration, in contrast, wanted local practices replaced immediately by French laws and values and promoted rapid European colonization. These issues were informed by post-Revolutionary French political thought and concepts of individual civil liberties. The military administration, particularly the Arab Bureau, offered an alternate approach to governing the new colony that failed, ultimately, because it failed to conform to French post-Revolution expectations of what constituted a just and liberal administration. In the Algerian city of Oran in 1857, a French civil court convicted and condemned to death Captain Auguste-Édouard Doineau, officer of the Arab Bureau, for killing Si-Mohammed-Ben-Abdallah, the agha of the Beni-Snouss tribe. The trial generated tremendous public attention. The intensely negative publicity that the military and the Arab Bureau attracted as result of this trial set in motion significant changes in iv the French colonial administration in Algeria. These changes culminated in 1870, when republicans of the Third Republic ended the military administration, the conclusion of decades of struggle by the civilian factions to end the “rule of the sword.” Uncritically echoing nineteenth-century republican ideology, influential historical narratives continue to treat this as a triumph for liberal republican values and to consider it a beneficial change for the colony and its inhabitants, both European and indigenous. Using the Doineau Trial of 1857 as a prism, this dissertation recovers the Arab Bureau’s alternative colonial policies and illuminates the larger problems the French administration faced in establishing a successful colony in Algeria. v Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgements ...........................................................................................................v Introduction .......................................................................................................................1 The Arab Bureau: A Brief Historiography ............................................................12 Chapter One ..........................................................................................................26 Chapter Two ..........................................................................................................27 Chapter Three ........................................................................................................27 Chapter Four .........................................................................................................29 Chapter Five ..........................................................................................................32 A Brief Discussion of Terminology ......................................................................33 A General Note on Sources ...................................................................................36 Chapter One: The Ottoman Background .....................................................................38 Ottoman Empire: Adaptable and Flexible .............................................................40 Ottoman Control and Administration ....................................................................49 Justice in Ottoman Rule and Islamic Law ............................................................59 Conclusion ............................................................................................................70 Chapter Two: The French Conquest and Administration ..........................................72 Population of Algeria ............................................................................................73 The French Conquest ............................................................................................76 French Administration ..........................................................................................98 The Arab Bureau .................................................................................................102 Administrative Policies of the Arab Bureau ........................................................118 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................131 vi Chapter Three: Land Policy and Colonization ..........................................................133 Traditional Land Tenure in Algeria .....................................................................136 The Early Years: Land Policy and Colonization, 1830-1847 ..............................142 A New Phase in Colonization and Land Policy ..................................................160 Land Policy 1850s and 1860s .............................................................................172 A Moderate Solution: The Military Administration and the Arab Bureau ..........183 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................185 Chapter Four: The Doineau Trial ...............................................................................188 The Setting ..........................................................................................................189 The Attack ...........................................................................................................194 Initial Investigation .............................................................................................197 The Trial ..............................................................................................................205 The Arabs’ Case ..................................................................................................212 Doineau’s Case ....................................................................................................221 The Defense, the Verdict, and the Appeal ...........................................................235 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................240 Summary of Individuals ......................................................................................245 Chapter Five: Aftermath of the Doineau Affair .........................................................249 Jules Favre, the Plaidoirie ..................................................................................250 Administrative Changes, 1858-1860 ...................................................................257 Land Policy: Changes After 1858 .......................................................................265 Colon Criticisms of the Military Administration ................................................283 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................297 Conclusion .....................................................................................................................301 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................315 vii Biography ......................................................................................................................333 viii Acknowledgements I would like to thank the members of my committee for their assistance and support: from Duke University: Malachi Hacohen and