Abstract EN:

This study presents the history of rural Algerians of the Bône/Annaba region, in North-East Algeria, from 1832, date of the French occupation of Annaba, to the eve of the First World War. During those years, this region had known a remarkable colonial growth. The local tribes’ opposition to French occupation had often been fierce and the total possession of the territory only happened after about fifteen years. The resistance to the colonial system in the ensuing period was scattered and often disorderly but never ceased. Two armed insurrections broke out in 1852 and 1871. However, at the same time, native chiefs and members of auxiliary forces to the French army collaborated actively with French authorities. The politique indigène of the military Bureaus of Arab Affairs, paternalistic and authoritarian, but in some ways protective, was abandoned in 1870, during the transition to civil administration. This civil administration subsequently lost almost all interest in the fate of the Algerians. The spread of colonization shattered and disintegrated rural society. The tribal organization was de-structured by the new governance introduced by the creation of douars-communes, by the loss of credibility of the native chiefs and by the introduction of individual property. Land dispossession and the drastic limitation of pasture rights in the forests reduced the agricultural potential, premise of a long-term upheaval of the agrarian economy. At the eve of the First World War, a small minority of Algerians of the Bône region had entered modernity. Overall, the rural society reacted to difficulties by adopting an inward-looking attitude and by taking refuge in the “tradition”.