On This Day in History: July 5

France Invades Algeria

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If you go to the southern coast of France and hop in a boat, it’s a straight shot south to the city of Algiers. And in 1830 a whole bunch of Frenchmen in many boats did just that, because they wanted to invade the place. This would be a harbinger of doom for the continent, kicking off the European conquest of Africa. 

--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: July 5, 1830--

For hundreds of years Europe didn’t give a shit about Africa. Then all of a sudden there was a “scramble” to grab and exploit as much of it as possible. Before that, the Ottoman Empire ruled North Africa. Then the French said, “Le yoink.” 

The French Revolution was over, the monarchy restored. Charles X wanted to tighten his grip on power so he figured showing off how badass the French military was would do the trick, which sucked for what is now Algeria. The pretext for invasion happened a few years earlier when there was some arguing over who owed who money and the Dey of Algiers (like a mayor) got pissed at the French consul and whacked him with his old-timey fly swatter thing. Mon dieu! Time for le blockade.

So the French set up a naval blockade for a while and then things escalated when the Algerians—although they weren’t called that yet—fired on a ship carrying a French ambassador, and so France said fuck you guys it’s invasion time. The battles began in the middle of June, with naval bombardments of Algiers commencing July 3, 1830. French troops entered the city on July 5. The rest of the region did not go down without a fight. Resistance was fierce and the “pacification” of what would become French Algeria took almost half a century. 

Of course, there was the whole colonization thing, and then beginning in 1878 other European countries were saying well shit there is a whole continent ripe for the occupying and plundering why should France have all the fun? And over the next two decades Europe went on a conquering spree of Africa. 

By 1954, Algeria was sick of France’s merde and said GTFO. France said no and the Algerians said fine then we’ll fucking kill you and make you leave. And the French said no we’ll kill you so we can stay. After eight years of military stalemate France finally said fuck it and left in 1962. 

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