Alger is a former French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 département in Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

. The département of Alger existed between 1848 and 1962.

The origin of the administrative divisions

Considered as a French province, Algeria was departmentalised on 9 December 1848, thereby operating according to the same administrative structure as metropolitan France

Metropolitan France

Metropolitan France is the part of France located in Europe. It can also be described as mainland France or as the French mainland and the island of Corsica...

. Three civil zones (départements) replaced the three beyliks

Bey

Bey is a title for chieftain, traditionally applied to the leaders of small tribal groups. Accoding to some sources, the word "Bey" is of Turkish language In historical accounts, many Turkish, other Turkic and Persian leaders are titled Bey, Beg, Bek, Bay, Baig or Beigh. They are all the same word...

 into which the Ottoman

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 former rulers had divided the territory. The principal town of the central département, also called Alger

Algiers

' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...

, became the prefecture of the eponymous département. The two other Algerian departments were Oran in the west and Constantine

Constantine (département)

Constantine is a former French département in Algeria which existed between 1848 and 1962.Considered as a French province, Algeria was departmentalised on 9 December 1848. Three civil zones replaced the three beyliks into which the Ottoman former rulers had divided the territory...

 in the east.

Size and structure of the département

The département of Alger covered an area of 54,861  km², and comprised six sub-prefectures: these were Aumale, Blida

Blida

Blida is a city in Algeria. It is the capital of Blida Province, and it is located about 45 km south-west of Algiers, the national capital. The name Blida, i.e...

, Médéa

Medea

Medea is a woman in Greek mythology. She was the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, niece of Circe, granddaughter of the sun god Helios, and later wife to the hero Jason, with whom she had two children, Mermeros and Pheres. In Euripides's play Medea, Jason leaves Medea when Creon, king of...

, Miliana

Miliana

Miliana is a town in Ain Defla Province, northwestern Algeria. It is approximately 160 km southwest of the Algerian capital, Algiers. The population was estimated at 40,000 in 2005...

, Orléansville

Chlef

Chlef is the capital of Chlef Province, Algeria. It is home to the soccer club ASO Chlef, the Hassiba Ben Bouali university, and the basilica of Saint Reparatus, which is home to the oldest Christian labyrinth in the world....

 and Tizi-Ouzou.

It was not until the 1950s that the Sahara

Sahara

The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...

 was annexed into departmentalised Algeria, which explains why the département of Alger was limited to what is the north-central part of Algeria today. Until 10 January 1957, when the Sahara regions received their own administrative structure, these territories were administered by the département of Alger.

Religious affiliations

The 1954 census recorded the stated religious affiliations of the population. The majority in the département of Alger declared themselves to be Moslems. In the city of Alger itself, however, 296,041 or 46% of the 645,479 people counted were declared to be non-Moslems. This placed Alger second only to the city of Oran

Oran

Oran is a major city on the northwestern Mediterranean coast of Algeria, and the second largest city of the country.It is the capital of the Oran Province . The city has a population of 759,645 , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately 1,500,000, making it the second largest...

 in terms of the proportion of the population stating that they were non-Moslems. Non-Moslem appears to have been seen as a surrogate description for people of European origin.

Reorganisation and independence

On 26th January 1956 population increases triggered the creation of three new stand-alone departments. These were the département of Médéa, along with the coastal départements of Orléansville and Tizi-Ouzou formed respectively from the southern, western and eastern portions of the département of Alger.

The very much truncated département of Alger now covered just 3,393 km², and was home to a population of 1,079,806. It was subdivided into the two sub-prefectures of Blida

Blida

Blida is a city in Algeria. It is the capital of Blida Province, and it is located about 45 km south-west of Algiers, the national capital. The name Blida, i.e...

 and Maison-Blanche

Dar El Beïda

Dar El Beïda is a suburb of Algiers, Algeria. It is the seat of the district with the same name. During French colonian times, it was officially called with its French name Maison Blanche , which meant the same thing as its current Arabic name: white house. It is pronounced in Classical Arabic...

 (modern Dar El Beïda).

The 1957 departmental reorganisation was marked by a change in the "suffix" number appearing on automobile license plates and in other places that used the same code. Until 1957 Alger was department number "91": after 1957 the much diminished département of Alger became department number "9A". (In 1968, under a law enacted in 1964, the number "91" would be reallocated to a new département comprising the southern suburbs of Paris

Essonne

Essonne is a French department in the region of Île-de-France. It is named after the Essonne River.It was formed on 1 January 1968 when Seine-et-Oise was split into smaller departments.- History :...

.)

The département of Alger remained in existence after the independence of Algeria and became Algiers Province in 1968.