Pied-noir - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Pied-Noir plural Pieds-Noirs, pronounced pjenwaʁ, is a term referring to French citizens of various origins who lived in French Algeria

French Algeria

French Algeria lasted from 1830 to 1962, under a variety of governmental systems. From 1848 until independence, the whole Mediterranean region of Algeria was administered as an integral part of France, much like Corsica and Réunion are to this day. The vast arid interior of Algeria, like the rest...

before independence.
Specifically, Pieds-Noirs include those of European

European ethnic groups

The ethnic groups in Europe are the various ethnic groups that reside in the nations of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....

settlers descent from France or other European countries (such as Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

and Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

), who were born 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...

. From the French invasion in 18 June 1830 until its independence, Algeria was administratively part of France

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...

.
This name started to be used commonly shortly before the end of the Algerian independence war in 1962, while formerly they were simply called Algeria

Algeria

ns, whereas Muslim people of Algeria were called Muslims or Indigenous

Indigenous peoples

Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....

. By independence, the Pieds-Noirs accounted for 1,400,000 people, or roughly 13 percent of the total population.

The Pieds-Noirs are known in reference to the Algerian War that opposed Algerian nationalist groups such as the Front de Libération Nationale

National Liberation Front (Algeria)

The National Liberation Front is a socialist political party in Algeria. It was set up on November 1, 1954 as a merger of other smaller groups, to obtain independence for Algeria from France.- Anticolonial struggle :...

(FLN) and Mouvement national algérien (MNA) against the colonial French rule massively supported by the Pieds-Noirs . The roots of the conflict reside in political and economic inequalities perceived as an "alienation" from the French rule as well as a demand for a leading position for the Berber, Arab

Arab

Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

, and Islamic cultures and rules existing before the French conquest. The conflict contributed to the fall of the French Fourth Republic

French Fourth Republic

The French Fourth Republic was the republican government of France between 1946 and 1958, governed by the fourth republican constitution. It was in many ways a revival of the Third Republic, which was in place before World War II, and suffered many of the same problems...

and the mass migration of Algerian Europeans and Jews to France.

After Algeria became independent in 1962, more than one million Pieds-Noirs of French nationality were evacuated to mainland France. Upon arriving, they suffered ostracism from the Left for their perceived exploitation of native Muslims and for having caused the war, thus the political turmoil surrounding the collapse of the French Fourth Republic. In popular culture, the community is often represented as feeling removed from French culture

Culture of France

The culture of France and of the French people has been shaped by geography, by profound historical events, and by foreign and internal forces and groups. France, and in particular Paris, has played an important role as a center of high culture and of decorative arts since the seventeenth...

while longing for Algeria. Thus, the recent history of the pieds-noirs has been imprinted with a theme of double alienation from both their native homeland and their adopted land.

Origin of the term

The actual origin of the term Pied-noir is unknown and therefore debated. According to the Oxford English Dictionary

Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...

, it refers to "a person of European origin living in Algeria during the period of French rule, especially a French person expatriated after Algeria was granted independence in 1962." The Le Robert
Dictionnaires Le Robert
Dictionnaires Le Robert is a French publisher of dictionaries founded by Paul Robert. Its Petit Robert is often considered the authoritative single-volume dictionary of the French language.-Bilingual dictionaries:...

dictionary states that in 1901 the word indicated a sailor working barefoot in the coal room of a ship, who would find his feet dirtied by the soot. In the Mediterranean, this was often an Algerian native, thus the term was used pejoratively for Algerians until 1955 when it first began referring to "French born in Algeria." This usage originated from mainland French as a negative nickname. There is also a theory that the term comes from the black boots of French soldiers compared to the barefoot Algerians. Other theories focus on new settlers dirtying their clothing by working in swampy areas, or trampling grapes to make wine.

French conquest and settlement

European settlement began in the 1830s when France conquered Algeria

French Algeria

. The invasion was instigated when the Dey

Dey

Dey was the title given to the rulers of the Regency of Algiers and Tripoli under the Ottoman Empire from 1671 onwards...

of Algiers struck the French consul with a fly-swatter in 1827, although economic reasons are also cited. In 1830, the government of Charles X

Charles X of France

Charles X was known for most of his life as the Comte d'Artois before he reigned as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him...

blockaded Algeria and an armada

Naval fleet

A fleet, or naval fleet, is a large formation of warships, and the largest formation in any navy. A fleet at sea is the direct equivalent of an army on land....

sailed to Algiers, followed by a land expedition. A troop of 34,000 soldiers landed on 18 June 1830, at Sidi Ferruch

Sidi Ferruch

Sidi Fredj is a coastal town in Algiers Province, Algeria. It is located within the territory of the municipality of Staouéli, on a presque-isle on the Mediterranean Sea....

, 27 kilometres (16.8 mi) west of Algiers. Following a three-week campaign, the Dey Hussein capitulated on 5 July 1830, and was exiled.

In the 1830s, the French controlled only the northern part of the country. Entering the 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...

region, they faced resistance from Emir Abd al-Kader, a leader of the Sufi

Sufism

Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...

Brotherhood. In 1839, al-Kader began a seven-year war by declaring jihad

Jihad

Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...

against the French. The French signed two peace treaties with al-Kader, but they were broken because of miscommunication between the military and the Parisian government. In response to the breaking of the second treaty, al-Kader drove the French to the coast. In reply, a force of nearly 100,000 troops marched to the Algerian countryside and forced al-Kader's surrender in 1847.
In 1848, Algeria was divided into three départements of France, Alger, Oran, and Constantine, thus becoming part of the French state.

The French modeled their colonial system on their predecessors, the Ottomans, by co-opting local tribes. In 1843, the colonists began supervising through Bureaux Arabes operated by military officials with authority over particular domains. This system lasted until the 1880s and the rise of the French Third Republic

French Third Republic

The French Third Republic was the republican government of France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed due to the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, to 1940, when France was overrun by Nazi Germany during World War II, resulting in the German and Italian occupations of France...

, when colonization intensified. Large-scale regrouping of lands began when land-speculation companies took advantage of government policy that allowed massive sale of native property. By the 20th century Europeans held 1,700,000 hectares; by 1940, 2,700,000 hectares, about 35 to 40 percent; and by 1962 it was 2,726,700 hectares representing 27 percent of the arable land of Algeria." Settlers came from all over the western Mediterranean region, particularly Italy

Italy

, France

France

, Spain

Spain

, and Malta

Malta

Relationship to mainland France and Muslim Algeria

The Pied-Noir relationship with France and Algeria was marked by alienation. The settlers considered themselves French, but many of the Pieds-Noirs had a tenuous connection to mainland France, which 28 percent of them had never visited. The settlers encompassed a range of socioeconomic strata, ranging from peasants to large landowners, the latter of whom were referred to as grand colons.

In Algeria, the Muslims were not considered French and did not share the same political or economic benefits. For example, the indigenous population did not own most of the settlements, farms, or businesses, although they numbered nearly 9 million (versus roughly one million Pieds-Noirs) at independence. Politically, the Muslim Algerians had no representation in the Algerian National Assembly and wielded limited influence in local governance. To obtain citizenship, they were required to renounce their Muslim identity. Since this would constitute apostasy

Apostasy

Apostasy , 'a defection or revolt', from ἀπό, apo, 'away, apart', στάσις, stasis, 'stand, 'standing') is the formal disaffiliation from or abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a person. One who commits apostasy is known as an apostate. These terms have a pejorative implication in everyday...

, only about 2,500 Muslims acquired citizenship before 1930. The settlers' politically and economically dominant position worsened relations between the two groups.

Sephardic Jewish community

Jews

The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

, specifically Sephardi Jews

Sephardi Jews

Sephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...

, were present in North Africa and Iberia for centuries, some since the time when "Phoenicians and Hebrews, engaged in maritime commerce, founded Annaba, Tipasa, Caesarea

Cherchell

Cherchell is a seaport town in the Province of Tipaza, Algeria, 55 miles west of Algiers. It is the district seat of Cherchell District. As of 1998, it had a population of 24,400.-Ancient history:...

, and Algiers." A tradition told they arrived from Judea after the First Jewish-Roman War

First Jewish-Roman War

The First Jewish–Roman War , sometimes called The Great Revolt , was the first of three major rebellions by the Jews of Judaea Province , against the Roman Empire...

(66–73 AD) while it is known historically many Sephardi Jews

Sephardi Jews

came following the Spanish Reconquista

Reconquista

The Reconquista was a period of almost 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms succeeded in retaking the Muslim-controlled areas of the Iberian Peninsula broadly known as Al-Andalus...

. In 1870, Justice Minister Adolphe Crémieux

Adolphe Crémieux

Adolphe Crémieux was a French-Jewish lawyer and statesman, and a staunch defender of the human rights of the Jews of France. - Biography :...

wrote a proposal, décret Crémieux, giving French citizenship to Algerian Jews. Thus, the Jews of Algeria came to be considered part of the Pied-Noir community. This advancement was resisted by part of the larger Pied-Noir community. In 1897 a wave of anti-Semitic riots occurred in Algeria. During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

the décret Crémieux was abolished under the Vichy

Vichy France

Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...

regime, and Jews were barred from professional jobs. Citizenship was restored in 1943. Many Jews fled the country in 1962, alongside most other Pieds-Noirs, after the Algerian War.

Algerian War

For more than a century France

France

maintained colonial rule

French colonial empires

The French colonial empire was the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 17th century to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire...

in Algerian territory. This allowed exceptions to republican law, including Sharia

Sharia

Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...

laws applied by Islamic customary courts to Muslim women regarding inheritance, polygamy and repudiation. Discontent among the Muslim Algerians grew after the World Wars, in which the Algerians sustained many casualties. Algerian nationalists began efforts aimed at furthering equality by listing complaints in the Manifesto of the Algerian People, which requested equal representation under the state and access to citizenship, but no equality for all citizens to preserve Islamic precepts. The French response was to grant citizenship to 60,000 "meritorious" Muslims. During a reform effort in 1947, the French created a bicameral legislature

Bicameralism

In the government, bicameralism is the practice of having two legislative or parliamentary chambers. Thus, a bicameral parliament or bicameral legislature is a legislature which consists of two chambers or houses....

with one house for the French citizens and another for the Muslims but made a European's vote equal seven times a Muslim's vote. Paramilitary groups such as the Front de Libération nationale

National Liberation Front (Algeria)

(FLN) appeared, claiming an Arabo-Islamic brotherhood and state. This led to the outbreak of a war for independence, the Algerian War, in 1954.

From first armed operations of November 1954, 'Pieds-Noirs' civilians have always been targets for FLN

National Liberation Front (Algeria)

, either by assassination, bombing bars and cinemas and mass massacres, torture and rapes in farms.
At the onset of the war, the Pieds-noirs believed the French military would be able to overcome opposition. In May 1958

May 1958 crisis

The May 1958 crisis was a political crisis in France during the turmoil of the Algerian War of Independence which led to the return of Charles de Gaulle to political responsibilities after a ten year absence...

Pieds-Noirs demonstration for French Algeria, including many Muslims, occupied an Algerian government building. General Massu

Jacques Massu

Jacques Émile Massu was a French general who fought in World War II, the First Indochina War, the Algerian War and the Suez crisis.-Early life:Jacques Massu was born in Châlons-sur-Marne to a family of military officers; his father was an artillery officer...

controlled the riot by forming a Committee of Public Safety

Committee of Public Safety (disambiguation)

Committee of Public Safety may refers to:*the Committee of Public Safety proclaimed during the French Revolution*the Committee of Public Safety proclaimed by General Salan during the Algiers putsch of 1958...

demanding that his acquaintance Charles de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle

Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....

to be named president of the French Fourth Republic

French Fourth Republic

, to prevent the "abandonment of Algeria". This eventually led to the fall of the Republic. In response, the French Parliament voted 329 to 224 to place de Gaulle in power. Once de Gaulle assumed leadership, he attempted peace by visiting Algeria within three days of his appointment claiming "French Algeria!" but in September 1959 he planned a referendum for Algerian self-determination that passed overwhelmingly. Many French political and military leaders in Algeria viewed this as betrayal and formed the Organisation de l'armée secrète (OAS) that had much support among 'Pieds-Noirs'. This paramilitary group began attacking officials representing de Gaulle's authority, Muslims, and de Gaulle himself. The OAS was also accused of murders and bombings nullifying reconciliation opportunities between the communities, while 'Pieds-Noirs' themselves never believed such reconciliation possible as their community was targeted from the start.

The opposition culminated in 1961 during the Algiers putsch of 1961, led by retired generals. After this failure, on 18 March 1962, de Gaulle and the FLN signed a cease-fire agreement, the Évian accords, and held a referendum. In July, Algerians voted 5,975,581 to 16,534 to become independent from France.
This was an occasion for a massacre of 'Pieds-Noirs' in Oran by a suburban Muslim population. European people were shot, molested and brought to Petit-Lac slaughterhouse

Slaughterhouse

A slaughterhouse or abattoir is a facility where animals are killed for consumption as food products.Approximately 45-50% of the animal can be turned into edible products...

where they were tortured and executed.

Exodus

The exodus began once it became clear that Algeria would become independent. In Algiers, it was reported that by May 1961 the Pieds-Noirs' morale had sunk because of violence and allegations that the entire community of French nationals had been responsible for "terrorism, torture, colonial racism, and ongoing violence in general" and because the group felt "rejected by the nation as Pieds-Noirs ". These factors, the Oran Massacre

Oran massacre of 1962

The Oran massacre of 1962 was a massacre of European—mostly French—civilians in Oran, Algeria on July 5, 1962, at the end of the Algerian War . Although the majority of deaths were European, Algerians were also massacred. Estimates of the death toll vary widely, from a low of 95 to a high of 3,500....

, and the referendum for independence caused the Pied-Noir exodus to begin in earnest.

The number of Pied-Noirs who fled Algeria totaled more than one million between 1962 and 1964. Hurried, many Pieds-Noirs left only with what they could carry in a suitcase. Adding to the confusion, the de Gaulle government ordered the French Navy

French Navy

The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...

not to help with transportation of French citizens. By September 1962, cities like Oran, Bône

Bone

Bones are rigid organs that constitute part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They support, and protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells and store minerals. Bone tissue is a type of dense connective tissue...

, and Sidi-Bel-Abbès

Sidi Bel Abbes

Sidi Bel-Abbes is capital of the Sidi Bel Abbès wilaya , Algeria. It is named after a Muslim holy man who is buried there. It is the commercial center of an important area of vineyards, market gardens, orchards, and grain fields. It is surrounded by a wall with four gates and there is a...

were half-empty. All administration, police, schools, justice, and commercial activities stopped within three months after many were told to choose either "la valise ou le cercueil" (the suitcase or the coffin). Only 100,000 Pieds-Noirs chose to remain, but they gradually left through the following decade; by the 1980s only a few thousand Pieds-Noirs remained in Algeria.

Flight to mainland France

The French government claimed that it had not anticipated that such a massive number would leave; it believed that perhaps 300,000 might choose to depart temporarily and that a large portion would return to Algeria. The administration had set aside funds for absorption of those they called "repatriates" to partly reimburse them for property losses . The administration avoided acknowledging the true numbers of refugees in order to avoid upsetting its Algeria policies. Consequently, few plans were made for their return, and, psychologically at least, many of the Pieds-Noirs were alienated from both Algeria and France.

Many Pieds-Noirs settled in France, while others migrated to New Caledonia

New Caledonia

New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...

, Italy

Italy

, Spain

Spain

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

, and South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

. In France, many relocated to the south, which offered a climate similar to North Africa. The influx of new citizens bolstered the local economies; however, the newcomers also competed for jobs, which caused resentment. In some ways, the Pieds-Noirs were able to integrate well into the French community, relative to their Maghrebin and Muslim

Harki

Harki is the generic term for Muslim Algerians who served as auxiliaries in the French Army during the Algerian War from 1954 to 1962...

counterparts. Their resettlement was made easier by the economic boom of the 1960s. However, the ease of assimilation depended on socioeconomic class. Integration was easier for the upper classes, many of whom found the transformation less stressful than the lower classes, who had no other capital than all they left in Algeria. Many were surprised that they were often treated as an "underclass or outsider-group" with difficulties to get advancement in their careers. Also, many Pieds-Noirs contended that the money allocated by the government to assist in relocation and reimbursement was insufficient regarding their loss.

Thus, the repatriated Pieds-Noirs frequently felt "disaffected" from French society. They also suffered from a sense of alienation stemming from the French government's changed position towards Algeria. Until independence, Algeria was legally a part of France; after independence many felt that they had been betrayed and were now portrayed as an "embarrassment" to their country or to blame for the war. At times, the repatriates were stigmatized by assumptions that they had all been grands colons and were to blame for their misfortune. Conversely, the Pieds-Noirs felt unable to return to their birthplace, Algeria, because of the independence movement's violence.

The Song of the Africans

The Pied-Noir community has adopted an unofficial anthem as a symbol of its identity, Captain Félix Boyer's 1943 version of Le Chant des Africains
Le Chant des Africains
"Le Chant des Africains" is the unofficial anthem of the Pied-noir community in France and her former colonies in Africa.-World War I:...

(lit. "The Song of the Africans"). This is a 1915 Infanterie de Marine march song, originally titled C'est nous les Marocains (lit. "We are the Moroccans") and dedicated to the French Army Colonel Van Hecke, commander of the WWI

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

cavalry 7e régiment de chasseurs d'Afrique ("7th African Light Infantry Regiment") which originated in the French North African Chantiers de la jeunesse française ("Youth Workshops") Boyer was in charge. It was adopted by General de Lattre

Jean de Lattre de Tassigny

Jean Joseph Marie Gabriel de Lattre de Tassigny, GCB, MC was a French military hero of World War II and commander in the First Indochina War.-Early life:...

's First Army (a.k.a. Armée d'Afrique, lit. "Africa army") who used it during World War II

World War II

's European liberation campaigns. This song was later used by the Pied-Noir to demonstrate their allegiance to France. (listen to the Chant des Africains)

This official military song was banned at the end of the Algerian War in 1962 until August 1969, when French Minister of Veterans Affairs (Ministre des Anciens Combattants) under Georges Pompidou

Georges Pompidou

Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou was a French politician. He was Prime Minister of France from 1962 to 1968, holding the longest tenure in this position, and later President of the French Republic from 1969 until his death in 1974.-Biography:...

, Henri Duvillard, removed the prohibition.

French Algeria (1830–1962)

Louis Althusser
Louis Althusser
Louis Pierre Althusser was a French Marxist philosopher. He was born in Algeria and studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy....

, philosopher
Jacques Attali
Jacques Attali
Jacques Attali is a French economist, writer and senior civil servant.Former adviser to President François Mitterrand and first president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, he founded the non-profit organization PlaNet Finance and was nominated President of the Commission for...

, economist
Daniel Auteuil
Daniel Auteuil
Daniel Auteuil is a French film, television and theatre actor.-Early life and education:He was born in Algiers, French Algeria.-Career:...

, actor and director
Jean-Pierre Bacri
Jean-Pierre Bacri
Jean-Pierre Bacri is a French actor and screenwriter who frequently works in collaboration with Agnès Jaoui.-Life:One of his earliest film appearances was Subway...

, actor
Guy Bedos
Guy Bedos
Guy Bedos is an actor and stand-up comedian, mostly known in France for his part in the film Nous irons tous au paradis....

, comedian
Paul Belmondo
Paul Belmondo (sculptor)
Paul Belmondo was a French sculptor. He is the father of the actor Jean-Paul Belmondo.-Biography :...

, sculptor
Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle
Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle
Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle, was a member of the French resistance who assassinated Admiral of the Fleet François Darlan, the former chief of government of Vichy France and the self-proclaimed high commissioner of French North Africa and West Africa, on December 24, 1942...

, resistant
Patrick Bruel
Patrick Bruel
Patrick Bruel is a French singer, actor, and professional poker player of Algerian Jewish descent.-Biography:...

, singer
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
Albert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...

, philosopher
Marcel Cerdan
Marcel Cerdan
Marcellin "Marcel" Cerdan was a French pied noir world boxing champion who was considered by many boxing experts and fans to be France's greatest boxer, and beyond to be one of the best to have learned his craft in Africa...

, boxer
Alain Chabat
Alain Chabat
Alain Chabat is a French actor and director who appeared in La Cité de la peur, French Twist, The Taste of Others and The Science of Sleep.- Life and career :Chabat was born in Oran, French Algeria. He is Jewish....

, comedian
Hélène Cixous
Hélène Cixous
Hélène Cixous is a professor, French feminist writer, poet, playwright, philosopher, literary critic and rhetorician. She holds honorary degrees from Queen's University and the University of Alberta in Canada; University College Dublin in Ireland; the University of York and University College...

, philosopher
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji is a French physicist and Nobel Laureate. He shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics with Steven Chu and William Daniel Phillips for research in methods of laser cooling and trapping atoms...

, physicist (Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

winner 1997)
Étienne Daho
Étienne Daho
Étienne Daho is a French singer, songwriter and record producer who has released a number of synth-driven and rock-surf influenced pop hit singles since 1981.- Career :...

, singer
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher, born in French Algeria. He developed the critical theory known as deconstruction and his work has been labeled as post-structuralism and associated with postmodern philosophy...

, philosopher
Julien Dray
Julien Dray
Julien Dray was born on 5 March 1955 in Oran, French Algeria. He is currently a member of the National Assembly of France. He represents the Essonne department, and is a member of the Socialiste, radical, citoyen et divers gauche.-Works:...

, politician

Edwige Fenech
Edwige Fenech
Edwige Fenech is a French-born Italian actress and film producer.- Biography :Fenech was born in Bône , in French Algeria to a Maltese father and Sicilian mother. From the late 1960s to early 1980s, Fenech starred in many types of European movies...

, actress
Louis Franchet d'Espèrey, military
Dinh Gilly
Dinh Gilly
Dinh Gilly was a French-Algerian operatic baritone and teacher.-Biography:He studied in Toulouse, Rome and at the Paris Conservatoire, where he won a premier prix in 1902. That same year he made his debut at the Paris Opera as Silvio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci...

, operatic baritone
Roger Hanin
Roger Hanin
Roger Hanin is a French actor , best known for playing the title role in the 1989-2006 TV crime series, Navarro.-Personal life:...

, actor
Marlène Jobert
Marlène Jobert
Marlène Jobert is a French actress, singer and author.Jobert was born in Algiers, Algeria , the daughter of Andrée and a father who flew for the French Air Force. She is a Pied-Noir of Jewish heritage. She came to Metropolitan France when aged 8...

, actress
Edmond Jouhaud
Edmond Jouhaud
Edmond Jouhaud was one of four French generals who briefly staged a putsch in Algeria in April 1961. As Army General he had been the Inspector General of the Air Force in French North Africa. After the failure of the putsch, he became the deputy of Raoul Salan in the Organisation de l'Armée Secrète...

, military
Alphonse Juin
Alphonse Juin
- Early years :Juin was born at Bône in French Algeria, and enlisted in the French Army, graduating from the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr in 1912.- Career :...

, military
Gaston Julia
Gaston Julia
Gaston Maurice Julia was a French mathematician who devised the formula for the Julia set. His works were popularized by French mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot; the Julia and Mandelbrot fractals are closely related....

, mathematician
Enrico Macias
Enrico Macias
Gaston Ghrenassia, known by his stage name Enrico Macias, is an Algerian French Pied noir singer and musician...

, singer
Paul Quilès
Paul Quilès
Paul Quilès is a French Socialist politician.-Biography:He was born in Sig, Algeria.Deputy of Tarn département, close to Laurent Fabius, he was Defense Minister from 1985 to 1986, after the Rainbow Warrior scandal...

, politician
Emmanuel Roblès
Emmanuel Roblès
Emmanuel Roblès was an Algerian-French author. He was elected a member of the Académie Goncourt in 1973...

, writer
Beatrice Romand
Béatrice Romand
Béatrice Romand is a French actress best known for her work with director Éric Rohmer in such films as Claire's Knee, Chloe in the Afternoon, A Good Marriage, Le Rayon vert and Autumn Tale....

, actress
Yves Saint Laurent, designer
Benjamin Stora
Benjamin Stora
Benjamin Stora is a French historian, expert on North Africa, who is widely considered one of the world's leading authorities on Algerian history. He was born in a Jewish family in Constantine, then in French Algeria, which left the country following its War of Independence in 1962. Stora holds...

, historian
François Valéry
François Valéry
François Valéry is a French singer-songwriter and composer.-Biography:...

, singer

French protectorate of Morocco (1912–1956)

Jean-Paul Bertrand-Demanes
Jean-Paul Bertrand-Demanes
Jean-Paul Bertrand-Demanes is a former football goalkeeper from France, who earned eleven international caps for the French national team during the 1970s and was part of the French team in the 1978 FIFA World Cup...

, footballer
Eric Besson
Éric Besson
Éric Besson is a French politician and Minister of Industry, Energy and the Digital economy under the Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry, Christine Lagarde...

, politician
Frida Boccara
Frida Boccara
Frida Boccara was a French singer.Frida Boccara was born in Casablanca, Morocco. She submitted the song "Autrefois" to the French Eurovision Song Contest selection panel in 1964 but she was unsuccessful...

, singer
Laurence de Cambronne, journalist
Jean-Charles de Castelbajac
Jean-Charles de Castelbajac
1949: Born on November 28th in Casablanca, son of Louis and Jeanne-Blanche de Castelbajac1968: First collection for Ko and Co, company created at Limoges by his mother Jeanne-Blanche de Castelbajac1969: First show...

, designer
Just Fontaine
Just Fontaine
Just "Justo" Fontaine is a former French football player.-Football career:He holds the record for most goals scored in a single FIFA World Cup finals tournament, with 13 in 1958...

, footballer
Michel Galabru
Michel Galabru
Michel Louis Edmond Galabru is a French actor born on 27 October 1922 in Safi, Morocco.-Career:Over the course of his career, Galabru appeared in over 200 movies and worked with such renowned directors as Bertrand Blier, Costa-Gavras, Luc Besson , and Jean-Luc Godard...

, actor
Roland Giraud
Roland Giraud
Roland Giraud , is a French actor. He is married to the actress Maaike Jansen.Giraud began his theatrical training in the 1960s and joined Coluche's theatrical company in 1971. Around this time he worked also with the troupe, Le Splendid. His first cinematic role came in 1974 in Michel Audiard's...

, actor
Elisabeth Guigou
Élisabeth Guigou
Élisabeth Guigou is a French Socialist politician.-Biography:After attending ENA, France's elite graduate school of public affairs, she worked on Jacques Delors' staff in 1982 before being hired by Hubert Védrine in François Mitterrand's...

, politician

Michel Jobert
Michel Jobert
Michel Jobert was a French politician. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs under Georges Pompidou, and as Minister of External Commerce under François Mitterrand....

, politician
Jean-Luc Mélenchon
Jean-Luc Mélenchon
Jean-Luc Mélenchon is a French politician who served in the government of France as Minister of Vocational Education from 2000 to 2002. He was also a member of the Senate of France, representing the Essonne department...

, politician
Macha Méril
Macha Méril
Macha Méril, born Princess Maria-Magdalena Vladimirovna Gagarina on 3 September 1940, Rabat, Morocco, is a French actress and writer, descended by her father from the Russian princely house Gagarin and by her mother from a Ukrainian noble family...

, actress
Philippe Morillon
Philippe Morillon
Philippe Morillon is a former French general and was a Member of the European Parliament until 2009. He was elected on the Union for French Democracy ticket with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group...

, military
Daniel Pennac
Daniel Pennac
Daniel Pennac is a French writer. He received the Prix Renaudot in 2007 for his essay Chagrin d'école.After studying in Nice he became a teacher...

, writer
Jean Reno
Jean Reno
Jean Reno is a French actor. Working in French, English, Spanish and Italian, he has appeared not only in numerous successful Hollywood productions such as The Pink Panther, Godzilla, The Da Vinci Code, Mission: Impossible, Ronin and Couples Retreat, but also in European productions such as the...

, actor
Alain Souchon
Alain Souchon
Alain Souchon is a French singer, songwriter and actor. He has released 15 albums and has played roles in seven films.-Profile:...

, singer
Dominique de Villepin
Dominique de Villepin
Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin is a French politician who served as the Prime Minister of France from 31 May 2005 to 17 May 2007....

, politician

French protectorate of Tunisia (1881–1956)

Serge Adda
Serge Adda
Serge Adda was the president of the French television station TV5.A Franco-Tunisian and an expert in political economy, Adda began his vocational career in 1971 as a researcher at CETEM . From 1975 to 1978 he was a director of research at École spéciale d'architecture.In...

, businessman
Serge Bramly
Serge Bramly
Serge Bramly is a French language writer and essayist.-Biography:He was born into a Jewish family in Tunis, Tunisia. When he was ten years old, his family emigrated to France...

, writer
Claudia Cardinale
Claudia Cardinale
Claudia Cardinale is an Italian actress, and has appeared in some of the most prominent European films of the 1960s and 1970s. The majority of Cardinale's films have been either Italian or French...

, actress
Paul Chemla
Paul Chemla
Paul Chemla is a famous French bridge player.Chemla was born in Tunis. He studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris where he took up playing bridge. His wins include three European Pairs Championships , two World Team Olympiads , and the 1997 Bermuda Bowl...

, bridge player
Pierre Darmon
Pierre Darmon
Pierre Darmon was a French tennis player.In 1963, he reached his highest world ranking, # 8. He was also ranked in the top 10 worldwide in 1958 and 1964.-Tennis career:...

, tennis player
Bertrand Delanoë
Bertrand Delanoë
Bertrand Delanoë is a French politician, and has been the mayor of Paris since 2001. He is member of the Socialist Party . Delanoë was born in Tunis, Tunisia to a French-Tunisian father and a French mother...

, politician
Elie Lellouche
Elie Lellouche
Elie Lellouche is a French trainer of Thoroughbred racehorses and jockeys.After having modest success as a jockey, in 1979 Lellouche obtained his horse trainer's license...

, horse trainer
Pierre Lellouche
Pierre Lellouche
Pierre Lellouche is a French politician and a member of the Union for a Popular Movement party. He is Secretary of State for Foreign Trade under the Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry, Christine Lagarde. He was also the President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly from November 2004 to 17...

, politician

Albert Memmi
Albert Memmi
Albert Memmi is a Tunisian Jewish writer and essayist who migrated to France.- Biography :Born in colonial Tunisia,from a Tunisian Jewish mother and a Tunisian-Italian Jewish father, he speaks Hebrew and Tunisian-Arabic...

, writer
Nine Moati
Nine Moati
Nine Moati , is a French novelist, with Tunisian-Jewish origins. Nine Moati is the sister of the French film director Serge Moati.Her greatest book success was the novel Les Belles de Tunis which was published in 1983....

, writer
Serge Moati
Serge Moati
Serge Moati is a French artist, journalist, film director and writer. Serge Moati is the brother of Nine Moati, author of the novel Les Belles de Tunis...

, journalist
Edgard Pisani
Edgard Pisani
Edgard Pisani was a French politician. He was born in Tunis and his parents were Maltese immigrants. He spent his childhood in Tunisia and later studied in Paris. Pisani holds a "licence de lettres" from La Sorbonne. His second marriage was with the daughter of André Le Troquer.He held positions...

, politician
Jean Sassi
Jean Sassi
Jean Sassi was a French Army colonel and intelligence service officer, former "Jedburgh" of France and Far East. Commando chief of the SDECE's 11th Shock Parachutist Regiment...

, military
Philippe Séguin
Philippe Séguin
Philippe Séguin was a French political figure who was President of the National Assembly from 1993 to 1997 and President of the Cour des Comptes of France from 2004 to 2010....

, politician
Joseph Sitruk
Joseph Sitruk
Rabbi Joseph Haïm Sitruk is a former Chief Rabbi of France, a position he held from June 1987 to June 22, 2008. Born Joseph Sitruk in Tunis, after suffering a stroke in 2001 and recovering he added the name "Haim" to his name in line with Jewish tradition....

, rabbi
Jacqueline Taieb
Jacqueline Taïeb
Jacqueline Taïeb is a French singer and songwriter, of Tunisian descent, who achieved her greatest success as a pop and yé-yé singer in France in the 1960s....

, pop singer
Georges Wolinski
Georges Wolinski
Georges Wolinski is a French cartoonist and comics writer.-Biography:After discontinuing his architecture studies in Paris, Georges Wolinski began cartooning in 1960, contributing political and erotic cartoons and comic strips to the satirical monthly Hara-Kiri.During the student revolts of May...

, cartoonist

Origin of the term

French conquest and settlement

Relationship to mainland France and Muslim Algeria

Sephardic Jewish community

Algerian War

Exodus

Flight to mainland France

The Song of the Africans

French Algeria (1830–1962)

French protectorate of Morocco (1912–1956)

French protectorate of Tunisia (1881–1956)

See also