The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815–1914 (The Penguin History of Europe Book 7)

by Richard J. Evans

A local Muslim leader, Mohamed el-Mokhrani (1815–71), declared a jihad against the French, outraged that Jews had been placed above Muslims and convinced that the German defeat of the French was a sign of divine justice. In 1868, French rule had been a major factor in a famine in which perhaps a third of a million Algerians died; French propaganda made great play with the famine relief operation mounted by the Church in Algeria, but this too was a bitter cause of resentment. Some 150,000 Muslims rose in support of Mokhrani and began besieging the towns where the French and other settlers had retreated for safety. Within a short time the revolt was defeated. Together with the 1868 famine, the conflict had led to the death of around a million people, a third of the population. The French revenge was harsh. The leaders of the uprising were killed or sent to the Pacific island of New Caledonia. Up to 1,200,000 acres of Arab land were confiscated. Pilgrimages to Mecca were severely restricted in order to cut off Algeria from the rest of the Muslim world. Arabic was even classified as a foreign language. Muslim social and educational institutions thought to encourage resistance to French rule were destroyed.