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French Algeria, time of Glory.

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  • Europa Universalis III
Chapter 1
Immigration, Christianisation.

1902 to 1913 is seen as one of the shaping moments in the history of French Algeria. The north African territory became a immigration magnet for poor French. Many industry’s began to open around this time making it very attractive for many French family’s. The influx of new immigrants changed the demographics of the country for ever. Over the course of 11 years the French population increased from 300.000 to 2.2 million. Although they were still a minority (35% of the total population) a new groundbreaking development was hitting French Algeria.

Many of the former Muslim population began to convert to Roman Catholic Christianity. It was unclear why this happened since the Muslim community was highly conservative, what is known is that the first Muslims to do this were women. The feminist wave had reached Algeria and was wrecking havoc in Muslim family’s. The woman probably did it out of defiance to the strict Muslim costumes. This also became the core of a new more easy going and less strict Christianity. The Algerian woman (Arabian and French) became the most active fighters for female emancipation. Most Arabian children began to be raised as Catholics in the following decade.

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A former mosque now serving as a church.

With the increasing changes in French Algeria a new distinct culture began to form like with the Afrikaners in South Africa only at an accelerated rate. The first signs of a national identity began to emerge but was at the moment not very strong, it would surface again in the following decades. And would ultimately lead to a free French Algeria.

Hello folks this will be my first real AAR detailing the history of French Algeria.
Updates will at a minimum be once a week but if I have the time it will probably become more.

This is a HOI2 V1.3 AAR
The difficulty will be Easy/Normal. ( I am not a very good player.)
Post a lot of comments, all critics are welcome and hopefully you will enjoy this AAR.
 
Free French Catholic Algeria? Very interesting concept, one I will watch. :)
 
Chapter 2
The great war disaster.

With the Great War breaking out with all its fury it was not long before the French began to tap in to the unused manpower that were the Arab Algerian males. The French population was more or less spared but they constituted the whole of the officer corps of the Algerian legion. When the war descended into trench warfare things were turning out for the worst. The Algerian legion began to suffer appalling casualty’s. this was do to the tendency of the continental French commanders to use them as cannon fodder. The Algerian French were trying to prevent this at all cost since in the former decade the French and Muslim population began to see themselves as brothers from another mother in the same country.

advancesml.jpg

Algerian soldiers often marching to their doom on the first wave.

This calumniated at the battle of the Somme where 3 quarters of the Algerian legion was put in front of the line. Over 160000 men died that day, with 80.000 wounded. After the battle the legion consisted only of 80000 able bodied men. After 2 more gruelling years of war only 60000 men were left brining the total military casualty’s to a staggering 260.000. People at home knew about the heavy casualty’s on the front with Germany, but when the men returned and the official number was published the colony went into a state of shock. The stories about the Algerian forces being used as meat shield by the European forces coursed the first Algerian revolt.

The demographics of the country had changed even more, out of a population of 7 million 260000 had died. These were 95% Muslim males, leaving many family’s without their fathers or sons. With many woman widowed because of the war and the disappearance of the conservative males Christianity began to take a further leap. It was estimated that by a small margin there were more Christians then Muslims. Although the feminist wave had put itself on hold during the war, they came back stronger then before after it. Having smelled freedom, and being able to work when the men were fighting this only made sense. In the following years, French Algeria would become the most emancipated country in the world.

The first political party’s had been formed during the war. Which more or less constituted of Liberals, confessionals and Socialists. Although these party’s had different ideas on how the colony should be steered they had one thing in common. They all began to preach a new Algerian national identity who had been developing at home and who had been formed in the trenches of Belgium and France. They began to lobby with the French for dominion status just like in the British Empire. History would show that it would become a difficult battle.
 
Deus Eversor: You are correct. North africa and the lands surrounding israel were the first to come into contact with christianity. Only with the coming of Islam did it dissapear.

Carlito Gambino: Soon, very soon, when I get to the timeframe.

Haru yo koi: Hope you will enjoy it.

El Pip: I thought it was an interresting concept as well.

I have completed the modding of the game. In other words I have added resources and industry to Algeria. It has a large shortage of energy, comes by with metal and has enough rare and oil. Manpower is standard 0.21 a day.
Starting with 125 manpower.
Industry is 27. (Canada level)
I begin with absolutely no army, navy, airforce.

Comments on this are welcome.
 
Chapter 3
The first Algerian revolt.

1919 would become known as the year of the first Algerian revolt. Ever since the great war and the story’s about the Algerians being used as living shields dissent had hit the country. The voices for justice became louder and louder until the 3 major political party’s went to the supreme court in Den Hague. Their aim was to get certain French generals convicted for crimes against humanity. Instantly chaos erupted in France, the newspaper were crying outrage and downright treason. The French government said it would never extradite their hero’s from the war and that it would happily sacrifice millions of Arabs to save one Frenchmen. This response put the Algerian and continental French populace directly against each other.

The Algerian response was outright revolution. People began burning the French flag and marching down the streets screaming for the first time FREE ALGERIA! One of the central figures of the first revolt was Georges Le Beau. He preached a doctrine of civil disobedience which he had picked up from a certain fellow named Ghandi, although eliminating the total pacifism.

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Algerian nationalists on a disobedience march.

The response of the French authority’s was extreme. The crowds were shot upon and many people were arrested, tortured and sentenced to long stays in prison. The authority’s experienced severe problems with governing the colonies. Out of protest most French Algerians who directly worked for the government resigned.

Within a month the revolt had been put down and over 2000 men, women, children, Arab or French were dead. Georges Le Beau was sentenced to live in prison and many more head figures of the revolt were shot. Calm settled back in Algeria but the seeds of further revolts had been planted. The Arab population continued to Christianise and for the first time in History, they saw themselves as one people. Algerians.

Immigration from the continent had almost come to a full stop with relatively few immigrants coming into the country from other nations. The economy also faced problems but was beginning a climb with increasing numbers of women getting a job. The first mixed marriages between Arabs and French were widely celebrated in the country as a sign of Algerian Unity.
Half a decade of moderate economic growth was coming. Mostly do to Algerian initiative since the French government was not coming with any plans whatsoever for economic growth. This was as a punishment for the revolt.


Next time, the Great depression and the second revolt.
 
Colonel Bran said:
Is my writing that bad? :(
Click to expand...
No, your writing is good, as least better than mine. :D
However, as there are many people whose native language is not English, a writing might have trouble for them to read. (At least this applies to me)
Please keep[ going. ;)
 
This sounds like a very interesting start, Colonel Bran. Don't get discouraged by a lack of replies...even veteran AAR writers often have to post multiple updates per page. I myself am usually a full-on lurker.

Let the ideas and the story come to you, and it'll be something you can take pride in.
 
Nice narration, you should see my AARs, they are either absolutely terrible screenshot-word-screenshot-word rubbish or abandoned after a week.

Good luck, may luck be bright on Algeria.

La Battaglia di Algieri is a very good film about French Algeria, to note.
 
Yeah, this looks interesting. :)
 
Alas gents it has been two months since the last update. True not quite necromancy yet, and AARs have come back from being far older, but may I suggest not getting your hopes up too much.
 
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