Algeria: Nonviolent resistance against French colonialism, 1830s-1950s

International audienceIn recent years, two important books have focused on the violence of the French conquest and colonization of Algeria, beginning in 1830. Le Cour Grandmaison’s Coloniser, Exterminer emphasizes the role colonies such as Algeria played in the development of military forms of violence later imported to Europe, while Brower gives a fine description of the violent means used by the French army to control the Algerian desert after the conquest. In doing so, both authors go beyond the well-known episodes of Algerian armed resistance--notably the armed resistance of Amir Abd-al-Qadir in the 1830s and '40s, and the War for Independence (1954-1962)--to re-emphasize the duration and intensity of violence in the resistance against French colonial occupation of Algeria. However, such discourse leaves little, if any, narrative space for uncovering the existence and discussing the role of other, nonviolent, forms of struggle developed by Algerians against the French colonial occupation