Appropriating the land : controlling the land, knowing and administering the people

Félix-Jacques Moulin, Si Mustapha, kaôd de l'Oued Sothan et Boudiaf, kaôd du Medjana, 1856
© Paris - Musée de l'Armée, Dist. RMN-GP/Emilie Cambier

Conquering Algeria, and settling there lastlingly, required control over the land. Successive military campaigns were opportunities to reconnoitre new itineraries and explore unknown areas. With every expedition, the map of Algeria was getting more detailed. At the same time, the territory was being reshaped by new roads and bridges, and settlements. Many officers also learnt to love Algeria, a land which fast became an observation ground for botanists, geologists, hunters and hippologists. The local population was not only fascinating and intriguing by its otherness, but it was resisting. Officers therefore saw it as a curio and as the focus of their artistic and scientific studies (linguistic, ethnological, archaeological or otherwise). The Arab Bureaux became the main place where servicemen and “natives” would meet.

Un bureau arabe - 20eme siècle - Félix-Jacques Moulin

Un bureau arabe, XIX e siècle, Félix-Jacques Moulin
© Paris, Musée de l’Armée, Distr.RMN-GP/Emilie Cambier

The Bureaux were seen as a way to administer the people of the conquered territories through a military cadre versed in Muslim law and local languages and customs. Many officers serving in the Bureaux were Saint-Simonianists and were determined to serve as a bridge between two worlds. The military history of Algeria therefore helped shape, and contributed to, Orientalism – a movement developed throughout the 19th century –, the officers in the field often correcting the fantasies of the age.

Young visitors’ itinerary

The Army of Africa

Since the conquest of Algeria this term is used for French troops raised for service in Northern Africa. New units comprising Europeans, a minority of Sephardi Jews and for the first time Muslim “natives” were created progressively.

The Third Republic : consolidating colonisation and expanding into the Sahara

Carnets d'Orient - Jacques Ferrandez - tome 2