Insurrection and Accommodation: Indigenous Leadership in Eastern Algeria, 1840–1900

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Abstract
‘If one seriously wanted to prepare the tribes for assimilation with France instead of reconstituting the government of Arabs by Arabs, would it not be wise to disorganize them, to multiply the little sheikhs and to replace the big leaders with French officers…?’ This candid question was asked by a French colon in 1847 shortly before the surrender of ‘Abd al-Qadir Ibn Mahi ad-Din, the most formidable Arab leader opposing the French establishment in Algeria. The question reflects the increasing impatience, self-confidence, and, one is forced to add, arrogance of the French colonialists. After many years of struggling against a largely indifferent French Chamber the colons had finally become a sizable and vociferous minority which could command a hearing in the halls of the Monarchie du Juillet.

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