Fire on the mountain: resisting colonialism in Algeria

This paper explores the relations between French colonizers and Muslim Algerians in the latter decades of the nineteenth century. The author sets the context in describing the precolonial economy of the forests and plains of the Annaba region. Then he recounts the massive expropriation of Algerian lands, particularly forest lands, by the French. Finally, he discusses the dramatic outbreaks of forest fires which followed the expropriations. The settlers, against whom many of the fires were set, found many reasons to exaggerate their magnitude and malign the Algerians who probably started them. The Algerians, who probably started many of them, did not start them all, and had many reasons to deny their complicity. This ambiguity, which reflects the uncertain relationship between protest and criminality, persists into contemporary Algeria. Notes, ref.