The Failure of Progress: Algeria and the Crisis of the Colonial World

Abstract

Abstract In 1952 the French government of Algeria commissioned a study of local conditions based on a questionnaire given to the heads of every commune—the smallest administrative unit. The responses came back over the following two years and covered a broad array of issues, ranging from Islamic reformism to immigration, from population growth to nationalist parties. As they compiled these answers, the authors of' “Algeria at Mid-Century” were mainly concerned with the perennial question of political reform: whether it was possible to assimilate Muslims as citizens, in this case by abolishing the odd system of' “mixed communes,” which subjected them to military administration. But this report leads one to to question whether any reform could have kept Algeria French. Quire unconsciusly, its authors had cataloged all the main causes of the coming revolt.