Day Twelve: "A Timeline of Historic Events"

Algeria is a state with much history and a past as colorful as it's current tambour. It gained independence in 1962, a relatively recent endeavor, however long after their foundations 1014 by the Hammadid Dynasty (facts from Wikipedia). Here is a brief timeline of the major leaders in Algeria:

• In 1518, Algiers and Tunis, cities in N. Africa, were founded.
• July 3, 1962, the French leader Charles de Gaulle declared Algeria's independence.
• From 1962-3, Ahmed Ben Bella was the prime minister of Algeria. He was president from 1963 to 1965.
• On June 19, 1965, Colonel Houari Boumedienne overthrew Ahmed Ben Bella.
• July 4, 1979, Ben Bella was freed from detention after 14 years, but remained under house arrest.
• From 1963 to 1979, Mouloud Hamrouche served as the prime minster, and was overthrown by the military in 1991.
• January 11, 1992 – Chadli Bendjedid, the president at the time, resigned.
• On June 29 of the same year, Mohammad Boudiaf, the president of Algeria, was assassinated by his body guard after giving an emotional speech about human life and inevitable death.
• November 5, 2008 – Fateh Bouchibane, the mayor of Timezrit, was murdered.
• February 12, 2009 – "In eastern Algeria 2 bombs exploded hours after President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced he will run for a new term, killing at least seven people."

Source of timeline: Ratnikas, Algis. "Timeline Algeria". Timelines of History Online. Accessed 3 June 2009.

Source of facts at top: "Algeria". Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia. Accessed 3 June 2009. .

Day Eleven: "World War I"

[Source: "French Images World War I". TroubleShooters Online. Opinicus Publishing 2009. Accessed 2 June 2009. .]

During World War I, Algeria was the first nation to be held under European rule (Smith 20). This happened "through a combination of treaty agreements with local elites and military presence" (20). There is not much history pertaining to Algeria during World War I, but the latter Algerian War and World War II witnessed Algerian independence, warfare, and even massacre in which the French state had influenced much of the history in these situations.

Smith, Dan. "The State of the Middle East". University of California Press, Berkeley. 2006. Accessed 1 June 2009.

Day Ten: "Ottoman Influence on Algeria"

The rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East during it's reign had many diffusing properties, spreading their influence to many nations throughout the Middle East. Algeria was one of these nations, and at the time was under French colonial rule. According to author Edmund Burke in his book Islam, politics, and social movements, the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century sparked a self-sufficiency program in which taxes were raised in order to support new regimes.

He says that "the French extended over the whole country a tax system in which, as mentioned above, had been limited during the Ottoman period to the top 20 percent of the most productive districts of Algeria" (Burke 47).

Thus, a financial boom appeared in Algeria, which allowed the newly developing social, political, and economical infrastructure to gain foundations with new taxes.

Source:

Burke, Edmund, & Lapidus, Ira M., & Abraham, Ervand. "Islam, politicals, and social movements". Accessed 2 June 2009. University of California Press: Berkeley and Los Angeles, California. 1988. Scanned to GoogleBooks. Accessed 31 May, 2009.