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Introducing Colonization: Where is the Third World?
The colonization of Algeria by the French forces started with the invasion of 1830, and it ended with the declaration of independence in 1962. The French authority spent the next seventy years reining in the Algerians before finally becoming the undisputed leaders of that territory ( What is the Third World? ). They faced the Abdelkadir Revolt of 1832 to 1847 and the Scorched Earth Policy of 1830 to 1870 ( What is the Third World? ). The tactics employed included torture, murder, displacing natives, ceasing their lands, deploying them as their slaves, and denying them fundamental human rights. The wealthy region was also victims of the plundering of minerals and other resources discovered, with decrees passed to foster this continued process. Some of these resources included the Islamic endowments of the indigenous Algerian people that got confiscated in 1843 for their financial value, despite the move being contrary to the Treaty of Surrender that allowed the French to settle in Algeria.
One of the oppressive decrees passed was the Indigenous People Law. It gave foreigners ownership over local wealth, leaving the indigenous dependent on the Europeans. The locals did not earn a fair wage for work done on their properties, and they could not even own property. The law allowed for the relentless exploitation of the wealth and labor that Algeria had to provide. Another law that came into play in 1870 was the Crémieux Decree which separated the Jewish populace from the indigenous Algerians ( What is the Third World? ). It led to the disregard for Muslim Arabs and the Berbers as they became second-class citizens. The Algerian Muslims lived in an impoverished state as laborers and sharecroppers. When the French finally had total control, they debilitated the education in Algeria, ensured the locals never gained enough to upend them and went as far as to take Algerians to fight in World War I for them ( What is the Third World? ). At the end of World War II, Algerians demanded their rights, and the blatant shooting of crowds was only the beginning of decolonization.
Introducing The Decolonization: Concerning Violence
Decolonization refers to how a colonizing country loses its grip on a colony and the territory becomes independent. While some instances would involve a peaceful transition, others were violent, with most rebels inspired by nationalism to seek their long-overdue rights. Frantz Fanon argues that it can never be a friendly phenomenon (35). He expounds on the subject as a process of getting one species of people replaced by another species without any room for transition. The idea he presents is to challenge the overwhelming notion that the process brings a clean slate for all parties involved after the birth f the new nation, the development of diplomatic trends, and political movements. The main focus should be the bottom-up approach that constitutes a demanded, willed, and called-for process (Fanon 35). After all, decolonization is the change of order in a specific part of the world through a program full of disorder.
The program aforementioned entails the collision of two opposing forces in their core beliefs and nature of operating, which is well depicted in the instance of colonies. The first encounters involve violence, as does their continued existence of one people dominating the other; the settler exploiting and dominating the native. The immigrant perpetuates himself in the world of the native and brings him into existence to the rest of the world. As the settler amounts property and wealth, he then owes its legitimacy in the world order to the colonial system. Therefore, the view of decolonization begins realizing that this new creation of new people with new liberties is a manufactured construct. By calling it into question comes the spark of truth that ignites the violence and mayhem in the preconceived world order (Fanon 37). Furthermore, the moment this epiphany comes to the fore, the mindset is the achievement of the goal by all means, even if it means a fierce struggle.
The perfect example lies in the struggle for decolonization by Algeria. The two confronting forces were the Algerian and French authorities, where the liberals in the minority camp demanded dual citizenship. The colonial government could not acknowledge the natives or their demands, which thrust the tussle from negotiations to warfare. In a leaflet passed around by the National Liberation Front back in 1956, the message to the people was that the colonial government would only loosen their grip on Algeria on the platform of more violence (Fanon 61). Given the nationalism it inspired, it was clear that the message resonated with the true feelings every Algerian felt at the time. As the native people, violence felt like the absolute line of action they needed to observe as a stance against the colonial system. It would, in turn, explain the condemnation by the French against everyone in support of the rebellion. Algeria had reached the point of no return following the massacre of 1955 in Phillipeville that resulted in twelve thousand victims (Fanon 90). It set the stage for what became a tenaciously violent war.
Manifestation of The Decolonization: Battle of Algiers film
The Battle of Algiers film covers the events of Algerias natives warring with the French colonial government in the struggle for freedom. The 1966 film, directed by Gillo Pontocorvo and edited by Mario Serandrei and Mario Morra, depicted actual events from the previous decade. It involved how the North African country committed to fighting for its freedom between 1954 and 1957 at all costs ( Battle of Algiers ). Various themes, such as the change in gender roles and the war aspect, come to the fore. The main ones in this section are colonialism and decolonization through the struggle. It features some tough times, such as the training of willing and able people to campaign for its independence. Extraordinarily, the film provides a devastating view of the Battle of Algiers and the anticolonial struggle that brutally exposes the French authorities and their mindset in the colonial era.
Struggle for Independence
The movies beginning entails strong feelings of nationalism where the acknowledgment for each persons loyalties was evident in their willingness to kill those they considered the enemy. With a common mindset on what had to happen, strategizing on how to challenge the authorities became easier to implement. The National Liberation Front starts with killings that would not spark a full-blown war, which entails the policemen. However, the French authorities respond by planting bombs to catch the freedom fighters unawares ( Battle of Algiers ). The buildup in the film captures the allocation of any resource and all people, from the men and women to the children, to combat the enemy. The emotive ending is a close-up with the Captain announcing that the struggle was over and Algeria was a new independent territory.
The natural conclusion is that the fight for independence is the movies main plot, and its entire development follows these events. Most of the main elements follow the National Liberation Front engaging with the French government. The opening scene, for instance, shows the killings of French authority police officers ( Battle of Algiers ). The training sessions aforementioned include a recruitment process where willing participants go through various tough tests. The decisive evaluations allowed for the forging of a strong resistance which would later win the war and achieve their goal. However, the win does not come easy and without any losses, given the French governments deployment of bombs. The explosions feature bloody deaths, and the director does this intentionally throughout the plot to make for a gruesome film. With this intricate detail, the struggle for my reflection then becomes not too lean too heavily on the directors vision to produce an objective take on the colonial situation in Algiers.
Colonialism
With the narrative remaining focused on the struggle for rights by the Algerian people and taking a stand against the French authorities, colonialism remains front and center in the film. Perhaps the choice by the director to shoot the movie in black-and-white may have been part of what influenced many conclusions that the films emotiveness was a hit. Nevertheless, it gives the film an aura of true reflection on the conflict and the call against the European Old-World Order of oppressively dominating Third-World countries. Some elements worth reflecting on from the film include choosing sides and the torture methods employed by the French.
Terroristic Freedom Fighters
Based on the title, the film is more about the Algerians and their struggle for independence from the tyrant rule of the French. However, the way the film portrays the events, choosing a side and declaring them as the outright good guys is easier said than done. While the French authority is invading the locals territory and brutally infringing on their rights as human beings, both sides manifest extremities in various capacities. There is a French Prefect who commits some atrocious acts on behalf of the French colonial government ( Battle of Algiers ). The audience must have the vision to look past the Prefects actions as his own but those on behalf of the heinous authorities. On the other side of the spectrum are the Freedom fighters who engage in similarly monstrous activities. Nevertheless, the director manages to portray their point of view sympathetically to have the audience rooting for them. The final standpoint then depends on whether an individual views the Algerian rebel activities as bad as the colonial government, relegating them to terrorists or freedom fighters seeking their fundamental human rights.
The torture methods employed in the Battle of Algiers make up disturbing scenes, especially those committed by the French. Nevertheless, the tactics work in delivering the result, as seen in the scene where Colonel Mathieu manages to extract the information he wants ( Battle of Algiers ). As a standalone event, the tactic is effective in helping the French advance in the battle. However, it may be such tactics were myopic, and it cost them the war for independence as well as the hearts and minds of those not within the Algerian territory. The Algerian rebels could garner the support and sympathy of those who holistically looked at the torture events. It also inspired the strategizing by the rebels to train their members to be ruthless, with everyone in the movement wanting to oust the French authorities no matter the cost.
Gender Role Changes: Women
To maintain objectivity, perhaps a little discussion into the other prominent theme of the changing gender roles should suffice. The apparent shift is evident when one compares the culture of the Algerian people and the events covered in the film as part of the war. A clear example is in the films beginning, where a woman in a white robe hides a gun to take it to someone charged with the death of a policeman ( Battle for Algiers ). The young man supposed to kill the policeman was on his first assignment for the National Liberation Front, and he needed to succeed (Mellen 9). The new role in delivering food and weapons was a customized effort to engage all willing individuals in the continued struggle to supplant the French authorities. It was a drastic shift from their traditional role of serving their husbands and cooking means because they no longer came home.
Conclusion
The three pieces of material from the class helped inform this essay on Algerias colonization and decolonization elements. The first reading was the PowerPoint document that served as the subjects introduction. It features the entry of the Algerians into the foray of the indigenous Algerians, how they gradually interfered with their way of life before eventually exploiting and mistreating them into submission. After a few decades of their tumultuous rule, the Algerians staged their successful revolt. They organized themselves and countered the French government through the National Liberation Front before eventually earning their independence. As mentioned in the other class document, the decolonization process tends to be violent because it involves challenging the status quo without diplomacy. The film provided the core information of this paper as it provided the vision for all the info adopted in the reading materials. It accurately portrayed the ruthless tactics deployed by both sides, the changes the Algerian society had to endure, and the eventual success.
Works Cited
Battle for Algiers. Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo, performances by Brahim Hadjadj, Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi. 1966. Rizzoli, Rialto Pictures, 1966. Film.
Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. Grove/Atlantic, Inc, Broadway, New York, 1963. Print.
Mellen, Joan. Film Guide to the Battle Algiers. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1973. Print.
[Instructors Last Name], [Instructors First Name]. What is the Third World? . [Title of Course], [Date of PowerPoint presentation], [Location of presentation]. Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.
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