Pacification of Algeria in the context of "Subdivisions of Algeria"

Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to the northeast by Tunisia; to the east by Libya; to the southeast by Niger; to the southwest by Mali, Mauritania, and Western Sahara; to the west by Morocco; and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea. The capital and largest city is Algiers, located in the far north on the Mediterranean coast.

Algeria has been at the crossroads of numerous cultures and civilisations for millennia, including the Phoenicians, Numidians, Romans, Vandals, and Byzantine Greeks. Its modern identity is rooted in centuries of Arab Muslim migration since the seventh century and the subsequent Arabisation of indigenous Berber populations. Following a succession of Islamic Arab and Berber dynasties between the eighth and 15th centuries, the Regency of Algiers was established in 1516 as a largely independent tributary state of the Ottoman Empire. After nearly three centuries as a major power in the Mediterranean, the country was invaded by France in 1830 and formally annexed in 1848, though it was not fully conquered and pacified until 1903. French rule brought mass European settlement that displaced the local population, which was reduced by up to one-third due to warfare, disease, and starvation. The Sétif and Guelma massacre in 1945 catalysed local resistance that culminated in the outbreak of the Algerian War in 1954. Algeria gained independence in 1962. It descended into a bloody civil war from 1992 to 2002, remaining in an official state of emergency until the 2010–2012 Algerian protests during the Arab Spring.

French Algeria, also known as Colonial Algeria, was the period of Algerian history when the country was a colony and later an integral part of France. French rule lasted from the beginning of the French conquest in 1830 until the end of the Algerian War which resulted in Algeria gaining independence on 5 July 1962.

The French conquest of Algeria began in 1830 with the invasion of Algiers which toppled the Regency of Algiers, though Algeria was not fully conquered and pacified until 1903. It is estimated that by 1875, approximately 825,000 Algerians were killed. Various scholars describe the French conquest as genocide. Algeria was ruled as a colony from 1830 to 1848, and then as multiple departments—an integral part of France—with the implementing of the 1848 French Constitution, until Algerian independence in 1962. After a trip to Algiers in 1860, the then-French emperor Napoleon III became keen on establishing a client kingdom which he would in turn rule in a personal union, expanding freedoms for the indigenous population and limiting colonisation. This project was futile, however, and the newly-established Third Republic scrapped any plans for Algerian regional autonomy, even seeking to strengthen its hold by granting citizenship to Algeria's native Jewish population and propagating the Kabyle myth in what have been described as examples of divide and rule.

Lalla Fatma N'Soumer (Arabic: لالة فاطمة نسومر; c. 1830 – 1863) was an Algerian anti-colonial leader during 1849–1857 of the French conquest of Algeria and subsequent Pacification of Algeria. She led several battles against the French forces, until her capture in July 1857. She was imprisoned until her death six years later. She is an Algerian national hero.