#历史开讲 #
In the last two decades of the 19th century, and even later, anti-Semitism in Algeria affected not only the rest of North Africa, but also French relations with Jews. This is because Algeria was not administered as a colony, but as three provinces of France.
Strengthening of political anti-Semitism
Beginning in 1871, Jews from Algeria became French citizens, and this forced collective naturalization made Jews a clear distinction from other indigenous peoples in Algeria. For Muslims, they were not invited by France into the society of the colonizers, which was an important difference between them and the Jews.
Jews in North Africa have long been in the Islamic world, and Muslims see the entry of Jews into French society as a betrayal of the Islamic world by Jews. Relations between Jews and Muslims did not deteriorate suddenly, but were preceded. In an 1865 letter to the World League of Israel, Najn expressed the growing tensions between Muslims and Jews that could lead to a Jewish uprising.
Gayden attributed the Mokrani uprising to the promulgation of the Decree of Crimieux, in which army rulers and colonial administrators led by Gayden formed a faction opposed to Algerian Jewish citizenship. During their administration of Algeria, these people developed a sense of racial superiority that had not been experienced before in France.
They were afraid that the natives would obtain citizenship, and the Jews among the natives would obtain citizenship, so the object of their fear became the Jews, and once the Jews obtained citizenship, they were bound to progress economically and politically, which affected their privileged position politically and economically. Gayden reorganized the administration of some parts of Algeria and provided land for people from metropolitan France, especially the Alsace-Lorraine region.
In fact, Algerian settlers did not appear at this time. New immigrants and settlers from France and other European countries entered this complex social arrangement. When they gathered in Algeria as French, colonizers, Spaniards and even Africans, the French occupation of the regency of Algiers triggered the creation of a new group in the 40s of the 19th century: Algerian settlers.
For the army and settlers, there was often a disagreement over land, and the settlers' desire to integrate Algeria into a larger urban system would allow them to gain more land free from military control, but this was clearly contradictory to military rule. The settlers had organized a lobby group of their own, already calling themselves Algerians, who had repeatedly applied to the colonial government for more land.
Algerian politics is a stage and, in a way, a metaphor for anti-Semitic sentiment. The first anti-Jewish coalition was formed in July 1871 in the town of Migliana with the aim of targeting newly granted Jews. About a decade later, after a municipal election in the city of Trimson, anti-Semitic sentiment in the city led to violent clashes. Several small-scale anti-Jewish conflicts broke out in Algeria.
These conflicts may not be entirely related to the Decree of Clemius itself, in which Jews considered themselves to have acquired citizenship, consciously exercised their political rights, asserted their citizenship, and participated in the activities of the French colonists, who did not recognize their identity or accept them into their communities. The 1881 revision of the indigenous code by the colonial authorities again divided the local Muslims and Jews.
The limitation of the Code was changed to apply only to French non-citizens from Algeria. At this time, the Jews were already French citizens. Colonizers, some settlers, and natives also increasingly understood how to use political means to suppress Jews. In 1896, for example, the mayor of Constantine used his anti-Semitic rhetoric to gain votes and established a city council with a strongly anti-Semitic character. This approach immediately attracted Orlan's emulation.
At this point, the Lambrecht Decree on proof of Jewish identity played a leading role, and they used this restriction to deny Jews the right to vote. Although Algerian Jews also struggled, anti-Semitic sentiment prevailed. In the 90s of the 19th century, large, premeditated anti-Jewish organizations began to emerge. In August 1892, Fernand Gregoire founded the Socialist Anti-Semitic League.
He has been calling for the repeal of the Crimieux decree and the abolition of the indigenous code. Although he died in 1895, he represented a small part of the young French, and he did not lack the following of anti-Semites during his lifetime. Max Regis was an important anti-Semite in Algeria after 1895. In 1897, the Algiers Higher School appointed a young Jewish professor who specialized in Roman law, and a group of students led by Regis staged strikes and demonstrations, but he was eventually expelled from the school.
After leaving school, Regis founded the Algerian anti-Semitic newspaper, in which he made extreme anti-Semitic statements. As stated in the newspaper on November 11, 1897, "Justice was supposed to exist, but blinded by Jewish gold hidden in clothes, the ruler no longer listened to the complaints of this powerful assistant and victim, and condemned them."
In the article, Regis compares the Jews to a serpent and calls on people to kill it and crush it. As an anti-Semitic newspaper, Regis published numerous anti-Semitic articles in the newspaper, promoting hatred, demanding the repeal of the Crimieux Decree, and the expulsion or complete extermination of Algerian Jews. Because of his anti-Semitic rhetoric and behavior, Regis rose to fame for a while.
The newspaper is headquartered in Mustafa, which also happens to be the site of Gregoire's grave. The newspaper was also very popular in anti-Semitic circles in France, especially in anti-Dreyfus circles. Regis also briefly served as mayor of Algiers and enacted a series of anti-Semitic policies. Also prevalent in anti-Semitic circles at that time was the book "Jewish France", written by Edward Druemont, which was touted by many anti-Semites and can be said to be one of the bestsellers of the Third Republic.
Druemont was both a staunch supporter of the monarchy and an advocate of racial anti-Semitism. In 1892, through his best-selling newspaper Free Speech, he published France for the French, criticizing the "Jewish conspiracy" behind the Panama events and helping to deport Herzl and force Renac to commit suicide. In 1898 there were anti-Jewish riots in Algiers.
In an eloquent and powerful letter to President Fore, in an eloquent letter to President Fore, Emil Zola recalled the case of Dreyfus and Estehazy, claiming Dreyfus as innocent and accusing the former Minister of War and the Chief of General Staff of concealing evidence and denouncing a person when there was insufficient evidence. For the sake of his reputation and in the interests of France, he asked the President to reopen the Dreyfus case.
When news of Zola's defense of Dreyfus reached Algiers, anti-Semites began to gather and demonstrate despite the dissuasion of the local police. Not only that, but the anti-Semitic riots also spread to towns near Algiers, where anti-Semites attacked Jews and looted their belongings. In contrast, the Jewish revolt appeared weak. Druemont then moved to Algiers and was embraced by local anti-Semites.
In subsequent municipal elections, anti-Semites made up the majority among elected parliamentarians. The year 1898 was not peaceful for either Algerian Jews or French Jews, and anti-Semites in both places provoked anti-Semitic violence of varying degrees. A group of anti-Semites, led by Druemont, succeeded because they capitalized on the anti-Semitic currents of the time, from left-wing anti-Semitism to traditional Catholic anti-Semitism and the rise of racial anti-Semitism, and they declared that Jews were responsible for all their evils.
At the end of the 19th century, a large number of anti-Jewish organizations emerged in Algeria and France, and although some of them did not exist for a long time, they still gained popularity. The National Anti-Semitic Federation, founded in Paris in 1903, was staunchly anti-Dreyfus, advocating the consistency of national descent.