Throughout the course of history, nations have tried and succeeded in expanding their territories by invading smaller and weaker countries. When this happens there is no surprise that there is resistance that always leads to bloodshed. The French invaded Algeria in hopes of expanding their beliefs and traditions to the Algerians and strengthen their motherland. The Algerians did not like this and built and entire revolution against the French army. A group called the National Liberation Front or the NLF was formed to combat the French and take back the nation.

The Battle of Algiers takes place in 1954 to 1957. It follows the resistance of the leaders of the NLF: Ali la Pointe, Saadi Yacef, Larbi Ben M’hidi, and Jaffar. The four band together to try to stop the French army from taking over the city of Algiers. The leader of the French army, General Jacques Massu, receives intel that they are leading the resistance and goes on a manhunt in search of them. Along the way Ali, Saadi, Larbi and Jaffar draft unique characters to help them with their battle. Everyone in their city is hopeful that the NLF will be victorious against the French army. The French army puts in multiple roadblocks to stop the resistance. After a series of shootings of French soldiers, the army implements body searches for all Muslims and Arabs walking through the city. They all had to carry around identification and must be patted down by soldiers in order to go through the city. The NLF leaders recruit three Muslim women to help them plant bombs in the city where Frenchmen were. The women took off their hijabs, cut their hair, and disguised themselves as French women in order to walk into the city inconspicuously. They planted three bombs, one in a restaurant, one in a club, and one in an airport. After they were detonated the search for the NLF leaders was kicked into full gear. General Massu was determined to find and kill each one of the leaders one at a time. After the leaders were killed the French thought they had won but after two short years the NLF came back and after another two years of fighting the NLF won and drove the French out of Algeria.

The tensions between the Algerians and the French army were obvious and clear to see in The Battle of Algiers. Both parties despised the other thinking that they were the rightful owners and rulers of the city. The French were racist and constantly badgered Arabs when they walked down the street. The Algerians hated having French soldiers around and decided to revolt by killing as many as they could by shooting them. This started the long battle turning the city of Algiers into a battleground. There were many contributing factors as to why the two groups had so much animosity towards each other.

The opening scene of the movie is the perfect example of how the French broke down the indigenous people and forced them to into a lifestyle they did not want. In this scene, an old man tortured to give up any information he had on where the NLF leaders were when he genuinely had no idea. The soldiers had broken his spirit and after they were done torturing him they made him wear a French military uniform. This scene was very symbolic because they did not only strip him of his physical clothes but his true identity. He was no longer a national of Algeria but a national of France.

One of the goals of the French were to get the people of Algiers to claim France as their motherland. The strong spirited and willed people of Algiers refused to do that which made the French upset. In one scene the resisters were being put in jail. As one prisoner was being dragged to his cell he started chatting, “long live Algeria.” This gave the prisoners a brighter morale and soon the whole prison was chatting along with him. Even though the soldiers tried to cover the mouth of the person who started the chant the whole prison was booming with chats from other prisoners. The underlying cause of the issue was that the French wanted the indigenous people to pledge their loyalty to France which the Algerians were not willing to compromise. According to Richard Fogarty, “Revolutionary France was the birthplace of a new concept of national identity that closely linked the idea of citizenship with service to and defense of the state in the military” (Race and War in France, 231). The French army identified very strongly with their background and were threatened by the Algerians when they refused to give in to French nationalism. This resistance caused the two groups to be more aggressive towards each other.

Towards the middle of the movie, a French soldier gets shot by an Algerian boy and the boy runs away. Other soldiers start chasing the boy but cannot find him. The scene cuts to an old man about to eat on the side of the road but he is interrupted by people pointing and yelling at him saying he is the one who shot the soldier. The other soldiers capture the old man and he is the old man in the opening scene. He was completely innocent in the scenario but just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. This added to the anti-colonial cause because the Algerians saw that people were getting arrested and tortured for no reason. They did not want to live under French rule and wanted to be independent.

One big action that marked the start of the war going into full force was the bomb that the French planted in the mosque. After the bomb went off the NLF became more motivated to stopping the colonization. They had to protect their beliefs and their way of life that the French were threatening. This was the first big attack on the NLF that the French did. According to Richard Fogarty, “French perceptions of Islam over several centuries set the stage for this cultural confrontation, but the presence of several hundred thousand Muslims in the French Army and on French soil during the Great War confronted France with dilemmas similar to those it faces today, though of course these dilemmas differed in certain respects from those posed by the presence of millions of permanent residents and citizens” (171, Race and War in France). The perception of Muslims and Islam being an issue was already embedded into the minds of the French people long before the colonization.

The fight over Algiers was fought for a very long time with a high death toll. The leaders of the NLF were killed in the process but they built a legacy that was stronger than their death. A couple of years after their final fight the NLF regrouped and became stronger. They were then able to defeat the French and take back their nation.

Works Cited

Pontecorvo, G. (Director), Musu, A., & Saadi, Y. (Producers), & Solinas, F., & Pontecorvo, G. (Writers). (n.d.). The Battle of Algiers.

Fogarty, R. S. (2013). Race and war in France: colonial subjects in the French Army, 1914-1918. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.

Reading Information

Bernard Cohn, Chapter 1: “Introduction,” Colonialism and its Forms of Knowledge, Chapter 1

Overview

In the eighteenth century, the British were a huge super power that colonized many nations to gain political and economic power. When the British decided to colonize India, it was a completely new challenge for them. It was the biggest territory that they have ever colonized. They had to develop new strategies to divide the territory and take it over piece by piece. Their main strategy was to corrupt the thinking of the Indians and manipulating them into believing what the British believed in. According to Cohn, “the power to define the nature of the past and establish priorities in the creation of a monumental record of civilization, and to propound canons of taste, are among the most significant instrumentalities of rulership” (Cohn, 10). This was a key finding of the British that helped them with their ultimate success in colonizing India. They were able to dictate which parts of history were more important than others. For example, they built museums in India to educate the public. There were British artists who went to India to pain what they saw. This display is a skewed image of India because it was painted in the perspective of a British artist rather than an Indian artist.

Keywords

1. Modality – the way something exists
2. Epochal – something that is really important or influential
3. Ethnographic – description of people’s beliefs and cultures

Argument

Cohn’s argument on how the British were able to colonize the Indians was that they redefined their history and manipulated them.

Evidence

Cohn references different findings by anthropologists in this chapter to support his claims. For example, he references the work of the Thagi and Dacoity Department. Their findings consist of criminal ethnography. They portrayed the indigenous people as savages based on their own perceptions of the world. They made claims that females would use infanticide that was considered illegal in British law.

Historiographical Debate

Cohn does not explicitly address the works of others in this chapter.

Contribution to Our Understanding of Colonial Rule

This chapter showed the importance of choice. The Indians thought they had control over the situation but were very wrong. The British manipulated them into thinking that the new laws and rules were something they were already accustomed to. By using their own culture against them, the British were able to shape the thinking of the Indians. The British were able to define the culture and background of the Indians and change the perception of them to the world and themselves.

Reading Information

Bernard Cohn, Chapter 3: “Law and the Colonial State in India,” Colonialism and its Forms of Knowledge

Overview

India was the biggest nation that the British conquered. At the time they had already colonized parts of the Caribbean. India was a completely new challenge to them because of the language barrier, geographical size, and population. They had to devise a new tactic that they had not used before. They decided to divide and conquer the land. At the time the indigenous Indians followed an ancient constitution. In order to break through to them, the British translated their constitution from Sanskrit to Persian to English. This gave them insight to the values and beliefs of the Indians. This advantage gave them great leverage to manipulate their thinking. By translating the constitution they were able to come up with their own laws and use the constitution as justification for it.

Keywords

1. Sovereignty – power over another
2. Escheat – law that states that when someone dies and has no heirs their land belongs to the state
3. Idolatry – worshiping idols

Argument

Cohn’s argument in this chapter was that the British used the laws that were already in place in India to their own benefit by manipulating the words into what they wanted them to mean.

Evidence

The British charged taxes to the Indians who owned land before the British got there. They called the Indians “tenants” and they played the role of the “landlords.”

Historiographical Debate

Contribution to Our Understanding of Colonial Rule

A huge part of the overall success of the British was their ability to appeal to what the Indians already knew. They were able to position the changes as things that they were already doing. By doing this, the transition seemed less drastic and they were less likely to oppose.

Reading Information

Bernard Cohn, Chapter 5: “Cloth, Clothes, and Colonialism: India in the Nineteenth Century,” Colonialism and its Forms of Knowledge

Overview

This chapter in Cohn’s book analyzed the significance of the clothing of the Indian people. The different garbs worn by the Indians all had a direct tie to their culture, ethics, and religion. According to Cohn, “clothes are not just coverings and matters of adornment, not can they be understood as only as metaphors of power and authority, nor as symbols; in many contexts, clothes literally are Authority” (Cohn, 114). The British realized that by stripping their individuality and traditional clothing they could conquer them. They forced the Indians to change their clothing and conform to what they wanted. By controlling their appearance in the public eye, the British had full control of how the world perceived Indians and how they perceived each other. The British presented the Indians with gifts to gain their trust and on the surface many Indians appeared to conform. However, on the inside they had resentment towards the British for changing their lifestyles. In order to distinguish between British soldiers and Indian soldiers, all Indian soldiers were required to wear turbans. This became an identifying element to the Indians. This grouped all the Indians into one category rather than identifying each person as an individual. The British justified this saying that the turban is to protect their heads from the sun. With the additional clothes and heat, many Indian soldiers contracted illnesses and diseases and did not have proper healthcare.

Keywords

1. Peshwa – a prime minister
2. Cosmography – study of map features
3. Zanana – a part of the house where women were not allowed in

Argument

Cohn makes the argument that by changing the garbs of the Indian people, they were able to make them conform to British rule.

Evidence

Cohn’s premises are supported by the success of this tactic. By changing the way the Indians dressed they were exposed to different diseases and illnesses that they weren’t exposed to before. Because of the overwhelming heat and lack of hygiene many Indian soldiers’ health hindered. This caused them to rely on the British for help.

Contribution to Our Understanding of Colonial Rule

This chapter helped me understand the significance of the smaller things that people take for granted. People typically associate colonialism with large-scale changes but even a change in clothing was able to help the British conquer India. Clothing is a basic part of everyday life that people do not pay much mind to. But understanding how different things can be when that part of your life is dictated it puts things into perspective of how little changes can have a huge impact.