Everything Everywhere Daily · Thursday, September 17, 2026
In 1830, France invaded Algeria, dismantling the Ottoman Regency of Algiers and annexing it as a legal part of Metropolitan France. The conquest resulted in an estimated hundreds of thousands of Algerian deaths due to warfare and displacement. Over a million French settlers, known as Pieds-Noirs, subsequently moved to Algeria.
“France used the conflict as an excuse to invade Algeria and Ottoman rule and dismantled the Regency of Algiers.”
“The conquest caused an enormous demographic catastrophe.”
“Some historians estimate that hundreds of thousands of Algerians died from warfare, famine, disease, and displacement, with one estimate putting the toll at roughly 825,000 by the year 1875.”
“And more than a million French settlers, called Pieds-Noirs, moved there.”