France introduces selective conscription for Algerian Muslims

The law of 28 June 1881 formalised a special administrative and penal regime for Algerians classified as “indigènes.” It enabled punishment through administrative authority and offences that did not...

A law of 28 April 1887 adjusted land administration and made it easier for colonial authorities to delimit and redistribute collective lands. The process could convert communal tenure into parcels...

The law of 27 June 1888 extended for two years the exceptional regime established in 1881. Repeated renewal shows that legal inequality was maintained through ordinary legislative procedures, rather...

Residents of the Righa community rose at Margueritte amid land loss, settler expansion, and colonial administrative pressure. French authorities framed the revolt as a threat to order and responded...

The trial of Algerians accused after the Margueritte uprising opened in Montpellier. The prosecution moved resistance from the colony into a French courtroom, where colonial categories and the unequal...

A decree provided that some Algerian men who completed military service with good conduct would no longer be subject to the indigénat’s special jurisdiction. The measure linked relief from...

The Jonnart Law expanded access to French citizenship and electoral participation for selected Algerian Muslims, but imposed restrictive eligibility conditions and did not establish equality for the...

An official petition dated 18 July 1920 demanded political rights for Algerians. Its emergence followed wartime service and the restrictive Jonnart reforms, and expressed a political claim within...

A law of 4 August 1920 modified provisions of the 1919 legislation concerning political rights for Algerian “indigènes.” The change belongs to a sequence of tightly limited reforms that managed...

The Étoile Nord-Africaine (ENA) developed from North African migrant organising in France into a political organisation opposing colonial domination. Algerian workers and migrants built networks...