History
The earliest known inhabitants of the region that is now Algeria were
Berber-speaking nomads who were settled there by the 2d millennium B.C. As
Numidia, it became (9th cent. B.C.) a province of Carthage and then (106 B.C.)
of Rome; during the Christian era, St. Augustine (354–430) was bishop at Hippo
(now Annaba). With Rome's decline in the 5th cent. A.D., Algeria was conquered
by the Vandals (430–31), the Byzantine Empire (6th cent.), and finally, in the
late 7th and early 8th cent., by the Arabs, whose introduction of Islam
profoundly altered the character of the area. Spain captured the coastal cities
in the 15th cent. but was expelled (mid-16th cent.) with the help of the Ottoman
Turks, who assumed control. During this period the Algerian coast was a
stronghold of pirates and a center of the slave trade. France invaded Algeria in
1830 and declared it a colony in 1848. Europeans began to arrive in large
numbers, dominating the government and the economy, and leaving the native
Muslim population with scant political or economic power.
A nationalist movement began to develop after World War I, and a war for
independence, led by the National Liberation Front (FLN), broke out in 1954.
After more than seven years of bitter fighting, in which at least 100,000 Muslim
and 10,000 French soldiers were killed, Algeria became independent on July 3,
1962.
Since independence, Algeria has been a prominent nonaligned state and a champion
of the movements against white minority rule in Africa. It also has supported
the protracted struggle of the Polisario Front for the independence of Western
Sahara (formerly Spanish Sahara) from Morocco. Ahmed Ben Bella, prime minister
and then president of Algeria after independence, was deposed by Houari
Boumedienne in 1965.
After Boumedienne's death (1978), Chadli Benjedid succeeded (1979) him as
president. Riots in 1988 led Pres. Benjedid to reduce the role of the state
economically and of the FLN politically. After Islamic fundamentalists won 42%
of the seats in the first round of parliamentary elections in Dec. 1991, the
army forced Benjedid to resign (1992) and cancelled the election. A civilian-led
state council was installed, but real power resided with the army. The
fundamentalist party was banned and its leaders arrested. Fundamentalists
launched a guerrilla insurrection, and Algeria was torn by violence from both
sides, resulting in an estimated 50,000 deaths by the mid-1990s.
In Jan., 1994, Gen. Liamine Zéroual was appointed president. Under Zéroual,
limited efforts at negotiations with the Islamic opposition were followed by a
renewed crackdown. Zéroual won the Nov., 1995, presidential elections, which
were boycotted by Islamic militants. Fighting continued, and he resigned early
in 1999.
Presidential elections held in Apr., 1999, were won by Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the
candidate of the military oligarchy; all the opposition candidates had withdrawn
before the vote, claiming ballot-rigging. The Islamic Salvation Army, the armed
wing of the outlawed FIS, renounced its armed struggle in June, 1999; its
members were to be granted amnesty (approved in a referendum in September) and
invited to join government forces in fighting other radical guerrillas still
waging war against the state. By mid-1999, 100,000 people had been killed in the
violence and repression that began in 1992. In Jan., 2000, President Bouteflika
granted a blanket pardon to the Islamic Salvation Army forces, and the
government announced that 80% of all the Islamic guerrillas had surrendered
under the amnesty. The government began an offensive against the remaining
guerrillas during the same month.
Newspapers, Magazines....
Daily newspaper
La révolution par le peuple et pour le peuple
Daily newspaper
Daily newspaper
Le qoutidien indépendant
Daily newspaper
Un espace ŕ la communauté algérienne établie ŕ l'étranger
Le premier magazine en ligne du peuple kabyle
L'autre regard sur l'info....
Qoutidien nationale d'information
Edition nationale d'information
Qoutidien independant
Le droit de savoir, le devoir d'informer