Ahlem Fidouh: The Failure of the Doctrine of Assimilation in French Algeria
Assimilation, as an imperial ideology, became the bedrock of France’s colonial policy in the wake of the 1789 Revolution. Its republican ideals filled the discourse of its supporters who engaged in self-congratulatory advertising of France’s mission as a torchbearer of equality and brotherhood coupled with modernity and progress throughout its empire and beyond. This utopian vision, however, contradicted with the reality in the colonies where, for the most part, the assimilationist impulses faced various forms of setbacks, mainly from the French themselves, thereby thwarting the proper implementation of the doctrine on the ground. The present article will set the example of Algérie française, by all the accounts the most valuable French colony in North Africa, where assimilationism was doomed to failure.
[doctrine of assimilation, mission civilisatrice, French Algeria, colonialism, Colons, Pieds noirs]
