Algerian war sacrifices for France earned no meaningful citizenship in return

Evidence

In 1914–1918 Algerian troops fighting alongside the French had suffered appalling casualties of 25,000 killed out of 173,000 joining the colours. By way of recognition of their courage and loyalty legislation was introduced in 1919 to facilitate Muslim access (in modest numbers) to French citizenship. It aroused the most intransigent and violent opposition from the pieds noirs, reluctant or fearful of change, typical of which was this expostulation by the senator from Oran. “The indigènes have fulfilled their duty vis-à-vis ourselves and deserve to be recompensed. But to do this, is it necessary to resort to imprudent measures?” — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 101

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The French state classified settlers and harkis unequally to erase Algeria’s Frenchness. — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 266; the MOC “The Republic’s Impossible Embrace: How Universalism Turned Algeria from the Future of France into Its Undoing”

Related

• The French state classified settlers and harkis unequally to erase Algeria’s Frenchness. (similarity 0.85)
• Pied noirs justified Frenchness by blood shed in two world wars (similarity 0.82)
• Algerians credited France’s Algerian achievements as benefiting French settlers, not natives. (similarity 0.81)
• Pieds noirs actually wanted economic privilege, not formal French Algeria (similarity 0.80)
• Pieds noirs never honestly wanted Algérie française but a protected white-ruled Algeria (similarity 0.79)
• Pied noir loyalty to France rested on war service they felt earned full Frenchness (similarity 0.79)
• Algerians fighting for France outnumbered those fighting for independence (similarity 0.79)
• Most Algerian colons were not ethnically French at all. (similarity 0.79)
• French settlers never exceeded thirteen percent of Algeria’s population (similarity 0.79)
• Pied noir soldiers balked at shooting Muslim demonstrators to save Algérie française (similarity 0.79)
• The 1940 defeat fatally undermined French prestige in Algerian Muslim eyes (similarity 0.79)
• The pieds noirs, not Muslims, triggered the events sealing Algérie française’s fate (similarity 0.79)
• The Algerian war was simultaneously a war of peace and one of extreme savagery (similarity 0.78)
• Official naming of the Algerian conflict shaped military honors and refused war status (similarity 0.78)
• Pied noir survival in Algeria was untenable even without O.A.S. violence (similarity 0.78)