By 1917 only a fifth of Algeria’s non-Muslim settlers were French-born.

Evidence

But still the European immigrants arrived in their various waves. There were the unemployed and unwanted from the revolution of 1848, who hardly formed the best material for breaking the stern soil of Algeria; after 1871 (when immigration first began on a large scale) there came industrious and efficient Alsatians, refugees from the provinces forfeited to a triumphant Prussia. There came Spaniards, Italians and Maltese in their thousands; so much so that by 1917 only one in five of the non-Muslim population was said to be of French origin. As Anatole France muttered angrily: “We have despoiled, pursued and hunted down the Arabs in order to populate Algeria with Italians and Spaniards.” — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 88 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: By 1917 only one in five Algerian Europeans was of true French descent — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 152; Most Algerian colons were not ethnically French at all. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 88

Related

• By 1917 only one in five Algerian Europeans was of true French descent (similarity 0.95)
• Most Algerian colons were not ethnically French at all. (similarity 0.94)
• French settlers never exceeded thirteen percent of Algeria’s population (similarity 0.89)
• Most French Algerian settlers were actually Spanish and Italian immigrants. (similarity 0.89)
• Algerians credited France’s Algerian achievements as benefiting French settlers, not natives. (similarity 0.82)
• Algeria’s European settlers feared expulsion more than anything else (similarity 0.82)
• Algeria split between Europeanised coast and Muslim-populated mountain interior (similarity 0.81)
• Europeans were only one-third of Algiers’ 900,000 population yet dominated its cityscape (similarity 0.80)
• The European settler minority is the central obstacle to ending the Algerian war (similarity 0.80)
• Algerian Muslims earned roughly one-thirtieth of European earnings yet paid proportionally heavier taxes. (similarity 0.80)
• Algerians fighting for France outnumbered those fighting for independence (similarity 0.80)
• The Algerian War killed about one million Muslims and expelled roughly a million settlers (similarity 0.80)
• European settlers actively aided the F.L.N. and died for the Algerian cause (similarity 0.80)
• The Algerian Communist Party sided with French settlers rather than Muslim nationalists (similarity 0.80)
• The French state classified settlers and harkis unequally to erase Algeria’s Frenchness. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Most Algerian colons were not ethnically French at all. #corroborates (0.85) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 88