French colonial administration was concentrated in Algiers while vast regions were under-administered

Evidence

In a country full of violent contrasts none could be greater than that between the Mediterranean littoral with its Europeanised cities, beaches and flat, cultivated hinterland, and the almost entirely Muslim-populated wild mountain massifs of the Aurès and Kabylia. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 144 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

During the first forty years of the présence française Algeria was chiefly run by the military; administration at the local level being in the hands of the Bureaux Arabes created by Marshal Bugeaud. These were adapted from the Turkish system, except that plenipotentiary powers resided with the French administrator, who combined the roles of governor, judge, inspector of taxes, technical adviser and welfare officer. Often these came to be highly expert in their field, as well as deeply dedicated to the welfare of the people under their charge. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 90 (#expands, via linked claim)

Before one dissects the deficiencies, however, one needs briefly to pay tribute to the truly remarkable material achievements that France had wrought in Algeria during the course of her tenancy of a century and a quarter. Even a decade after the ending of France’s rule, a visitor to Algeria could not help but be impressed by the depth of the roots her civilisation left behind; an excellent network of roads often as good in quality as those of France, and over terrain as difficult as anywhere in the world; modern railways and airfields; great cities and a score of ports; electricity and gas and a (slightly less efficient) telecommunications system. She created a medical service and imposed standards of hygiene where none had existed. In agriculture, she increased the 2,000 cultivable square miles of 1830 to 27,000 in 1954; with her capital and know-how, she dug mines and set up vast industries that would not otherwise have existed; she provided jobs in France for several hundred thousand Algerian immigrant workers, and subsidised some eighty per cent of the country’s budget deficit. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 176 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: French rule in Algeria steadily degraded its administrators relative to the governed population; France’s incorporation of Algeria into the Republic created an inescapable colonial trap.; Europeans were only one-third of Algiers’ 900,000 population yet dominated its cityscape (+4 more)

Related

• French rule in Algeria steadily degraded its administrators relative to the governed population (similarity 0.89)
• Colonial Algeria’s local rule fused military and civilian power. (similarity 0.87)
• Algeria’s departmental status split it from the rest of the Maghreb administratively. (similarity 0.84)
• Europeans were only one-third of Algiers’ 900,000 population yet dominated its cityscape (similarity 0.84)
• France made substantial material and infrastructural improvements in Algeria (similarity 0.84)
• French rule thinned administrators per Muslim while refusing to create indigenous officials (similarity 0.83)
• Lack of reliable chieftains drove the French to direct canton-based administration (similarity 0.83)
• Algeria split between Europeanised coast and Muslim-populated mountain interior (similarity 0.83)
• French metropolitan democracy attenuated, while colonial Algeria criminalized, dissent against empire. (similarity 0.82)
• Algeria lacked the established governing structures that Tunisia and Morocco enjoyed (similarity 0.80)
• Algerian integration would numerically swamp metropolitan France politically. (similarity 0.80)
• Military commanders seized power in both Algeria and France at the same moment (similarity 0.79)
• France’s incorporation of Algeria into the Republic created an inescapable colonial trap. (similarity 0.79)
• French colonial policy deliberately divided Kabyle against Arab populations (similarity 0.79)
• Colonial Algeria contained three distinct peoples speaking different languages (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Algeria split between Europeanised coast and Muslim-populated mountain interior #qualifies (0.65) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 144
• Colonial Algeria’s local rule fused military and civilian power. #expands (0.60) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 90
• France made substantial material and infrastructural improvements in Algeria #qualifies (0.50) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 176
• French colonial administration layered circles over African chiefdoms with chiefs below French heads. #expands (0.45)