Pieds noirs read integration as a path to numerical submergence of Muslims
Evidence
On the other hand, as de Gaulle points out in his memoirs, in Algeria the pieds noirs tended to regard integration in totally false terms “as a means of warding off the evolution towards equality and Algerian autonomy, of not only avoiding being engulfed by ten million Muslims but of submerging them instead among fifty million Frenchmen”. This was how they tended to interpret the idealistic slogan of the time: “Fifty-five million Frenchmen from Dunkirk to Tamanrasset.” It was a matter of mathematical juggling; the Muslims of Algeria saw the equation simply in the ratio of ten-to-one; the pieds noirs tried to fix it in a ratio of fifty to ten. But the basic fact was that, whereas integration, if honourably entered into, might have worked happily in 1936 and less probably in 1945, by 1958 it had become at best a romantic delusion, at worst a confidence trick. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 943 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Army and pieds noirs formed a symbiosis masking divergent, fatal objectives; Both Muslims and pieds noirs read integration through self-serving demographic math. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 943
Related
- Both Muslims and pieds noirs read integration through self-serving demographic math. (similarity 0.97)
- Integration was feasible in 1936 but a delusion by 1958 (similarity 0.84)
- Algerian integration was only ever workable before 1958 (similarity 0.83)
- The pieds noirs, not Muslims, triggered the events sealing Algérie française’s fate (similarity 0.82)
- Integration would have demographically swamped metropolitan France (similarity 0.82)
- Algerian integration would numerically swamp metropolitan France politically. (similarity 0.81)
- Demographic arithmetic made Algerian integration untenable for France by 1958 (similarity 0.81)
- Muslims and pieds noirs were separated by incompatible religious, cultural and economic orientations (similarity 0.81)
- Pieds noirs and metropolitan French spoke different political languages. (similarity 0.80)
- Post-independence Arabization made French integrationist dreams seem never realistically possible (similarity 0.80)
- Pied noir survival in Algeria was untenable even without O.A.S. violence (similarity 0.79)
- French settlers never exceeded thirteen percent of Algeria’s population (similarity 0.79)
- Pieds noirs never honestly wanted Algérie française but a protected white-ruled Algeria (similarity 0.79)
- The self-determination speech widened the split between France and the army and settlers (similarity 0.78)
- French aid unintentionally accelerated Muslim economic competition against pieds noirs. (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Both Muslims and pieds noirs read integration through self-serving demographic math.
#corroborates(0.90) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 943