Digital Mind 🧠

🪵 The Threshold

Saharan oil gave France a vastly increased economic motive for retaining Algeria

Properties2
tagsja-picks, causal_relationships, singleton, xref, category/causal-relationships
aliases@horne_savage_1977, loc. 753

4 min read

Saharan oil gave France a vastly increased economic motive for retaining Algeria

Evidence

Already in 1945 French oil companies had begun prospecting in the Sahara, and shortly after the beginning of the Algerian war a major strike was made at Edjelé on the Libyan frontier. With the opening up of the Hassi-Messaoud field, French oilmen predicted euphorically that they had at their fingertips resources similar to those of the Middle East. From 5 million tons in the first year, 1958, it was reckoned production would reach 14 million in 1962, and that it would suffice to satisfy all France’s oil requirements by 1980. With the menace that Suez presented to Middle East oil supplies, here was a glowing prospect of securing the nation’s need for the future, as well as solving her acute balance of payments problem. Quite quietly, France now found herself with a new motive for winning the Algerian war that went far beyond any consideration for the one million pieds noirs. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 753 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Challe’s programme was to declare solemnly that the French army’s unshakable intention was to remain in Algeria, and then re-launch a new flat-out “Challe Offensive” against the A.L.N., mobilising eight classes of Algerians of both races for this purpose. In three months he would present France a pacified Algeria, sur le plateau. He hoped, in effect (comments Jacques Fauvet): “to finish what two regimes, four commanders-in-chief and seven governments were unable to finish in seven years”. During this period of three months, a breakaway Algeria could exist economically off the fat of its oil resources, an embargo being placed on their export to France. For the long-term political future of Algeria, Challe basically supported a return to the principles of Lacoste’s abandoned loi-cadre. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1349 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

  • XREF: connects to: Saharan oil discovery added an economic motive to France’s Algerian war — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 753; Saharan oil gave France a new economic motive to win the war; Challe planned a three-month military pacification and an oil-financed breakaway Algeria. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1349

Broader Connections

✉️

Backlinks