Ricardolindo
Well-known member
- Location
- Portugal
Thanks for the reply. Very interesting.As @SpanishSpy very well pointed out, you really have a diversity of origin in what makes or is perceived to make a Pied-Noir community out of the whole spectrum of Europeans from French Algeria, especially as the Pied-Noir category is not synonymous with Europeans of French Algeria (Français d'Algérie, Spaniards, Catalans, Italians, etc.) but, even while the name itself is from the early-to-mid XXth century, essentially a re-creation from the forced migration to France (and thus rarely includes the lot of Europeans that migrated to Spain or Portugal) ending up as virtually identical to the legal category of rapatriés at the general exception of harkis (Muslims refugees) and the partial exception of Jews.
Back in French Algeria, all of the components of the Pied-Noir identities would have likely been toughs as distinct and set in a broad colonial cultural hierarchy (the familial memory accounts for my grand-mother having not problem having his son using some Arab words but threatening him with cleaning his mouth with soap when it came to Spanish words) even while, of course, distinction between Europeans from one hand, Muslims from another and Jews in the middle remained primordial.
In order to give some idea, a name a French citizen in Algeria would have used to define himself relatively to both Muslims and other Europeans and from mainland France would have been Algérien (comparatively to Espagnols, Juifs, Arabes or Indigènes).
Now, a distinct French/Algérien identity amongst Europeans didn't meant that Spaniards (in the West) or Italians (in the East) weren't Frenchified or Algérianized, in the sense of forming a part of a colonial French social and political culture and in constant relations with other Europeans; but they also kept a strong distinct identity notably trough language and "nationalized" neighbourhoods without that much mixing up to 1962.
It's even more obvious with Jews, even as naturalisés themselves, definitely seen as non-French and non-Europeans, often victims of antisemit attacks from Europeans as "fraudulent" citizens, parasites, and the whole of charming bigotry that existed in Europe exacerbated by the context of a colonial hierarchy (the withdrawal of the Crémieux decree was even justified as "not being fair to Muslims"); while being seen as colonial accomplices and parasites by the Muslims. Even after 1962, Algerian Jews aren't fully counted among Pied-Noirs, first because of this distinct colonial (but also pre-colonial) history but also trough their own identitary re-construction : "Jews AND Pied-Noirs" is an actual take but alongside (IMHO more common) "Jews TOGETHER with Pied-Noirs" and "Jews from Algeria/Sefardin AND NOT Pied-Noir". For instance,GargamelEric Zemmour, while pandering to a victimizing Pied-Noir narrative and being from a Algerian Jewish family, never speak of himself as Pied-Noir or having Pied-Noir origin whereas another Jew born in Algeria would endorse it would it be to oppose the same narrative.
Leaving aside the complex definition of Pied Noirs, with regards to the origins of the non-Muslim population of Algeria in general, I found this old comment at alternatehistory.com: https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...t-of-algeria-being-french.322770/post-9450591 providing a breakup:
"40% Spanish (Alicante, Murcia, Valencia and Menorca)
25% mainland France (mostly Languedoc and Provence and to a lesser extent Paris)
20% Italian (mostly Naples and Sicliy), Corsican and Maltese
12% Naturalised Jews (Granted in 1870 by the Crémieux Decree)
3% German (German, Swiss, Alsatian)"
Thus, Spaniards made up a plurality of the European population of Algeria and Spaniards and Algerian Jews combined did make up a slight majority of the non-Muslim population of Algeria (52%).