AHC: Industrialise the Maghreb in the 19th Century

Basically, what it says on the tin. I want the Maghreb states to keep up their economic development to the point where they won't become colonised and will instead become entangled in the European alliance structure. I'm guessing this is an industrialisation level similar to France/Spain rather than Germany/Belgium.
 
2 ideas

If France repays its debts to Algiers instead of conquering it?

Maybe if the Ottomans fall, and the Barbary states have to go it alone they will open up more to the rest of Europe?

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Not knowing anything geologically about the region did they have the natural resources locally to industrialise? If they don't have things like coal locally but have to import it I could see that really putting a crimp in things. Or when you say industrialise could we get away with lower levels of development similar to the Scandinavian countries or Italy as opposed to the bigger countries such as the UK or Germany?
 
Not knowing anything geologically about the region did they have the natural resources locally to industrialise? If they don't have things like coal locally but have to import it I could see that really putting a crimp in things. Or when you say industrialise could we get away with lower levels of development similar to the Scandinavian countries or Italy as opposed to the bigger countries such as the UK or Germany?

Algeria has coal and iron ore. The French built factories at Colomb-Bechar. Significant deposits in other parts of the Maghreb seem to be less promising, stuff like salt, phosphates, and tin. Of course there is oil in huge quantities. Maybe they could use it as a second-best option, the way steam engines in the Western USA often ran on wood for a long time. Assuming they know of its existence IATL.

Either way, I'm pretty sure only a lower level of industrialisation, similar to the European periphery, is realistic without a very early and very disruptive POD.
 
More like Italian levels.

I'm going to say Algeria actually has the best bet. Avoiding the diplomatic clusterfuck that led to the French Invasion would be relatively simple (e.g. Hussein Dey keeps his mouth shut, Pierre Deval isn't such a hard-ass, or someone other than Deval is Consul in Algiers, or even change France's internal politics so that Charles X doesn't need the war to distract his opponents. Algeria was actually doing quite well for itself prior to the invasion. She was exporting food across the Mediterranean throughout the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods and taking in skilled workers and craftsman who started building up a budding industrial sector. The Bourbon Restoration limited trade though, and so in 1827 Hussein Dey demanded that France pay off her 31-year-old-debt, contracted to feed France's soldiers the latter Revolutionary Era, bought largely on credit. Deval refused, and in an outburst of anger Dey touched the consul with his fan, giving the pretext for war; though even then it could have been avoided. Two years later when France sent an ambassador to conduct negotiations on the subject the Algerians fired on the French ships, and the rest is history.

If either Dey or Deval weren't as stubborn as they were, the Algerians merely would have needed to wait. Charles X's regime only had a few years left, and Louis Philippe I would have likely turned the issue over to the British for arbitration - who likely would have ruled in Algiers' favor. The infusion of cash would have gone a long way, and the diplomatic fallout would have established Algeria as a respectable Mediterranean power; at least an equal with the minor European powers. This would allow a smart Dey to levy some important trade links, perhaps some loans were needed, and to construct railways and mines along the coasts and into the interior, at least starting the country off on the process of industrialization. The incoming population boom and potential immigrants from elsewhere (I'm looking at you Italy) would certainly help as well.
 
It would be hard to industrialise North Africa then as the area was lacking in coal or failing that rivers and forests to provide motive power for industrialisation.

The coal deposits existing in Algeria and Morocco are frankly puny compared to most of what Europe had at her disposal. The mining output never exceeded 200 000 tons a year and that was with 20th century machinery and engineering.
 
It would be hard to industrialise North Africa then as the area was lacking in coal or failing that rivers and forests to provide motive power for industrialisation.

The coal deposits existing in Algeria and Morocco are frankly puny compared to most of what Europe had at her disposal. The mining output never exceeded 200 000 tons a year and that was with 20th century machinery and engineering.

What was the mining output in Spain or Italy? Can early oil production make up the gap?
 
What was the mining output in Spain or Italy? Can early oil production make up the gap?

Italy had very little coal, but definitely more than the Magreb. The rivers of northern Italy were also handy in helping out industrialisation.

Spain had and still has significant coal deposits in the Asturias.

I would also like to add that industrialisation would require good governance in the area, something which was lacking and would be very hard to change. The agricultural potential of Algeria is significant, but thousands of lives were spent clearing the Mitidja swamps OTL before the area was suitable for commercial agriculture.
 
I would also like to add that industrialisation would require good governance in the area, something which was lacking and would be very hard to change. The agricultural potential of Algeria is significant, but thousands of lives were spent clearing the Mitidja swamps OTL before the area was suitable for commercial agriculture.

The governance can't be as bad as that of the Bourbons or the Popes can it?
 
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