How viable would Pied Noir lead Algeria

Say the Pied Noir declare an independent Algeria with the backing of France

Would a Pied Noir dominated Algeria without troops from mainland France be viable
 
Say the Pied Noir declare an independent Algeria with the backing of France

Would a Pied Noir dominated Algeria without troops from mainland France be viable

There are less than 2 million French Algerians. There are more than 40 million Algerians the pied noirs are out numbered twenty to one, no way there maintaining a hold on the country without the French army.
 

jocay

Banned
The problem is that unlike with South Africa's white population, the pied noir population seems to have been concentrated along the coast. I don't see any pied noir government being able to hold control outside the littoral regions without foreign assistance or with (god forbid) the threat of nuclear arms. And somehow I don't see the pied noirs being pragmatic enough to offer anything resembling equal rights to the somewhat pro-French harkis. An independent pied noir-ruled Algeria would be a short-lived situation that will end much more violently for both pied noir and native Algerian than IOTL.

I wouldn't put it beyond the United States and its allies to offer help to apartheid Algeria as this is the Cold War and to keep the Soviet Union away.
 
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Perhaps if cooler heads prevailed when the Algerian rebellion broke out (I know a real long shot) a deal could have been struck preserving one of the littoral departments (maybe Oran?) as an integral department within the French republic, with the pieds noirs from the other departments migrating there rather than fleeing back to France as in OTL.
 
Would the operative comparison in this scenario not be apartheid South Africa, but Rhodesia? Of course, even that does not exactly work - after all, the OP stipulates that France recognizes this Pied-Noir-dominated government, whereas Rhodesia’s independence was not recognized by the United Kingdom.
 
Say the Pied Noir declare an independent Algeria with the backing of France

Would a Pied Noir dominated Algeria without troops from mainland France be viable
While it certianly wouldn't be viable in the long term it could drag out the Algerian War long enough for a Rhodesia-esque compromise peace where the new majority government promises to respect the settler's property rights and at least initially reserving some representation in the government for the Pied Noirs (and in the Algerian context, presumably also getting French as an official language and not enshrining Islam in its constitution). An Algeria which retains a white (and Catholic) population of at least a few hundred thousand is an interesting premise in an of itself.
 
Perhaps if cooler heads prevailed when the Algerian rebellion broke out (I know a real long shot) a deal could have been struck preserving one of the littoral departments (maybe Oran?) as an integral department within the French republic, with the pieds noirs from the other departments migrating there rather than fleeing back to France as in OTL.
I doubt it, since what are all those surplus pied noirs supposed to do in Oran (it's not like they're going to displace the natives as poor agricultural workers, after all)? Bum off government dole?
 
It's not really feasible to have such a minority govern a much larger population. Even if short-term dominion could be kept, it would require levels of atrocity intolerable by the international community (including France itself) especially considering WW2 would be fresh in memory.

So either the Europeans are leaving like in OTL, or someone is getting assimilated. I highly doubt the French are going to subject themselves to an Islamic culture, and it would be difficult to Frenchify the locals without coming off as un-Islamic. The best bet is to un-Arabize the native Berbers, let those who re-adopt Berber identity have the same status as Europeans, and cross your fingers that secularism and irreligion follows naturally from better education and socio-economic life.
 
I doubt it, since what are all those surplus pied noirs supposed to do in Oran (it's not like they're going to displace the natives as poor agricultural workers, after all)? Bum off government dole?
You have good lands, you can have an industry similar to Southern Italy. A lot of the agricultural workers could be Spanish or Italians
 
it would be difficult to Frenchify the locals without coming off as un-Islamic.

Yeah, OTL, stuff like this was cringeworthy enough.

Probably the equivalent of putting up a poster in a western country today saying "Nice tits, baby! Take off your shirt!", and then wondering why you're not winning hearts and minds.
 
There are less than 2 million French Algerians. There are more than 40 million Algerians the pied noirs are out numbered twenty to one, no way there maintaining a hold on the country without the French army.

The population of Algeria in 1960 was ~11 Million, meaning that those two million pied-noirs are 18% of the population. To put that into perspective, the highest the White population in South African ever got was 22%.
 
The population of Algeria in 1960 was ~11 Million, meaning that those two million pied-noirs are 18% of the population. To put that into perspective, the highest the White population in South African ever got was 22%.

I think the 2 million was an extrapolation to today, like the 40 million Algerians. As far as I know, in 1960 the European population of Algeria was around 10%.
 
I think the 2 million was an extrapolation to today, like the 40 million Algerians. As far as I know, in 1960 the European population of Algeria was around 10%.

Ah, thought he meant in the 1960s. At the least, though, that means such a state would be viable until today. Throw in the Harkis and their families and it becomes more so.
 

Zwinglian

Banned
Algerian Jews would be loyal to a Pied Noir government. They strongly sided with the French government and later the OAS
 
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