WI: Algeria partition w/France

[StrangeMedicine]

What if, instead of relinquishing all of Algeria, France kept the 3 coastal provinces that were integrated into Metropolitan France, and granted the rest of the colony independence? Would this have led to a population exchange, akin to Greece and Turkey? Would either side actually accept it, or would both be unsatisfied and it would become another Israel-Palestine?

 

[Palantir]

Because those 3 départements represented 99% of the Algerian population.
The rest was the Sahara desert. It had oil ( and other ressources) but not the water or the arable land (or any infrastructure) to support that level of population. You just end up with 5 to 10 milions Algerian dead, and France as a pariah.

 

[Deleted member 109224]

Algeria could be partitioned, but those proposed boundaries wouldn't work well.

The French themselves seem to have examined a few partition propositions.

France might also ceded Tindouf and Bechar to Morocco, which claimed them.

 

[StrangeMedicine]

Because those 3 départements represented 99% of the Algerian population.
The rest was the Sahara desert. It had oil ( and other ressources) but not the water or the arable land (or any infrastructure) to support that level of population. You just end up with 5 to 10 milions Algerian dead, and France as a pariah.

Closer to 90%, if Wikipedia is to be believed.

 

[Lee-Sensei]

What if, instead of relinquishing all of Algeria, France kept the 3 coastal provinces that were integrated into Metropolitan France, and granted the rest of the colony independence? Would this have led to a population exchange, akin to Greece and Turkey? Would either side actually accept it, or would both be unsatisfied and it would become another Israel-Palestine?

The problem is that the bulk of the population is on the coast.

 

[Deleted member 109224]

Non-Muslim portion of the population by department in 1954.
White: less than 2% non-Muslim; light blue: 2-5%; mid-blue: 5-10%; dark blue: 10-30%; black: greater than 30% non-Muslim population

I found this map online too by somebody on deviant art.