How Did The France Respond To The Grain Crisis?

Algeria is located in Northern Africa along the Mediterranean coast between Morocco and Tunisia. Algeria has many resources such as oil and has easily-defended harbors which is why many countries such as France wanted to colonize this nation. The French began to colonize Algeria and french colonists poured into Algeria increasing the tension between French rule and the Algerian natives who lived there. As tensions arose, the economy hit a downfall which infuriated the natives, who were used to having a strong economy. This led to the increasing resistance to French rule. The Algerian agricultural crisis and the nation’s rigid class system triggered the formation of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN), which sought to become independent

One of the issues was, “At the same time, the index of of industrial prices was rising far more rapidly than that of the agricultural products, which was the heart of the Algerian economy” (Ruedy 115). Prices went up because there was less grains produced, due to the drought, many lower class people could not afford the grain casing their class to suffer starvation. There was also a flu epidemic and the death rates flew straight up causing the demand for grain to be higher due to the all the sick and starving people. Also, the harvest during this time period were the worst ever recorded in history. Another factor with the Grain crisis was the amount of grain production fluctuated providing some years with too much grain or too little, “It is worth noting that the native component of hard-wheat production, for instance, which fluctuated between four and six million quintals before the war, now ranged between two and five million quintals”(Ruedy 115). There was either too much grain or too little, meaning that the grain was not consistent. This made the population angry because if grain was not consistent then the people would not be able to depend on grain anymore. The population was also growing at a steady rate at 1.6 percent and 2.2 percent annually, while grain and other foods were going down (Ruedy 115). Because the population was growing at a steady rate each year, the food

Its goal was to terminate French control in Algeria and drive out or eliminate the colon population” (Watson). Before, the nationalist groups were disorganized because they were all separate due to social classes. For example, Muslims and Non Muslims were separate and the higher and lower classes were like that as well. The different classes did not want to work with each other but since the people of Algeria all wanted independence from France, this united Algeria as a whole. Also, by dividing Algeria into different districts they could “divide and conquer” because each group knew their own geography and knew the advantages and disadvantages when in combat. After 8 years of bloody battles the FLN finally achieved independence, “The war cost 18,000 French military deaths, 3,000 colon deaths, and about 300,000 Muslim deaths. Some 30,000 colons remained behind, including the socialist mayor of Algiers, Jacques Chevallier. They were granted equal rights in the treaty, but instead they faced the loss of much of their property and official discrimination by the FLN government. The FLN remained in power until 1989, practicing a form of socialism until changes in Soviet foreign policy necessitated changes in Algerian internal