The military and colonial destruction of the Roman landscape of North Africa, 1830-1900 / / by Michael Greenhalgh.

• Superior document: History of Warfare, Volume 98
• VerfasserIn: Greenhalgh, Michael,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, Netherlands : : Brill,, 2014.; ©2014
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Language: English
• Series: History of warfare ; Volume 98.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (1039 pages) :; illustrations (some color), maps.

The French invaded Algeria in 1830, and found a landscape rich in Roman remains, which they proceeded to re-use to support the constructions such as fortresses, barracks and hospitals needed to fight the natives (who continued to object to their presence), and to house the various colonisation projects with which they intended to solidify their hold on the country, and to make it both modern and profitable. Arabs and Berbers had occasionally made use of the ruins, but it was still a Roman and Early Christian landscape when the French arrived. In the space of two generations, this was destroyed, just as were many ancient remains in France, in part because “real” architecture was Greek, not Roman.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Setting the Scene: Algeria in Context -- 1 The French Conquest -- 2 The Army Establishes Itself, Colonisation Begins -- 3 1830–40: The Destruction of Algiers, Constantine and other Early Settlements -- 4 Ruins, Roads and Railways -- 5 Epigraphy, Topography and Mapping -- 6 The Army Rebuilds Tebessa (First visited 1842) -- 7 Building European Towns from the 1840s -- 8 Planting Colonies -- 9 Algeria and Tunisia on Display -- Conclusion: “Là où nous passons, tout tombe” -- Appendix: A Timeline and Some Statistics -- Bibliography -- Index.