• DOI:10.1086/694427
• Corpus ID: 148602270

The Impossible Republic: The Reconquest of Algeria and the Decolonization of France, 1945–1962*

@article{Mcdougall2017TheIR,
  title={The Impossible Republic: The Reconquest of Algeria and the Decolonization of France, 1945–1962*},
  author={James Mcdougall},
  journal={The Journal of Modern History},
  year={2017},
  volume={89},
  pages={772 - 811}
}

• J. Mcdougall
• Published 28 November 2017
• History
• The Journal of Modern History

In December 1960, Le Progres, a regional newspaper published in southeastern France, carried a story about the ceremonial inauguration of a “new village” in the region of Oran in northwestern Algeria. Previously referred to as “El Ouennane number 3”, the settlement was now named the “village de l’Ain”, after the rural departement of metropolitan France, located between Lyon and the Swiss border, that had substantially financed its construction by public subscription. According to the report, twenty-two million old francs – or 220,000 new francs, since the currency reform of January 1960—had been raised by contributors to pay for new two-and three-room houses in which five hundred Algerians were to be resettled. In officially opening the village, Jean SaintCyr, the President of the Conseil-general of the donor departement and head of the twinning committee responsible for the newly-affirmed links between the foothills of the Jura and the western Algerian plains country, addressed Jean Morin, the Republic’s Delegue general (the new title for the head of the colonial government in Algeria) on behalf of his metropolitan constituents: “We follow every day with intense interest the unfolding of the events that have marked the course of the Algerian drama. We know that history provides few examples of missions as difficult as that entrusted to General De Gaulle. We should be very happy if, tomorrow, it should prove that the departement of the Ain has been able to bring its own small contribution to the generous and humane 2 work to which, monsieur le Delegue general, you have so fortunately devoted yourself, in the service of France and Algeria.” Replying, Morin declared that the day’s event marked “a victory of solidarity and fraternity for those who live on either side of the Mediterranean. […] Here, in this part of Algeria, we have thought for man and with him; in building this village, you have desired to show how firmly, in the metropole, we believe in the indissolubility of the ties that join us with Algeria.”