Rob, Eric and Rudy continue their discussion of the Algerian revolution from the fall of Ben Bella to the end of the Black Decade (known in the West as the Algerian Civil War). We discuss the starting point of Boumedienne’s government, the agrarian reform and the developmentalist program undertaken in industry, as well as the internal divisions of the FLN during this period which led to widespread sabotage of this developmentalist program. We then talk about Boumedienne’s death, and the change in the direction of the country taken by his successor Benjadid, and how political liberalization was attempted to counteract decaying life quality. We discuss the underlying events and rifts that led to the start of the Civil War, as well as discuss why scholars question that it was a Civil War at all. We end by shortly discussing the character of the Algerian Government that came out of the Civil War.
References:
M. Bennoune – The Making of Contemporary Algeria, 1830-1987
J. Mcdougall – A History of Algeria
K. Pfeifer – Agrarian Reform Under State Capitalism in Algeria
H. Roberts – The Battlefield: Algeria 1988-2002, Studies in a Broken Polity
E. Wolf – Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century
