Essential Information & explanations, latest texts & monographs on Algeria.

The Stranger by ALBERT CAMUS

The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon

The Confessions by St. Augustine

Saint Augustine (Penguin Lives) by Garry Wills

The Battle of the Casbah: Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in Algeria 1955-1957 by Paul Aussaressess

Stranger by ALBERT CAMUS

The Confessions of Saint Augustine by Augustine

A Passion for the Impossible: The Life of Lilias Trotter by Miriam Huffman Rockness

The Battlefield: Algeria 1988-2002, Studies in a Broken Polity by Hugh Roberts

Saint Augustine's Sin (Augustine, Confessiones. Bk. 3.) by Augustine

How Democracies Lose Small Wars : State, Society, and the Failures of France in Algeria, Israel in Lebanon, and the United States in Vietnam by Gil Merom

The Monks of Tibhirine : Faith, Love, and Terror in Algeria by John Kiser

The Confessions of St. Augustine: Modern English Version (Paraclete Living Library) by St. Augustine

Algeria, 1830-2000: A Short History (Cornell Classics in Philosophy) by Benjamin Stora

Confessions: Books I-Xiii by Augustine

Algeria

The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria is a country in northern Africa bordering the Mediterranean Sea in the north, Tunisia in the northeast, Libya in the east, Niger in the southeast, Mali and Mauritania in the southwest, and Morocco in the west (the Moroccan border is closed [1]). Al Jumhūrīyah al Jazā'irīyah ad Dīmuqrāţīyah ash Sha'bīyahالجمهوريّة الجزائرية (In Detail) (Full size) National motto: None Official language Arabic Capital Algiers President Abdelaziz Bouteflika Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia Area - Total - % waterRanked 11th 2,381,740 km² Negligible Population - Total (2002) - Density Ranked 34th 32,818,500 13.3/km² Independence - Date From France July 5, 1962 Currency Algerian dinar Time zone UTC +1 National anthem Kassaman Internet TLD .DZ Calling Code213 Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide") 1 History 2 Politics 3 Provinces 4 Geography 5 Economy 6 Demographics 7 Culture 8 Miscellaneous topics 9 External links History Main article: History of Algeria The native Berber population of Algeria has been under the rule of foreign occupants for much of the last 3000 years. The Phoenicians (1000 BC) and the Roman Republic (200 BC) were the most important of these, until the coming of the Arabs in the 8th century. However, the flow of conquests was not all one-way; in medieval times the Berber Fatimid dynasty, originating in Algeria, took over Egypt, although it soon afterwards abandoned North Africa. Algeria was brought into the Ottoman Empire by the "Barbarossa" brothers Aruj and Khair-ed-dine, who made its coast a base for the corsairs; their privateering peaked in Algiers in the 1600's, after which the center of activity moved to Tripoli in Libya. On the pretext of a slight to their consul, the French invaded Algiers in 1830; however, intense resistance from such personalities as Emir Abdelkader made for a slow conquest of Algeria, not technically completed until the early 1900's when the last Tuareg were conquered. Measnwhile, however, the French invaders had made Algeria into an integral part of metropolitan France, and more than a million French settlers moved across the Mediterranean to farm the Algerian coastal plain and occupy the most prized parts of Algeria's cities. People of French descent in Algeria were treated as French citizens like any other, with representation in Parliament, while native Arabs and Berbers were subjected to an intense apartheid-like system. In 1954, the National Liberation Front(FLN) launched a guerrilla war to make Algeria independent; after nearly a decade of urban and rural warfare, they succeeded in pushing the French out in 1962. Algeria's first president, the FLN leader Ahmed Ben Bella, was overthrown by his former ally and defense minister, Houari Boumedienne in 1965. The country then enjoyed almost 25 years of relative stability under the one-party socialism of Boumedienne and his successors. In the 1990s, Algeria was engulfed in a bloody civil war after the military prevented an Islamist political party, the Islamic Salvation Front from taking power following the country's first multiparty elections. More than 100,000 people were killed, often in unprovoked massacres of civilians, by guerrilla groups such as the Armed Islamic Group. Politics Main article: Politics of Algeria The head of state is the President of the republic, who is elected to a 5-year term, renewable once. Algeria has universal suffrage. The President is the head of the Council of Ministers and of the High Security Council. He appoints the Prime Minister who also is the head of government. The Prime Minister appoints the Council of Ministers. The Algerian parliament is bicameral, consisting of a lower chamber, the National People's Assembly (APN), with 380 members and an upper chamber, the Council of Nation, with 144 members. The APN is elected every 5 years. Provinces Main article: Provinces of Algeria Algeria is divided into 48 wilayas, or provinces:

Geography Main article: Geography of Algeria Most of the coastal area is hilly, sometimes even mountainous, and there are few good harbours. The area just south of the coast, known as the Tell, is fertile. Further south is the Atlas mountain range and the Sahara desert. Algiers, Oran and Constantine are the main cities. Algeria's climate is arid and hot, although the coastal climate is mild, and the winters in the mountainous areas can be severe. Algeria is prone to sirocco, a hot dust- and sand-laden wind especially common in summer. Economy Main article: Economy of Algeria The hydrocarbons sector is the backbone of the economy, accounting for roughly 60% of budget revenues, 30% of GDP, and over 95% of export earnings. Algeria has the fifth-largest reserves of natural gas in the world and is the second largest gas exporter; it ranks 14th in oil reserves. Algeria has massive foreign debts. Algeria's financial and economic indicators improved during the mid-1990s, in part because of policy reforms supported by the IMF and debt rescheduling from the Paris Club. Algeria's finances in 2000 and 2001 benefited from the temporary spike in oil prices and the government's tight fiscal policy, leading to a large increase in the trade surplus, record highs in foreign exchange reserves, and reduction in foreign debt. The government's continued efforts to diversify the economy by attracting foreign and domestic investment outside the energy sector has had little success in reducing high unemployment and improving living standards. In 2001, the government signed an Association Treaty with the European Union that will eventually lower tariffs and increase trade. Demographics Main article: Demographics of Algeria About 90% of the Algerians lives in the northern, coastal area, although there are about 1.5 million Bedouin living in the southern desert. The mixed Berber and Arab population is mostly Islamic (99%); other religions are restricted to extremely small groups, mainly of foreigners. The official language is Arabic, spoken natively in dialectal form ("Darja") by some 80% of the population; the other 20% or so speak Berber languages such as Kabyle and Chaouia, Tamahaq, (apart from one oasis, Tabelbala, where a dialect of Songhay is spoken.) French is widely known from schools, but is very rare as a native language. Culture Main article: Culture of Algeria Rai, a locally developed pop music form, has great popularity in Algeria, and enjoys some popularity abroad as well, notably in France, where a large number of Algerians live. More traditional forms include Chaabi music, folk music, and Andalusi music, the "classical" music of Algeria, descended from the courtly tradition of Moorish Spain. See also: Music of Algeria, List of Algerian writers Miscellaneous topics

External links

El Mouradia - Official presidential site (in French and Arabic)
National People's Assembly - Official parliamentary site
Library of Congress Portals to the World - Algeria
CIA - The World Factbook -- Algeria - CIA's Factbook on Algeria

The above article is adapted from from Wikipedia All Wikipedia article text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

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