French Colonial Fascism ― The Extreme Right in Algeria, 1919-1939

Threatened by the increasing demographic growth of the Muslim population and the supposed weakness of the French imperial administration in the first part of the twentieth century, European settlers in Algeria increasingly turned to fascist organizations, attempting to seize power and institute an authoritarian regime. This study investigates the political culture of various metropolitan and colonial extreme-rightist leagues in Algeria, with particular attention to certain key themes, among them the rabid xenophobia directed at the Jewish population and local Muslims - derisively termed "indigenes" and perceived to be agents of anti-colonial and left-wing political movements. As author Samuel Kalman demonstrates, Algerian fascism facilitated the construction of a defined racial hierarchy in an attempt to preserve both European hegemony and the presence of a substantial pool of unskilled and underpaid labor.

Samuel Kalman is Associate Professor in the Department of History, St. Francis Xavier University, Canada. He is also the author of The Extreme Right in Interwar France (2008).