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Pied-noir is a term for the former French colonists of North Africa, especially Algeria. It is sometimes used to include the Algerian Jewish population as well. Literally Pied-noir means "black foot" in French. Supposedly, one way the colonists could be distinguished from the indigenous Algerians was by the black shoes the French wore. One of the most famous pied-noirs was Albert Camus. The Europeans had arrived as colonists from all over the Mediterranean (particularly France, Spain, and Malta), starting in 1830. The Jews had arrived in several waves, some coming in Roman times while most had arrived as refugees from the Spanish Inquisition, and had largely embraced French citizenship and identity after the decret Crémieux in 1871. Before 1962, both the Europeans and the Jews of Algeria were listed under the name Européens (Europeans) for statistical or official purposes. They considered themselves just French, or Algerian, or Africans, each of these identities intertwined in their mind. Their unofficial anthem was the Song of the Africans (La chanson des Africains).
In 1959, the pieds-noirs numbered 1,025,000, and accounted for 10.4% of the total population of Algeria, a percentage gradually diminishing since the peak of 15.2% in 1926. However, some areas of Algeria had high concentrations of pieds-noirs, such as the regions of Bône (now Annaba), Algiers, and above all the area from Oran to Sidi-Bel-Abbès. Oran had been under European rule since the 17th century, and the population in the Oran metropolitan area was 49.3% European and Jewish in 1959. In the Algiers metropolitan area, Europeans and Jews accounted for 35.7% of the population. In the metropolitan area of Bône they accounted for 40.5% of the population. The département of Oran, a rich European-developed agricultural land of 16,520 km² (6,378 sq. miles) stretching between the cities of Oran and Sidi-Bel-Abbès, and including them, was the largest area of pieds-noirs density outside of the cities, with the pieds-noirs accounting for 33.6% of the population of the département in 1959.
The pieds-noirs felt betrayed by the act of Charles de Gaulle sanctioning the independence of Algeria and fought a limited civil war. The terrorist organization OASOAS is an acronym with different meanings: Organization of American States Organisation de l'Armee Secrete Option Adjusted Spread TLAs. (Organisation de l'Armée Secrète) set up by a group of these who had served in the French army was active in the first half of the 1960sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s Years: 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around and is well known for its role in the plot of the fictional the Day of the JackalThe Day of the Jackal is a thriller novel by Frederick Forsyth about a professional assassin who, contracted by the Organisation de l'Armee Secrete, a French terrorist group of the early 1960's, attempts to kill Charles de Gaulle. The novel is widely rega.
1 Exodus
In just a few months in 1962, 900,000 of these Europeans and Jews left the country, the first prior to the referendum, in the most massive relocation of population in Europe since the Second World War. The motto among the European and Jewish community was "Suitcase or coffin" ("La valise ou le cercueil"). The French government had not planned that such a massive number would leave, at the most it estimated that maybe 200,000 or 300,000 may chose to go to metropolitan France temporarily. Consequently, nothing was planned for their return, and many had to sleep in streets or abandoned farms on their arrival in metropolitan France, where the vast majority had never set foot in their whole life.
Some departing pieds-noirs destroyed their possessions before departure, in a sign of despair, but the vast majority of their goods and houses were left intact and abandoned. Tragic scenes of thousands of panicked people camping for weeks on the docks of Algerian harbors waiting for a space on a boat to France were common from April to August 1962. Some people who were refused the right to take their cars on-board burned them on the spot in the docks. For most, departure was meant to be without an idea of return, and despair was general at leaving the land where they were born. By September 1962, cities like Oran, Bône, or Sidi-Bel-Abbès were left half empty. All administrations, police, schools, justice, commercial activities stopped in a matter of 3 months. About 100,000 pieds-noirs chose to remain, but they gradually left in the 1960s and 1970s, to the point that in the 1980s there remained only one or two thousand pied-noir in Algeria.
