(Historical) evidence of the plundering of Baghdad museums by the US soldiery (and, incidentally, of why the Yanks hate the French so much <g>)
Algiers 1830 - Baghdad 2003
Excerpted and translated from the quarterly Les Collections de l'Histoire, H.S. #11 (April 2001), The Fall of Algiers (page 14).
The Casbah falls into French hands
In the meantime, the dey could regroup his troops and launch several assaults upon Sidi-Khalef on 24 June [1830], upon the Chapelle et Fontaine plateau from 26 June until 28 June. Those assaults were repelled at the cost of heavy losses. Eventually, on 29 June, the French resumed their march on Algiers.
The last obstacle was a citadel, the Emperor's Castle, about 1,200 yards away from the Casbah, held by a garrison made up of two thousands Turks and Arabs. On 4 July, after a five-hour-long pounding of the citadel, [commander] Bourmont ordered the onslaught. Up the wall, the Turks chose to blow up the fort themselves --their main defense was then taken out. Algiers could no longer hold out.
Panic-stricken on hearing the fall of the citadel, a good part of Algiers' inhabitants ran away. However, on 5 July 1830, Bourmont forwarded the following understanding to the dey:
"The Casbah's fort, as well as all the other forts belonging to Algiers, and the harbor, will be bequeathed to the French army on 5 July at ten o'clock (French time).
"The General-in-Chief of the French army pledges that His Highness the dey of Algiers will retain all his personal belongings.
"The dey will be free to retire with his kin and belongings to the place of his choice; and, so long as he stays in Algiers, he'll be, together with his kin, under the General-in-Chief's protection: an escort will provide security to him and his kin.
"The General-in-Chief pledges the same benefits and protection to all [Algiers'] militiamen. Freedom to practice the Muslim religion will be maintained. People's liberties, whatever their rank, persuasion, property, trade or business shall not be impaired; women shall be respected; the General-in-Chief is therein bound in honour.
"This understanding shall be settled before ten o'clock; thereupon French troops will invest the Casbah and, successively, all the town's and seaside forts."
His entourage notwithstanding, the dey let Bourmont know that he agreed upon the understanding and merely delayed his surrender by two hours. Whence the French army entered Algiers at noon.
The Parisian press denounced the sack of Algiers by the squaddies. Whether they took part in it or not, those who witnessed the occupation of Algiers used to play it down. So did D'Ault-Dumesnil (*) who quoted chief intendant Dennicé: "Never in all our campaigns was a town occupied with so much care. Not one officer, not one soldier trespassed on the dwelling of a Moor, a Turk, or a Jew; moreover, the town of Algiers was spared the accommodation of the army."
However, he added that, "we don't claim that general officers' personnel and others didn't commit any shameful theft. We are aware of several disorders; we also know that ostriches were plucked...." (*)
Carpets, jewels and rosewood chests
A witness confesses: "The headquarters, the staff and the intendancy were accommodated in the Casbah. Inside that palace, only the seraglio was remarkable. Along endless galleries propped up by marble pillars and adorned with arabesques, lay a motley of carpets, silks, embroidered dresses, gauzy veils, a few shoddy trinkets, and rosewood chests skillfully wrought and stowed with fragrances.
"Those artifacts were lost property: their price tag depended solely upon their origin. Officers of all stripes deemed it not disgraceful to endow their families, sisters, and wives with a souvenir from Algiers...."
Yet those fanciful souvenirs startled French customs officers who were ordered to search their fellow servicemen on their arrival from Algiers!
Of Algiers' riches --estimated at one hundred million francs ($20 mil.), made up of gold and silver bullion for the most part, only less than half fell into the Treasury's coffers. According to Mr Pietri, Napoleon III's police commissioner, a good deal of the remainder ended up in Louis-Philippe's privy purse. Indeed a royal if unwitting gift from Charles X who therewith relinquished his throne altogether.
In the main, the fall of Algiers didn't weigh with the drama that was being played in Paris for, by then, the Restoration was tottering.
Louis-Philippe's new regime, ushered in in 1830, replaced Bourmont with Clauzel but didn't settle the Algerian conquest. Marshal Bugeaud, appointed commander of the garrison in Oran in 1836 and, later, governor-general of Algeria until 1846, was to write to a friend of his: "The Restoration boasts that it graced us with Algeria though it merely gave us Algiers --a poison gift, to be sure. I am afraid Algeria will be to the July monarchy what Spain had been to the Empire. [Since France is but] a country stirred by petty and miserly grocers that revels in bragging and leers at grand designs all the same, we'll never pull it off in Africa."
In hindsight, it was a shrewd guess....
As for the vanquished, after the dey fled into exile in Naples [Italy], the Algerian resistance began. As soon as 23 July 1830, the chieftains of Algeria's tribes convened in the Tementfous bordj (fort) and denounced their surrender. The bondage of Algeria had barely started.
Death is much better than shame.
If the mother town is raped,
What is left to you, O Muslims?" (**)
As the poet sang, the Algerian resistance set out on its long, forlorn way.
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(*) E. D'Ault-Dumesnil, De l'expédition d'Afrique en 1830, Paris 1832.
(**) Général Daumas, Moeurs et coutumes de l'Algérie, Paris 1923. |
