Colonizing Revolutionary Politics
Algeria and the French Revolution of 1848
in French Politics, Culture & Society
Author:
Jennifer E. Sessions
Jennifer E. Sessions
University of Iowa jennifer-sessions@uiowa.edu
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This article examines the key role of the French colony in Algeria in the political culture of the Revolution of 1848. Eugène Cavaignac and other army officers with Algerian experience led the state's repression of radical unrest, and their colonial backgrounds became a central narrative trope in debates about political violence in France, especially after the June Days uprising. Following the closure of the National Workshops, legislators adopted a major scheme for working-class emigration to and settlement in Algeria to replace the workshops and resolve unrest. Throughout 1848, Algeria operated as a symbolic and practical field for the struggle between social and political revolution in France.