| Algeria is a country in northern Africa with a coast on the Mediterranean Sea along the north and bordered by Tunisia in the northeast, Libya in the east, Niger in the southeast, Mali and Mauritania in the southwest, and Morocco and Western Sahara in the west (the Moroccan border is closed [1] (http://www.sahara-overland.com/routes/)). The country is formally named the People’s
Democratic Republic of Algeria
الجمهورية
الجزائرية
الديمقراطية
الشعبية
Al-Jumhūrīyah al-Jazā’irīyah
ad-Dīmuqrāţīyah ash-Sha’bīyah
|
|
| National motto (translation):
The Revolution by the people and for the people |
 |
| Official language |
Arabic |
| Second language |
Berber, French unofficial but commonly used in administration |
Capital
- Population:
- Coordinates: |
Algiers مدينة
الجزائر
(El Djazaïr, Al-Jazàir)
1,507,241 (1987)
36°42′ N
3°13′ E (http://kvaleberg.com/extensions/mapsources/index.php?params=36_42_N_3_13_E_) |
| Head of State |
Abdelaziz Bouteflika,
President |
| Head of Government |
Ahmed Ouyahia, Prime Minister |
Area
- Total:
- % water: |
Ranked 11th
2,381,740 km²
Negligible |
Land borders
Coastline |
6,343 km
998 km |
Population
- Total:
- Density: |
Ranked 34th
32,818,500 (2002)
13.3/km² |
Independence
|
From France
July 5, 1962 |
| National Day |
1 November |
| Religions |
Sunni Islam (state religion) |
| Currency |
Algerian dinar (DA) = 100 centimes |
| Time zone |
CET (UTC+1) |
| National anthem |
Kassaman (Qassamman Bin Nazilat Il-Mahiqat)
(Arabic: We Swear
By The Lightning That Destroys) |
| Internet TLD |
.dz |
| Calling Code |
213 |
Origin and history of the name
The name Algeria is derived from the name of the city of Algiers, which itself is from the Arabic al-jazā’ir, which translates as the islands,
referring to the four islands which lay off the coast until becoming part of the mainland in 1525.
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 Khair ad-Din and his brother Aruj who made its coast a base for the corsairs; their
privateering peaked in Algiers in the 1600s, after which the center of
activity moved to Tripoli in Libya. Piracy on
American vessels in the Mediterranean resulted in the First and
Second Barbary War with the United States. 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 1900s when the last Tuareg were
conquered.
Meanwhile, however, the French had made Algeria an integral part of France, a status that would end only with the collapse of
the Fourth Republic. Tens of thousands of settlers from France,
Italy, Spain, and Malta moved across the Mediterranean to farm the Algerian coastal plain and occupy the most prized parts of
Algeria’s cities, benefiting from the French government's confiscation of communally held land. People of European descent
in Algeria (the so-called pieds-noirs), as well as the native Algerian
Jews, were full French citizens starting from the end of the 19th century; by contrast, the vast majority of Muslim Algerians
remained outside of French law, and possessed neither French citizenship nor the right to vote; though they could apply for full
citizenship starting from 1865, few chose to make this move. Algeria's social fabric was stretched to breaking point during this
period: literacy dropped massively, while land confiscation uprooted much of the population.
In 1954, the National Liberation Front (FLN) launched the guerrilla Algerian War of
Independence; after nearly a decade of urban and rural warfare, they succeeded in pushing the French out in 1962. Most of the 1,025,000 pieds-noirs, as well as 91,000 harkis (pro-French Muslim
Algerians serving in the French Army), together forming about 10% of the population of Algeria in 1962, fled Algeria for France
in just a few months in the middle of that year.
Algeria's first president, the FLN leader Ahmed Ben Bella, was
overthrown by his former ally and defense minister, Houari
Boumédiènne 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 protracted and violent 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.
Algeria has been a political maverick in the Maghreb, making it difficult to
create the Moroccan Maghreb Arab Union, proposed in 1989. Throughout the 1960's, Algeria supported many independence
movements in sub-Saharan Africa, and was a leader in the Non-Aligned Movement. Tensions over Western
Sahara (Algeria supporting the right to self-determination of the Saharawis)
have caused tension with Morocco.
Administrative Divisions
Main article: Provinces of Algeria
Algeria is divided into 48 wilayas (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 an increase 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 live in the northern, coastal area, although there are about 1.5 million people living in the
southern desert most of them in oases. The mixed Berber and Arab population is mostly Islamic (99%); other religions are restricted to extremely small groups, mainly of foreigners.
Language
Main article: Languages of Algeria
The official language is Arabic, spoken natively in dialectal form ("Darja") by some 80% of the population; the other 20% or
so speak Berber, officially a national language. French is widely known
from schools, but is very rare as a native language.
Culture
Main article: Culture of Algeria
See also: Music of Algeria, List of Algerian
writers, Islam in Algeria.
Miscellaneous topics
External links
Official government websites
- El Mouradia (http://www.el-mouradia.dz) - Official presidential site (in French and Arabic)
- National People's Assembly (http://www.apn-dz.org/apn/english/index.htm) - Official parliamentary site
|
