Modern Revolutions in Comparative Perspective Jan Plamper

Anticolonial Revolutions Colonialism Case Study: Algerian Revolution, 1954-62 Film The Battle of Algiers (1966) Post-Postcolonial Situation

(1) British Colonies, 17th-20th Centuries Republic of China, 1912-49 People’s Republic of China, 1949-present Conclusion

(1) British Colonies, 17th-20th Centuries http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:British_Empire_evolution3.gif

(1) French Colonies, 17th-20th Centuries

(1) Africa 1: Independence South Africa, Republic of 31 May 1910 Britain Egypt, Arab Republic of 28 February 1922 Britain Ethiopia 1, People's Democratic Republic of 5 May 1941 Italy Libya (Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) 24 December 1951 Britain Sudan, Democratic Republic of 1 January 1956 Britain/Egypt Morocco 2, Kingdom of 2 March 1956 France 2 Tunisia, Republic of 20 March 1956 France Ghana, Republic of 6 March 1957 Britain Guinea, Republic of 2 October 1958 France Cameroon 3, Republic of 1 January 1960 France Senegal, Republic of 4 April 1960 France Togo, Republic of 27 April 1960 France Mali, Republic of 22 September 1960 France Madagascar, Democratic Republic of 26 June 1960 France Congo (Kinshasa), Democratic Republic of the 30 June 1960 Belgium Somalia, Democratic Republic of 1 July 1960 Britain Benin, Republic of 1 August 1960 France Niger, Republic of 3 August 1960 France Burkina Faso, Popular Democratic Republic of 5 August 1960 France

(1) Africa 2: Independence Côte d'Ivoire, Republic of (Ivory Coast) 7 August 1960 France Chad, Republic of 11 August 1960 France Central African Republic 13 August 1960 France Congo (Brazzaville), Republic of the 15 August 1960 France Gabon, Republic of 17 August 1960 France Nigeria 4, Federal Republic of 1 October 1960 Britain Mauritania, Islamic Republic of 28 November 1960 France Sierra Leone, Republic of 27 April 1961 Britain Tanzania, United Republic of 9 December 1961 Britain Burundi, Republic of 1 July 1962 Belgium Rwanda, Republic of 1 July 1962 Belgium Algeria, Democratic and Popular Republic of 3 July 1962 France Uganda, Republic of 9 October 1962 Britain Kenya, Republic of 12 December 1963 Britain Malawi, Republic of 6 July 1964 Britain Zambia, Republic of 24 October 1964 Britain Gambia, Republic of The 18 February 1965 Britain Botswana, Republic of 30 September 1966 Britain Lesotho, Kingdom of 4 October 1966 Britain Mauritius, State of 12 March 1968 Britain Swaziland, Kingdom of 6 September 1968 Britain Equatorial Guinea, Republic of 12 October 1968 Spain Guinea-Bissau5, Republic of 24 September 1973 (alt. 10 September 1974) Portugal Mozambique, Republic of 25 June 1975 Portugal Cape Verde, Republic of 5 July 1975 Portugal Comoros, Federal Islamic Republic of the 6 July 1975 France São Tomé and Principe, Democratic Republic of 12 July 1975 Portugal Angola, People's Republic of 11 November 1975 Portugal

(1) Independence as Revolution Fidel Castro speaking during Cuban Revolution after dictator Batista fled the country, 1959

(1) Independence as Revolution Mozambique independent on 25 June 1975

(1) Anticolonial Revolutions What is an anticolonial revolution? Was the American Revolution an anticolonial revolution? How do we define ‘anticolonial revolution’ so that the term is analytically useful?

(1) Anticolonial Revolutions Preliminary suggestion: rapid change involving (usually violent) overthrow of metropole’s power in colony by colonised; often guerrilla warfare restrict to 20th c. and esp. Cold War era  superpowers USA and USSR competing for influence

(2) Case: Algerian Revolution, 1954-62 before 19th c. Algeria = part of, among others, Ottoman Empire 1830: French violently colonise; until independence several 100 thousand Frenchmen/-women (called Pied-Noirs) immigrate from European France to Algerian France

(2) Famous Pied-Noir: Albert Camus (1913-60) existentialist, Nobel Prize-winning writer

(2) Famous Pied-Noir: Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) deconstructionist philosopher

(2) Case: Algerian Revolution, 1954-62 Algerian Rev. = highly complex, all of the following: liberation movement (led by National Liberation Front, FLN) civil war esp. between indigenous Algerians intent on liberation from, and those loyal to, France (Harkis)

(2) Case: Algerian Revolution, 1954-62 c) guerrilla warfare with ambushes etc. d) terrorism and counter-insurgency measures (massacres, torture etc.) e) asymmetric warfare

(2) Case: Algerian Revolution, 1954-62 there is no neutral way of describing the Algerian Rev. If… …‘civil war’: international law doesn’t apply, no right of self-determination (perspective of coloniser)

(2) Case: Algerian Revolution, 1954-62 …‘war/revolution of national liberation’: international law does apply, Algeria had a right of self-determination (perspective of colonised)

(2) Case: Algerian Revolution, 1954-62 Two causes (out of many): - spread of Enlightenment ideas of popular sovereignty, inalienable rights - Arab/Muslim nationalism: pan-Arabism

(2) Case: Algerian Revolution, 1954-62 Course: a narrative 1 Nov. 1954, on Catholic Red All-Saints’ Day (Toussaint Rouge): FLN attacks on various state institutions (military, police)  retaliation by French military

(2) Case: Algerian Revolution, 1954-62 From then on for next 8 years: local fighting, warfare against civilians (incl. rapes etc.) terrorism, both by colonised and by pro-colonialist French militants ‘counter-terrorism’, incl. use of napalm torture etc. About 250,000 (FLN) Algerians killed, 50,000-150,000 Harkis killed by FLN, about 20,000 European French soldiers et al. killed

(2) Case: Algerian Revolution, 1954-62 And: almost 1m Pieds-noirs emigrate to France indigenous Algerians (esp. Harkis) also emigrate to France, despite resistance of French gov’t

(2) Case: Algerian Revolution, 1954-62 Outcomes enormous reverberations in metropole as well: French gov’t falls, Fourth Republic ends Third-Worldism becomes cause of beginning student revolution

(2) Case: Algerian Revolution, 1954-62 Frantz Fanon (1925-61), Martinique- born French psychiatrist who moved to Algeria in early 1950s

(2) Case: Algerian Revolution, 1954-62 Outcomes Paris, May 1968: students in amphitheater of Sorbonne

(2) Case: Algerian Revolution, 1954-62 Outcomes: 1 May 1968

(2) Case: Algerian Revolution, 1954-62 Outcomes: 14 May 1968

(2) Case: Algerian Revolution, 1954-62 Outcomes: student injured in May 1968

(2) Case: Algerian Revolution, 1954-62 Outcomes ‘Third Myth’ bookstore near Sorbonne in Latin Quarter in Paris

(3) Film The Battle of Algiers (1966) actual battle of Algiers: urban warfare, 1956-57, FLN defeated film based on memoirs by Saadi Yacef, FLN military commander shot in pseudo documentary style, as though through lens of Western journalist

(3) Film The Battle of Algiers (1966) film mildly sympathetic to FLN, though it also shows FLN violence vs. civilians film seen as pro-Algerian in France and hardly screened film = inspiration for other anticolonial revolutions

(3) Film The Battle of Algiers (1966) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-7j4WVTgWc dir. Gillo Pontecorvo (Italy) 0:24; 1:50

(3) Film The Battle of Algiers (1966) film used at Pentagon screening after Iraq War on 27 Aug. 2003 to learn from (bad) French example how not to lose battle for minds while winning actual counter-insurgency war

(3) Film The Battle of Algiers (1966) Flyer for film screening: ‘How to win a battle against terrorism and lose the war of ideas. Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range. Women plant bombs in cafes. Soon the entire Arab population builds to a mad fervor. Sound familiar? The French have a plan. It succeeds tactically, but fails strategically. To understand why, come to a rare showing of this film’.

(4) Post-Postcolonial Situation, e. g (4) Post-Postcolonial Situation, e.g. 1997, Mobutu, Zaire, today‘s Democratic Republic of Congo

(4) Post-Postcolonial Situation, e. g (4) Post-Postcolonial Situation, e.g. 2003, Iraq, in one of Saddam Hussein‘s palaces

(4) Post-Postcolonial Situation, e.g. 2011, Libya, Gaddafi palace

(4) Post-Postcolonial Situation. 2014, Ukraine, former pres (4) Post-Postcolonial Situation? 2014, Ukraine, former pres. Yanukovich‘s palace

(4) Post-Postcolonial Situation. 2014, Ukraine, former pres (4) Post-Postcolonial Situation? 2014, Ukraine, former pres. Yanukovich‘s palace

(4) Post-Postcolonial Situation. 2014, Ukraine, former pres (4) Post-Postcolonial Situation? 2014, Ukraine, former pres. Yanukovich‘s palace

Anticolonial revolution - definition?