The Pieds-Noirs are an ethno-cultural group of people of French and other European descent who were born in Algeria during the period of French rule from 1830 to 1962. Many of them departed for mainland France during and after the war by which Algeria gained its independence in 1962.
A First Communion in a Pied-Noir family in Sidi-Bel-Abbès, Colonial Algeria in the early twentieth century
Bombardment of Algeria by Admiral Duperré's forces in 1830
Zouaves embarking at Algiers for Tonkin, January 1885
Three children in a wagon pulled by two donkeys, c. 1905. The first Pieds-Noirs were the children of personnel of the French Army of Africa.
Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to the northeast by Tunisia; to the east by Libya; to the southeast by Niger; to the southwest by Mali, Mauritania, and Western Sahara; to the west by Morocco; and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea. Algeria has a semi-arid climate, with the Sahara desert dominating most of the territory except for its fertile and mountainous north, where most of the population is concentrated. Spanning 2,381,741 square kilometres (919,595 sq mi), it is the world's tenth largest nation by area, and the largest nation in Africa. With a population of 44 million, Algeria is the tenth-most populous country in Africa, and the 32nd-most populous country in the world. The capital and largest city is Algiers, located in the far north on the Mediterranean coast.
Roman ruins at Djémila
Ancient Roman ruins of Timgad on the street leading to the local Arch of Trajan
Roman inscription from Agueneb in the province of Laghouat
Fatimid Caliphate, a Shia Ismaili dynasty that ruled much of North Africa, c. 960–1100
