Real Estate Legislation in French Colonial Policy and its Economic and Social Effects in Algeria and Tunisia between 1919- 1939

Abstract

In this study, I attempt to shed light on a specific aspect of French colonial policy in the Maghreb, focusing on the settlement in both Algeria and Tunisia during the interwar period. I consider this policy to have been the cornerstone of the French consolidation of their grip on both countries. This stems from the premise that the settlement process would contribute to giving the occupation its real meaning and actual implementation. Colonialism that lacks settlement is a formal colonialism. Therefore, the granting of land ownership to Europeans was both an end and a means for the colonial policy, which was based on numerous laws. In this study, I relied on well-known scientific methods, such as the descriptive method in addition to the statistical method through counting and inventorying the various lands that France controlled in both Algeria and Tunisia, in addition to our use of the analytical method, and this through analyzing the various historical phenomena that were mentioned in the various sources and references that dealt with the subject. This study is considered original, as all the studies that dealt with the subject of settlement during the French colonial period in both countries started from the first years of colonialism. The study concludes with several key findings, we reached many conclusions that were in the form of summaries, the most notable being that the French reliance on many laws and legislation by virtue of which they were able to seize large parts of the lands of Algerians and Tunisians, and to own them to Europeans in general and the French in particular, in order to achieve the French colonial project.