Reading the process of formation of military fortifications on the Algerian coast in the nineteenth century

Abstract

[EN] Expansion was accompanied by a multitude of fortification projects, reflecting the divergent conceptions of French occupation.The Algerian towns of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries then, were formed in various hectic contexts, starting first with their control by the Military Engineering Department, which relied on a strategy of war of movement to transform the territory into a network of fortified towns, whose tracing is often faced with constraints concerning the topography of the terrain. To understand the process of their formation, it is important to consider the logic behind the establishment of these military fortifications during the French colonial period, particularly those located in the north on the coastal strip, the first interface that military engineers faced in colonizing the country.This article proposes a reading of the possible development of these artefacts on the Algerian coastline, and their capacity to be thought of at once as means of defense, instruments of development and symbols of domination at the time, but which is also a question today of recognizing them, reappropriating them in a new meaning and then valorizing them as potentialities and added value in the territorial and urban development of cities.