The Military and Colonial Destruction of the Roman Landscape of North Africa, 1830-1900

Download or read book The Military and Colonial Destruction of the Roman Landscape of North Africa, 1830-1900 written by Michael Greenhalgh and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2014-05-08 with total page 1039 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The French invaded Algeria in 1830, and found a landscape rich in Roman remains, which they proceeded to re-use to support the constructions such as fortresses, barracks and hospitals needed to fight the natives (who continued to object to their presence), and to house the various colonisation projects with which they intended to solidify their hold on the country, and to make it both modern and profitable. Arabs and Berbers had occasionally made use of the ruins, but it was still a Roman and Early Christian landscape when the French arrived. In the space of two generations, this was destroyed, just as were many ancient remains in France, in part because “real” architecture was Greek, not Roman.