The map and the colonial territory

Co-responsible for a research program entitled “ Geography and colonization: construction and circulation of geographical knowledge on French Africa » (ANR2006-2010), Hélène Blais has contributed for several years to the writing of a spatial history of the colonial phenomenon. His work is part of a desire to open up the history of colonial Algeria, resituated in French imperial history and inscribed in the long term.

In Mirages of the mapHélène Blais proposes to renew the history of the conquest of Algeria through a detailed history of cartographic knowledge. It places the particular case of Algeria in a broader context of the practice of knowledge within the imperial framework. The articulation between colonial conception of the conquered territory and field practice shows the way in which the soldiers adapt to the social realities they encounter in Algeria, but also how their work shapes the territory they are studying, and thereby, “ invent “.

The work is composed of six chapters, which can be grouped into three parts: one devoted to existing knowledge on Algeria and to “ the geographical invention of a colony » at the time of the conquest (chap. 1) ; a second focusing on the cartography enterprise during the conquest and the confrontation of cartographers with the Algerian terrain (chaps. 2-4) ; finally, a final part concerns the question of borders, and particularly on the southern margin of the colonial territory that constitutes the Sahara (chaps. 5 and 6).

The cards between knowledge and power

Strengthened by what Hélène Blais calls the “ colonial library », the politicians and soldiers who led the conquest of Algeria based their enterprise on ancient sources, Roman in particular. If they mention certain Arab geographers from the Middle Ages, it is mainly the European travel accounts of the XVII^e And XVIII^e centuries to which reference is made. The geographical exploration of the territory, concomitant with the state of war, was therefore nourished by previously established knowledge. Based on the experience of Bonaparte’s expedition to Egypt, cartographers adapted their practices to the Algerian terrain. The discourse on the territory legitimizes the conquest, at the same time as it provides the tools for its concrete realization. While it is difficult to name what, for military literature, remains the “ French possessions in North Africa » until the 1840s, the division of 1845 into civil, military and mixed territories, then with the Republic of 1848 into departments, marks a logic of construction of French sovereignty, of structuring the territory.

Faced with the vagueness of denominations and the trial and error of military conquest, maps become an instrument of knowledge and power. In colonial Algeria, particularly, the State was the sole owner of mapping services. The War Depot coordinates cartographic missions, according to European standards in this area which quickly prove unsuitable on the ground. In a situation of conquest, the first difficulty consists of collecting information on the regions still unsubdued. Then the use of maps evolved, after the intense phase of conquest and particularly after 1881, where maps essentially became a propaganda tool for the success of the colonial enterprise. The centralization of cartographic activity by the War Depot is contested with the evolution of the political situation and therefore of priorities, the cadastre service taking an increasingly important part in the establishment of maps. Collaborations between services are not always easy. The map has become a real issue of power.

The map, recalls Hélène Blais, is above all determined by the point of view of its author. The first topographers mainly reported itineraries, where the lack of familiar landmarks is reflected on the maps themselves. For this reason, the military in charge of terrain reconnaissance can only rarely resort to techniques such as geodesy, which uses astronomical measurement to establish a canvas from linked reference points. “ Mapping the territory involves representing the physical space and its social uses in a standardized language » (p. 152).

But how to map when we lack words to describe, knowledge to understand and technical and financial means? ? The discovery of the field in Algeria changes the practice of cartography, which is more DIY than standardized study. The very act of naming is problematic. The use of oral investigation and indigenous intelligence, through which Hélène Blais poses the question of “ contact » and the “ mediated relationship » between colonizer and colonized (p. 156-157), requires both linguistic and normative translation of the information collected. The association of tribal names, often mobile and tangled, with territories is also a source of confusion in the establishment of geographical and administrative frameworks.

Borders in a colonial situation

Faced with the unknown and in a situation of conquest, vernacular knowledge is used, despite the mistrust of colonial officials, particularly to define borders, “ where questions of sovereignty and identity intersect in a colonial situation » (p. 198). This very stimulating last part of the work resituates Algeria within the French imperial whole and thereby highlights the contradictions of colonial policy around the identity and status of the subjects of the Empire. The establishment of French protectorates in Tunisia (1881) and Morocco (1912) moved the question of borders with Algeria’s neighboring countries within the framework of the empire itself, without making border conflicts disappear. Here again, Hélène Blais evokes “ DIY » to resolve transgressions and disputes over borders established in a more or less vague manner between territorial entities.

Indeed, the “ border-line », delimited and limited, which allows the distribution of the levy of the tax, is not suitable for the local uses of the populations, for whom these borders are living spaces. But above all there is the problem of assigning an identity to populations present on either side of the border and who do not have the same status in the French empire. “ The identification of territories as Algerian or Tunisian leads to the determination of social identities », underlines Hélène Blais (p. 234). Thus, for the colonial administration, a “ native » who crosses the Tunisian border becomes in border files a “ Algerian », a term reserved for the French of Algeria in the administrative literature of the time.

The Saharan interface

This field of possibilities is found in the imagination linked to the Sahara. Initially a simple southern border of Algeria poorly demarcated by colonial geography, this space is attached to Algeria – ideologically at least. THE “ Algerian Sahara » then becomes a valuable interface with sub-Saharan Africa, which is also a “ promise of expansion of the colony » (p. 239). There is no shortage of projects, particularly commercial, to use this vast space: a trans-Saharan railway line is at one time being considered, shaping the image of the Sahara as a junction zone.

Administrative reforms also went in this direction, with the creation of the Southern Territories in 1902, which administratively separated the desert from the departments of northern Algeria. In the 1930s, these Southern Territories saw their symbolic and strategic charge reactivated by the intra-imperial rivalries between the authorities of French West Africa (AOF) and those of Algeria.

Hélène Blais’ work, enriched with high-quality iconography, is part of a historiography of empires and the construction of colonial knowledge that has been booming over the last ten years. This precision work, which was lacking in the history of the conquest of Algeria, gives a lot of space to the realities on the ground and the practices of the actors. But the major interest of the work lies in an analysis of historical constructions and spatial imaginations, which allows us to understand the logics which have “ frozen territorial representations dedicated to lastingly marking, well beyond independence, space and its uses » (p. 292).

It thus offers keys to understanding the current issues facing independent countries concerning the distribution of territory and tensions linked to borders, in particular on the question of Western Sahara.