The North African Bloc

After years of oppression under French Imperial Rule, the colonies of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia were primed for a revolutionary change after the execution of the emperor. With help from the newly formed Commissariat in France, the people of North Africa launched a fierce rebellion to throw off their former colonial oppressors. The rebels succeeded in their cause, but they would not be truly free yet, as the threat of the invasion soon arrived on their shores. The newly formed North African Bloc, under the leadership of a reformed communist government, may have to immediately forsake some of their autonomy in order to guarantee survival. The people may find the trappings of their new arrangement not too dissimilar to those of their past. Reinforcements from New France were coming, but their fight for freedom would last quite a while longer.

After conquering the territory during the French invasion of North Africa in 1830, the Napoleonic regime implemented a provisional colonial government to manage the newly gained imperial territory under Jean Maisons. Originally, the government sought to split North Africa into multiple colonial governments comprised of members of their former regencies. Still, after facing fierce rebellion in the early days of occupation, Maisons convinced the government to allow him to rule as colonial minister for a unified North African colony. Such a decision was unprecedented, but the Napoleonic government at the time decided that direct control was preferable due to the colonies' close proximity to the mainland. This decision ultimately led to a brutal crackdown by the colonial government on anything they deemed as resistance. Maisons’ government imposed second-class citizen status on all its colonial citizens, dissolved the regional monarchies, executed nobles, and imposed strict regulations on Islamic worship. This brutal takeover went mostly unnoticed in mainland France, which was more concerned about the vast amounts of wealth the Maisons government was extracting from North Africa and providing the crown. Although the early years of Maisons' regime were mostly ignored, the harsh treatment of French colonial subjects ultimately created more problems for the French government than they hoped. By 1839, the French had put down over 60 rebellions in occupied Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. The destabilizing nature of these rebellions, as well as the highly publicized crackdowns, dramatically shifted French public opinion of Maisons’ governance. Despite growing resentment, Napoleon did nothing to stop Maisons, as by 1939 he was already in the late stages of stomach cancer, making it difficult for him to govern on his own. After the death of Napoleon in 1840 and the subsequent election of the first socialist parliament in France in 1841, it became clear that Maisons' days were numbered.

After the socialist victory in 1841, the ousting of Maisons became a certainty. Fearing execution, Maisons swiftly departed from his palace in Casablanca and immigrated to British-occupied Egypt. Maisons’ sudden departure and the departure of much of his colonial cabinet, who followed swiftly after him, left a large power vacuum in North Africa, leading to widespread rebellion as the colonies attempted to overthrow their oppressors. What the new government hoped would be a smooth transition away from the authoritarian policies of Maisons and towards a more liberalized egalitarian rule over the colony turned into a large-scale military operation to put down the massive civil war that had been brewing across the territory. Unwilling to let go of their colonial possessions in North Africa, the new government was left with no choice but to put down the dissenters.

By 1842, France had once again established complete control over North Africa, but at the cost of an extreme mistrust in the new socialist government and the new colonial regime they put in place as a replacement for Maisons. Despite this mistrust, management under the new government markedly improved the lives of French colonial citizens. They were no longer considered second-class citizens and were given voting rights in the new colonial government. In addition, Islam was no longer suppressed, and the new government even helped restore many mosques and other cultural landmarks that were destroyed by the Maisons’ regime. Although conditions in North Africa improved, the general opinion of the colonial government largely stayed the same, as the government was more than willing to crack down if rebellion was ever suspected.

When France was dragged into the Italian Wars in 1855, colonial mistrust was vindicated. In desperate need of manpower, the French began conscripting from the colonies. This conscription heavily biased the Muslim populations of North Africa, sending them to some of the most brutal fronts in the Italian wars. When the war finally ended in 1859, the colony was once again primed for another rebellion. Large-scale riots and armed revolts once again broke out across French North Africa, demanding independence from France. As the rebellions began, the French, who largely blamed the far left in parliament for the horrors of the Italian Wars, elected a far-right government, which would hold the majority seat in government until the New Revolution in 1928. The newly elected Bonapartist government had little sympathy for the cries for independence coming out of their North African colony and began yet another brutal campaign across North Africa to stamp down the rebels. The policies of liberalization under the socialist colonial government were completely reversed, and the new Bonapartist colonial government, wishing to bring firm control back to the region, reinstated the old policies of Maisons. In addition to the revival of these draconian laws, the new colonial government was provided with an ample occupation force ready to stamp out rebellion at a moment's notice. Colonial oppression in North Africa was fierce, and would last until the start of the Great War.

In many ways, the new colonial government under the Bonapartist regime was worse than that of Maisons. Instability, rebellion, and the general incompetence of Maisons and his administration made North Africa a rather unappealing place to live for French colonists in the early days of its occupation. As a result, although the people there had to deal with second-class citizenship and repression of their religious practices, these limitations only applied in rare interactions with colonial authorities. Under the new Bonapartist Regime in the 1860’s things got dramatically worse.

In an effort to establish a firmer grip on North Africa, the new right-wing government began a program of settler colonialism, wherein French citizens and businesses were incentivized to move into Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia to fully integrate these places into the French Empire proper. This resulted in a large migration of French citizens into the colonial holdings despite the perceived danger. These new colonists did not suffer the same penalties suffered by the colonial populations, and thus were the only people allowed to vote in the colonial government. These efforts effectively created a segregated state in North Africa for the next 80 years. The second-class citizen status of the colonial population was largely exacerbated, with more of their rights being removed with each passing year by the increasingly authoritarian government that had become cemented in French politics. Discontent in the colonies continued to grow all the way up until the New Revolution of 1928, where a new left-wing government peacefully established control of France.

Despite the socialist leanings of the government, Bonapartist control of French North Africa was still largely cemented. Although the right-wing Bonapartists no longer held control of parliament, the presence of the separate colonial government in North Africa allowed them to stop the implementation of many of the socialist policies being implemented in mainland France. As a result, the oppression and wealth extraction of the colonial government continued on for another decade, to the dismay of the left-wing government.

Oppression in North Africa and the disobedience of their colonial governments became a hugely contested issue in France in the 1930s. Although the government's attempts to ease the oppression fell on the deaf ears of those who controlled the colony, the colonists still had the hope of a better future. In spite of the overwhelming presence of the authoritarian regime that dominated colonial life in North Africa, the push from the left-wing government back in France was enough to kickstart the colony’s rebellious spirit once more. Peaceful and violent protests alike began breaking out across North Africa, demanding the end to Apartheid. These protests were applauded and encouraged by the French Government, which refused to send any troops to the colonies to aid them in quelling the rebellions. Prime Minister Leon Blum was arrested in 1937 for protesting with activists in Algiers, only to immediately be released by the Colonial government when he was identified. The circumstances of his arrest were dubious, as the Prime Minister's public appearance was well known by the colonial government at the time. As a result, many newspapers at the time speculated that the Prime Minister's arrest and subsequent release from an Algerian prison were a political stunt on the part of the colonial government to threaten the ever-growing socialist movements in the French parliament.

In addition to the support from France, the widespread protests in North Africa were also supported by several newly formed political organizations. Léon Réne Sulta, Ali Yata, and a number of other prominent activists formed the North African Communist Party in 1932, which spearheaded a number of the protests across the colony. As they grew in popularity, they found themselves aligned with the Liberation party back in mainland France, which would prove to their benefit after the events of 1938.

After the election of President Charbonnier and the subsequent Grand Revolution that followed, the Bonapartists who led the Colonial government in North Africa were no longer safe. Officials began preparation to resist the leftist policies of the new government as they did with the previous administration. They also continued to crack down on the resistance groups to reassert control over their colonial subjects. What they did not anticipate, however, was that the Charbonnier administration would not be pushed around by their own colonies. Unwilling to commit troops to Northern Africa themselves, the French Commissariat instead began secretly supplying the North African Communist Party with arms and intel in preparation for a large-scale rebellion to overthrow their colonial oppressors.

With support from the Commissariat back in France, the Communist Party had little choice but to kick off the revolution. The remnants of the Bonapartist faction and what few colonial troops they had were no match for the rebels. The communists back in mainland France were far too engrossed with their own war in Europe to give any aid to them, and it was clear from the well-trained and well-armed rebels they faced that the current administration was more than willing to let the Bonapartist colonial government collapse. After about 3 months of rebellion, nearly all the Bonapartists in power were defeated. With the Colonial government in ruin, there were celebrations across the region. The revelry did not last long, though, as it became unclear what the future of the former colony held. On the one hand, many rightfully wished for an independent North Africa, though there were many who argued whether or not it should be one nation or three. Others in the rebellion felt obligated to maintain close ties with the New French Republic, as without support from the Liberation party, the rebellion would have been more difficult. The question was postponed for them indefinitely on November 7th with the invasion by Egyptian and Byzantine forces. Unwilling to be colonized once more, the Communist rebels had no choice but to take up arms.

In the wake of the recent revolution, there was not much in the way of military organization for the North African Communist Party. Their soldiers were well armed from what was granted to them by the Commissariat, as well as what they could salvage from the recently defeated Napoleonic forces, but they had little in the way of armor or artillery to counter the Egyptian tanks rolling in from the west or the Byzantine ships invading their ports. For this reason, the revolutionaries lost a lot of ground for the first several months. Luckily for the communists, a French diplomat shortly arrived in Algiers to deliver congratulations to the newly formed government of North Africa and establish an embassy in their newly found nation. As the diplomat was arriving in Algiers, President Charbonnier gave a speech in Paris declaring the independence of the new nation and announcing that they would have the full backing of France. Within a short time, North African independence was internationally recognized, but despite public acknowledgment that they were no longer a colonial province, the assault by Egypt and the Byzantines did not stop. With the Egyptians in the West and the Byzantines in the North gaining ground, the newly formed government needed to act quickly to secure a fighting force capable of throwing off their invaders.

Luckily for the fledgling nation, the early diplomatic ties they formed with the French Commissariat proved beneficial in their nation-building. Shortly following the establishment of the French embassy, a slew of representatives from the Commissariat arrived, many among whom had previously facilitated the arms distribution to the rebels. Their mission was to establish a new branch of the Commissariat in North Africa and assist the North African Communist Party in holding elections and stabilizing their government. Although the Commissariat's presence was controversial, their aid was quite helpful in organizing the rebels into a cohesive parliamentary republic.

In Algeria, the North African Communist Party, with the help of the Commissariat, held elections for the first time. The newly formed government, in theory, comprised the territories of Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Morocco; in practice, however, the initial vote did not include voters from half of the territories’ populations, as they were unable to vote due to the Byzantine invasion of Tunis and the Egyptian assault on western Libya. Despite this, what limited votes that were cast were almost unanimously cast for the party founder Léon Réne Sulta, who was elected president of the newly formed North African Bloc, with his close friend Ali Yata being elected prime minister. The new government got to work immediately on rebuilding the country from a century of colonial exploitation.

The newly formed North African Bloc began implementing various democratic policies across the newly formed republic, including more progressive policies mirroring those under the Liberationist party. Such sweeping social reforms would have potentially been impossible with a fully emancipated country, but given the current invasion, the people were not in much of a position to oppose the new government. As the democratization efforts began, the NAB also began formalizing its military into a modern fighting force. To achieve this, the new government once again relied on help from the Commissariat to organize and supply its forces, even with uniforms reminiscent of the former colonial garrisons. The French were more than happy to support their newfound communist allies and began sending weapons, armor, and military officers to equip and train the NAB’s military. As the North African Bloc trained and organized its military for the first time however, the next few months saw significant losses for what few soldiers they could muster in defense of their eastern front. The Byzantine and Egyptian invasions had continued to push in from the sea, meeting little resistance. By April, the shield generator protecting the city of Tunis fell, with refugees from Libya and Tunisia pouring into Algeria.

To the dismay of some, but the relief of many, France announced the formal restructuring of their government under the newly formed Communiste Interationale to the world on May 1st. As the formal structure of an empire was antithetical to the revolution, the Liberationists found that a full dissolution of the colonies was necessary. This did not mean however that they wished to completely cut ties. Under this new system, all of France’s former colonies were liberated and immediately offered membership status in the International, with member states holding representative seats. Although the North African Bloc was already an independent state, they too were offered membership in the Communist International, with a generous amount of representation due to the high population of the union. Entrance into the International also came with a full military and economic alliance with all member states. For North Africa, this would mean a proper entrance into the Great War, but it would also mean they could levy the full military might of France against their invaders. It also meant a partial relapse into dependency, with the “ Comintern” largely resembling the empire in all but name, especially as every other former colony rejoined under the French umbrella. Reluctantly, the North African Bloc voted to join the Communist International on May 5th, with the caveat that the French would continue their aid in repelling the invasion to the best of their abilities. The minor sacrifice of their autonomy would hopefully ensure the survival of their fledgling nation.