Country Information on Algeria 

Terrain

Algeria can be divided into four main areas, which run more or less parallel from east to west across the country. The Tell coastal mountain range in the north is a narrow and irregular coastal plain which extends the length of the Mediterranean coast. It stretches from 80 to 190 km inland. The area then turns into the mountainous area of the Tell Atlas, a range of the Atlas Mountains. The numerous valleys of this region contain most of Algeria's arable land.

The source of the country's longest river, the Chelif (725 km), is in the Tell Atlas. The Chelif flows into the Mediterranean Sea. To the south and south west of this region there are salt marshes and a high plateau with several salt clay plains. During the rainy periods, water collects in the basin, which forms large, shallow lakes. This water evaporates during the dry season, leaving with it salt clay which forms large crystal-shaped lumps when it dries. South of this area are the Saharan Atlas mountains and south of that is the Sahara desert which is the largest of the four areas, covering 90% of the country's surface. Most of the Sahara region is covered in gravel.

Climate

The Tell Atlas region in the north of the country has a typically Mediterranean climate with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers. This region also has the most rainfall in Algeria (400 to 1,000mm a year). Average temperatures range between around 25°C in the summer and 11°C in the winter. In the summer a hot, dry wind, the sirroco (or Chehili in Arabic) often blows from the Sahara up towards the Mediterranean Sea. The further south an area is located, the hotter and drier it is.

Fauna/Flora

Mediterranean vegetation is found along the coast and in the lower parts of the Tell Atlas. Forests have been replaced with bushes after years of deforestation and overgrazing. The only reasonably large forests are in the Tell and Sahara Atlas mountains, which mainly consist of pine trees, Atlas cedars and Cork Oaks. The flora in the Sahara is concentrated around areas that have a water supply.

The country's sparse vegetation means that it only has a limited number of animals (especially in the south), which are species that are specifically adapted to life in the desert, such as antelopes, hares, gazelles, fennecs, as well as different species of reptile and small mammals such as the jerboa (a rodent). Some of the birds that are found in the region are vultures, sand grouse and various songbirds.

History/Politics

In the 8th century, the Berbers already had their own Islamic government and had founded several tribal kingdoms. Between the 11th and 13th centuries, Algeria prospered under two successive Berber dynasties, the Almoravids and the Almohads. In the 16th century, the Ottomans declared the region an autonomous province under their rule. France annexed Algeria in 1834, meeting resistance from the Berbers, who had not been conquered by the Turks. In 1840, French colonists poured into the country, which meant that a modern economy was able to develop.

Algerian nationalism arose after World War I, and during World War II Algerian leaders organised a militant anti-French party. In 1954, Algerian exiles formed a revolutionary committee later known as the National Liberation Front (Front de Libération Nationale, FLN). The FLN soon began guerrilla campaigns which were suppressed by the French.

In 1962 a ceasefire was declared and Algeria claimed independence. However, the costs of war and the mass departure of the colonists, many of whom were skilled labourers, was a blow on the economy. In 1962, Ahmed Ben Bella was elected the first President of independent Algeria and in 1963 the first constitution established the presidential government. In mid-1965 Boumedienne, then Minister of Defence, seized power, and with him, so did the army.

The constitution of 1976 defined Algeria as a socialist state under FLN leadership, and Boumedienne was legally elected President. When Boumedienne died in 1978, Colonel Chadli Benjedid was elected as his successor. Benjedid continued with his predecessor's policies, but he did not control the country as strictly as Boumedienne, as a result of which he was put under pressure to resign by a group of military and political officials in 1992.

They declared his election invalid, declared a state of emergency, dissolved parliament and established a High Council of State with Mohammed Boudiaff as President. This series of events led to the government and security forces having an internal conflict with the Islamic fundamentalists. After Boudiaff's assassination in 1992, there were many years of violent conflict between the transitional government and the fundamentalists.

In 1995, Liamine Zeroual won the first multi-party elections since independence. In a referendum in 1996, people voted in favour of changes to the constitution. Following the resignation of Zeroual in 1999, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was elected. He was re-elected in April 2004.

Economy

Algeria is one of Africa's richest countries, as a result of its natural resources. The mining of raw materials accounts for the largest part of Algeria's gross domestic product. Agriculture plays a diminishing, but still very important role in the economy. The service sector, however, has grown dramatically in recent decades, employing more than half of the country's workforce. Since end of the 1960s, the government has been implementing industrialisation programmes and agricultural reforms. In 2003, the unemployment rate was 28.4% and the inflation rate was 2.6%.

Culture

Right up until the second half of the 20th century, Algeria's cultural life was still influenced by French culture. Even before independence, however, there was a growing movement among Algerian artists and intellectuals to revive national interest in Arab-Berber origins, a movement that has been officially supported since 1962.

Although the French suppressed much Arab-Algerian writing, the war for independence revived interest in indigenous Arabic literature. Kateb Yacine, Mohammad Dib and Malek Haddad are famous 20th-century Algerian writers. Most of their work was written in French. The French writer Albert Camus was born and educated in Algeria.