France and Algeria are at a standoff with diplomats on each side being sent home after France recognised Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara. Though shadowing any present-day dispute is the bitter history between the two countries extending back almost two centuries, culminating in the brutal 1954-1962 war for Algeria’s independence from colonial France.
In 1830 the French invaded and captured Algiers with methods which reached genocidal proportions. A combination of violence and disease epidemics caused the indigenous Algerian population to decline by nearly one-third from 1830 to 1872. From 1848 until independence, France administered the Mediterranean region of Algeria as an integral part of the nation and it became the destination for hundreds of thousands of European immigrants, known as Pied-Noirs. Communal land was confiscated from tribal peoples.
Dissatisfaction among the Muslim population, underdogs in the colonial system, gave rise to demands for independence from France. There were various massacres by French troops and outright war broke out in 1954. The Algerian militant group the National Liberation Front (FLN) killed those who supported the French and in retaliation the French conducted severe reprisals. 2 million Algerians were sent to concentration camps. There was a notorious Paris massacre of 1961, the mass killing of 200 to 300 Algerians by the French National Police after a pro-FLN demonstration. Death was due to heavy-handed beating by the police, as well as mass drownings, as police officers threw demonstrators into the river Seine.
The France chart, 31 September 1792 3.30 pm Paris, born out of a bloody revolution, has a revolutionary Pluto in Aquarius opposition Uranus square a vengeful Mars in Scorpio on the Midheaven.
Algeria gained independence on 3 July 1962 10.38am Algiers, Algeria, with Uranus back in late Leo square Mars in Taurus so not the most amiable of connections. Algeria’s Mars is conjunct France’s IC with Algeria’s Uranus on the cusp of the France 8th house with their Pluto into the 8th – so an entangled and uncomfortable interface.
Their relationship chart is worse with a composite and explosive Mars, Uranus, Sun conjunction square Pluto.
The FLN was founded on 23 October 1954 just before war broke out when Pluto was in late Leo. The war finished when tr Jupiter in late Aquarius was opposition Uranus.
Late Fixed signs recur throughout their conflicted relationship. No surprises with tr Uranus aiming to exit Taurus that more troubles flare up – opposing their composite Pluto into next year.
ADD ON:
Frantz Fanon, a French West Indian psychiatrist and political philosopher, supported the Algerian War of independence and was a member of the Algerian National Liberation Front. He has been described as “the most influential anticolonial thinker of his time”. As well as being an intellectual, he was a political radical, Pan-Africanist, and Marxist humanist concerned with the psychopathology of colonization and the consequences of decolonization. His life has inspired national liberation movements and other freedom and political movements in Palestine, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and the United States.
Born 20 July 1925 6am Fort-de-France, Martinique, he had a Cancer Sun conjunct his Ascendant, conjunct the France Descendant and conjunct the Algeria 1962 Moon. An upfront personality he was intimately linked with the destiny of both countries. His 8th house reforming, status-quo-upsetting Uranus was trine his Sun and Moon. His 12th house Pluto was in a confident opposition to Jupiter. And he had a stellium in attention-seeking Leo in his 1st house – Mars, Venus, Neptune, Mercury. A Water Fire chart would make him inspiring and excitable.
His relationship chart with France was unsurprisingly fractious and hostile as well as stuck with a composite Saturn trine Mars trine Uranus; and Saturn square Pluto. His relationship chart with the 1962 Algeria on the contrary had a New Moon hinting at an emotional closeness.
France will experience a Pluto return in 2036, interestingly the year that the British monarchy ends according to the eclipse cycle. France will then undergo a Uranus return in 2043. This is the current pattern in the US. The US Moon will feel the direct impact of the Uranus-Pluto opposition in 2047-48, an aspect that brought the French Revolution. It will be a time of great change in both countries possibly brought by the environmental crisis.