Settler Colonies: Algeria and New Zealand Compared

In settler colonies, the defining feature of empire was land: newcomers arrived to stay, and Indigenous peoples lost territory on a massive scale. France invaded Algeria in 1830 and faced long resistance, led by the Emir Abd al-Qadir until 1847. In 1848 France declared northern Algeria part of France itself, and European settlers, who numbered several hundred thousand by 1900, took much of the best farmland, while Muslim Algerians remained subjects without citizenship rights.

In New Zealand, Māori chiefs and the British Crown signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, but the English and Māori versions differed on what sovereignty meant. As settlers arrived, conflicts over land led to the New Zealand Wars from 1845 to 1872, and the government confiscated large areas from Māori it labeled rebels. In both places, settler political power grew while Indigenous people were marginalized. Comparing the two shows how settler colonialism followed similar patterns under different empires.