Algeria’s prehistory and history are ancient and at the same time complex, rich and chronologically broad, linked to the origins of human civilisation. Its excursus up to contemporary times is closely linked to the vicissitudes of the Mediterranean area. From the first appearance of human settlements in what is today an enormous and spectacular expanse of rocks and sand, but which thousands and thousands of years ago was a fertile and green land, to the control of the great Mediterranean civilisations of the Phoenicians, Punics, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines and Ottomans, a lifetime of research and scientific publications would not be enough to make the subject complete and exhaustive, and it still deserves to be studied in depth in its entirety, at least as far as prehistory is concerned. Here, we must necessarily limit ourselves to a chronological list of the eras and salient historical moments, which may offer valuable hints to the reader, for further investigation in comprehensive historical/scientific publications.
Prehistory
100000 BC First signs of human presence
50000/7000 BC First settlements of hunter-gatherers; Neolithic; nomadic or semi-nomadic populations
7000/2500 B.C. first forms of civilisation of breeders/farmers; Bronze Age; progressive drying out of desert areas; introduction of the horse
3000/1500 B.C. First settlements of Berber populations and the appearance of Typhinagh writing; Iron Age; desertification and introduction of the camel
Numids, Phoenicians, Punics and Garamantes
1250/25 BC Control of Phoenician civilisation on the Mediterranean coast; introduction of trade; first indigenous kingdoms of Berber peoples in the central and northern regions, the Numids; foundation of the unified Numidian kingdom of Massinissa and Jugurta; Punic Wars.
500 B.C./500 A.D. Settlement of the Garamantes people, from what is now Libya, in the Algerian Sahara.
Romans, Vandals, Byzantines
25 B.C./430 A.D. Roman occupation and division of territory into the two provinces of Tingitanian Mauritania and Caesarian Mauritania; Roman urbanisation and reorganisation of the main Numidian settlements (Annaba, Caesarea, Tipasa, Timgad); introduction of Christianity
477/533 decline of the Roman Empire and Vandal domination; conquest of North Africa by Gaiseric; Vandal Empire of Valentinian II
534/647 Byzantine rule; Belisarius’ conquest of North Africa, under Justinian I
Arab invasion, Islamisation and Berber revolts
647/776 incursions into the Maghreb by the Umayyad Caliphate; decline of the Byzantine Empire; first Berber rebellion against the Arabs; final introduction of the Muslim religion
776/1512 Birth and succession of the first Muslim Berber dynasties (Rostemids, Fatimids, Zyrids, Amadites, Almoravids, Almohads, Zianids); conquest and partial Islamisation of Moorish Spain; first large-scale migration south of Muslim Berber populations not subject to the Ommayyads (Mozabites) and Islamisation of the populations of the far south through migratory flows (the current Touaregs)
Spain and the Ottoman Empire
1490/1525 Control of the Algerian coast by Charles V’s Spanish fleet; occupation of Algiers by Barbarossa under the protectorate of the Ottoman Empire of Suleiman the Magnificent; Corsair/Spanish wars;
1525/1587 Final Ottoman control of northern Algeria with the establishment of the Regency of Algiers, governed by a beylerbey; increase in privateering piracy in the Mediterranean
1587/1830 end of the Ottoman/Spanish war; formal establishment of a regular Ottoman administration in Algiers, through the appointment of pashas, aghas and deys; piracy and Christian slavery in the Algiers Regency; first and second Barbary wars; end of the Algiers Regency and Ottoman control following the French invasion
French Colonisation and Independence
1830/1962 Diplomatic break between France and the Regency of Algiers following the “fan affair”; French invasion of Algiers by Charles X’s troops; French colonisation
1954/1962 First nationalist parties; the National Liberation Front, the Battle of Algiers and the War of Independence;
1962/1989 establishment of independent Algeria under a single party
1989/1999 civil war and the birth of the Islamic party
1999/2019 Presidency of Bouteflika