Biomaterial Database

Local responses to French medical imperialism in late nineteenth-century Algeria. 2007

William Gallois

Department of History, Roehampton University, Roehampton Lane, London, UK. w.gallois@roehampton.ac.uk

This article offers the first account of the lives of Algerian-born doctors working in the French colonial medical service between 1870 and 1900. Their stories reveal the manner in which the idea of medical imperialism had collapsed in Algeria, as a result of maladministration, racial policies, competition between civil and military authorities, budgetary constraints and the rise of the colons. The article also indicates the way in which medicine became a locus of opposition to French rule. It shows how the first decades of the Third Republic were critical in terms of a shift from the earlier idea of medicine serving as an emblem of the mission civilisatrice to the ideological potential of medicine being seen in much more nuanced terms by both French settlers and Algerian locals. It is argued that the notion of cultural resistance to imperialism through medicine emerges in the 1870s and 1880s, thereby prefiguring the work of Fanon and the Front de Liberation Nationale's later analysis of the 'sickness' of colonial Algerian society.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008493	Medical Missions	Travel by a group for the purpose of undertaking a health-care related project of short-term duration.	Medical Missions, Official,Missions, Official Medical,Official Medical Missions,Medical Mission,Medical Mission, Official,Mission, Medical,Mission, Official Medical,Missions, Medical,Official Medical Mission
D010820	Physicians	Individuals licensed to practice medicine.	Physician
D005602	France	A country in western Europe bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, the English Channel, the Mediterranean Sea, and the countries of Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, the principalities of Andorra and Monaco, and by the duchy of Luxembourg. Its capital is Paris.	Corsica,Saint Pierre and Miquelon,Miquelon and Saint Pierre,Miquelon and St. Pierre,St. Pierre and Miquelon
D000462	Algeria	A country in northern Africa bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between MOROCCO and TUNISIA. Its capital is Algiers.
D049672	History, 19th Century	Time period from 1801 through 1900 of the common era.	19th Century History,19th Cent. History (Medicine),19th Cent. History of Medicine,19th Cent. Medicine,Historical Events, 19th Century,History of Medicine, 19th Cent.,History, Nineteenth Century,Medical History, 19th Cent.,Medicine, 19th Cent.,19th Cent. Histories (Medicine),19th Century Histories,Cent. Histories, 19th (Medicine),Cent. History, 19th (Medicine),Century Histories, 19th,Century Histories, Nineteenth,Century History, 19th,Century History, Nineteenth,Histories, 19th Cent. (Medicine),Histories, 19th Century,Histories, Nineteenth Century,History, 19th Cent. (Medicine),Nineteenth Century Histories,Nineteenth Century History
D018595	Colonialism	The aggregate of various economic, political, and social policies by which an imperial power maintains or extends its control over other areas or peoples. It includes the practice of or belief in acquiring and retaining colonies. The emphasis is less on its identity as an ideological political system than on its designation in a period of history. (Webster, 3d ed; from Dr. J. Cassedy, NLM History of Medicine Division)