| Publication |
2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
After France's 1830 invasion of Algeria, Algerians residing outside of the new French colony could potentially be considered French subjects. A number of Moroccans, eager to partake of the legal and financial advantages of foreign nationality, crossed the border into Algeria and obtained documentation falsely attesting to their Algerian origins; they then returned to Morocco, where they convinced French consular authorities to register them as French subjects. This article uses the story of one such pseudo-Algerian, Mas?ud Amoyal, to explore the phenomenon of Moroccans who assumed the legal identities of Algerians. In Morocco and elsewhere in the Middle East, the responses of individuals like Amoyal to new legal categories created by European colonization point to the importance of expanding colonial historiography beyond the borders of imperial states. Examining the strategies of pseudo-Algerians in Morocco demonstrates the value of a transnational approach for understanding the full impact of European imperialism.
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