ALGERIA

ALGERIA. — Algeria comprises the central section of the Atlas Mountains and a vast stretch of the northern Sahara (conquered by France between 1830 and 1870). The latter, subdivided into four territories (Ain Sefra, Ghardaia, Touggourt, and Southern Oases) and almost entirely desert, covers nine-tenths of the surface area (2 million sq. km.) but contains less than one-tenth of the population (650,000 inhabitants) and is under military authority. The remainder (210,000 sq. km., with over 6.7 million inhabitants, nearly all Berbers more or less Arabized, and barely one-eighth Europeans) forms part of France and, like the rest of the country, is divided into departments (Algiers, Constantine, Oran), although the entire territory is governed by a Governor-General. The sub-Atlas zone, traversed by the Little Atlas, gives way to a series of short plains, and here the majority of the population is concentrated (over 200 inhabitants per sq. km. in Kabylia); the interior consists of arid, steppe-like highlands with a pastoral vocation (sheep).