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INTRODUCTION
Algeria has weathered rough times in the past and is trying hard to tread the peace path. Formerly a French colony, Algeria became independent in 1962. But the first round of December 1991 elections saw the army intervene and crack down on Islamic fundamentalists (Islamic Salvation Front), who claims to have been stripped out of an electoral victory. Thousands have lost their lives ever since in the civil war that soon began in 1992. Later, the year 1997 saw fresh elections take place and the country's first multi-party legislature being sworn in. But even this was followed by many massacres. A referendum was held in September 99 on the peace plan to end the 7-year Islamic insurgency. President Bouteflika has acknowledged that over 100,000 people have been killed during the insurgency.
Location of Algeria
Algeria is located in Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Morocco and Tunisia.
Physical Map of Algeria
Algeria is made up high plateau and desert, some mountains and a narrow, discontinuous coastal plain. The country is bordered by Libya, stretching to 982 km, Mali 1,376 km, Mauritania 463 km, Morocco 1,559 km, Niger 956 km, Tunisia 965 km, Western Sahara 42 km. The coastline stretches to 998 km.
Climate of Algeria
While the climate is Mediterranean in nature in the coastal areas, it is semi-arid in the southeast and arid in the south. The coastal areas experience mild, wet winters with hot, dry summers;
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the high plateau is drier with cold winters and hot summers. During summers, sirocco, a hot, dust or sand-laden wind, is a common feature in Algeria.
Flora And Fauna of Algeria
Owing to years of deforestation, the vegetation is considerably sparse in Algeria. Trees like pines, Atlas cedar, oaks, form the main vegetation. The High Plateau is mainly barren with scattered turfs of esparto grass and brushwood here and there. Even the wild life is limited due to limited vegetation. Scavengers, such as jackals, hyenas, and vultures, are found in many regions. Antelopes, hare, gazelles, and reptiles are also present in smaller numbers.
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History & Political Map of Algeria
If history is to be believed, Homo erectus, an extinct species of humans, resided here over 500,000 years ago. Around the 1st millennium B.C, Phoenician traders settled along the Mediterranean coast. By the end of Punic wars in 145 BC, Algeria, then ancient Numidia, became a Roman colony, part of what was called Mauretania Caesariensis. Later when it was conquered by the Vandals in around 440 A.D., Algeria fell from a high state of civilization to virtual barbarism, from which it partly recovered after an invasion by Arabs around 650 A.D. The Berbers, who were originally Christians during Roman invasion, were converted to Islam. Falling under the control of the Ottoman Empire by 1536, Algiers served for three centuries as the headquarters of the Barbary pirates.
Then in 1830, freeing the country off pirates, the French occupied Algeria and made it a part of France in 1848. After a century of French rule, Algerian independence movements started gaining momentum. The year 1954-55 witnessed many uprisings which boiled into full-scale war. Finally in 1962, Albania gained independence. In Oct. many uprisings which boiled into full-scale war. x Finally in 1962, Albania gained independence. In Oct. 1963, Ahmed Ben Bella was elected president, and the country became socialist. He began to nationalize foreign holdings, which aroused opposition and he was later overthrown in a military coup on June 19, 1965, by Col. Houari Boumedične, who suspended the constitution and sought to restore economic stability. In the first parliamentary elections ever held in Algeria in Dec. 1991, the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front (Front Islamique du Salut; FIS) claimed to have won the largest number of votes. To thwart the electoral results, the army cancelled the general election, which plunged the country into a bloody civil war that took over 100,000 lives. The undeclared civil war which began in 1992 escalated in its brutality and Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika's ascension to the presidency in April 1999 was initially expected to bring peace and some economic improvement to this desperate war-torn country. Bouteflika, however, has been locked in power struggles with the military, whose support is crucial.
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