Antiquity The area of modern-day Kabylia was a part of the Kingdom of
Numidia (202 BC – 46 BC).
Middle Ages The history of the area encompassing Kabylia started to appear in the classical books during the fourth century AD with the revolt of the commander
Firmus and his brother Guildon against the empire. The
Vandals, a
Germanic people, established a
kingdom in North Africa in 435. Their rule lasted for 99 years until they were conquered by the
Byzantine Empire in 534. The surviving Vandals then assimilated into the native Berber population. During the rule of the Romans, Vandals and Byzantines, the Kabyle people were some of the few
Imazighen in North Africa who remained independent. During the
Arab conquest of North Africa, the Kabyles were able to temporarily control and possess their mountains, It was not until 1857 that Kabylia as a whole was fully and entirely conquered and subdued by France. Between 902 and 909 AD, after being converted to
Isma'ilism and won over by
Abu Abdallah's
dawah, the
Kutama Berbers from present-day Little Kabylie helped contribute to the founding of the
Fatimid Caliphate, whose support in the overthrowing of
the Aghlabids of Ifriqiya resulted in the creation of the Caliphate, although the ruling
Fatimid dynasty was
Arab. After taking control of Ifriqiya, the Fatimids conquered the realm of the
Rustamids on the way to
Sijilmasa which they also briefly conquered. There the imprisoned
Abdullāh al-Mahdī Billah was freed, accepted as the Imam of the movement, and installed as the first Caliph and founder of the ruling dynasty. The historian
Heinz Halm describes the early Fatimid state as being "a hegemony of the Kutama and Sanhaja Berbers over the eastern and central Maghrib" and Loimeier states that rebellions against the Fatimids were also expressed through protest and opposition to Kutama rule. The weakening of the Abbasids allowed Fatimid-Kutama power to quickly expand and in 959
Ziri ibn Manad,
Jawhar the Sicilian and a Kutama army conquered
Fez and
Sijilmassa in Morocco. In 969 under the command of Jawhar, the Fatimid troops conquered Egypt from the Ikhsidids, the general
Ja'far ibn Fallah was instrumental in this success: he led the troops that crossed the river Nile and according to al-Maqrizi, captured the boats used to do this from a fleet sent by Ikhshidid loyalists from Lower Egypt. The general Ja’far then invaded Palestine and conquered
Ramla, the capital, he then conquered
Damascus and made himself the master of the city and then he moved north and conquered
Tripoli. It was around this time period that the Fatimid Caliphate reached its territorial peak of 4,100,000 km2. A Berber family emerged as formidable leaders in the unique Berber form of elected delegates form of government (through financial contribution and thus influence), the
Zirid dynastys. Beyond their immediate Zirid territory (
aarch/Congregation), another
aarch and family
Hammadid and its associates emerged in present-day Kabylia with influence covering most of today's Algeria, whereas the Zirid's territory extended eastward to cover the area of modern Tunisia. Both the
Hammadid and [Zirid dynasty empires as well as the
Fatimids established their rule in the Maghreb countries. The Zirids ruled land in what is now Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Spain, Malta and Italy. The Hammadids captured and held important regions such as Ouargla, Constantine, Sfax, Susa, Algiers, Tripoli and Fez establishing their rule in every country in the Maghreb region. The Fatimids conquered all of North Africa as well as Sicily and parts of the Middle East.
French colonisation and resistance , 1837 Though the region was the last stronghold against French colonization, the area was gradually taken over by the French after
1830, despite vigorous local resistance by the local population led by leaders such as
Faḍma n Sumer and
Cheikh Mokrani, until the
Battle of Icheriden in 1857 marked a decisive French victory, with sporadic outbursts of violence continuing as late as
Mokrani's rebellion in 1871. Much land was confiscated in this period from the more recalcitrant tribes and given to French
pieds-noirs. Many arrests and deportations were carried out by the French in response to uprisings, mainly to
New Caledonia (hence the origins of the
Algerians of the Pacific.) Colonization also resulted in an acceleration of the emigration into other areas of the country and outside of it. Algerian migrant workers in France organized the first party promoting independence in the 1920s.
Messali Hadj,
Imache Amar,
Si Djilani, and
Belkacem Radjef rapidly built a strong following throughout France and Algeria in the 1930s and actively trained militants who became key players during the struggle for independence and in building an independent Algerian state. French colonists invented the
Kabyle myth in the 19th century which asserted that the Kabyle people were more predisposed than Arabs to assimilate into "French civilization." Lacoste explained that "turning the Arabs into invaders was one way of legitimizing the French presence". Prior to the creation of the term in the 1840s, Kabyles throughout the centuries were actively and fully assimilated into the
Arab culture of Algeria.
In the Algerian War During the
War of Independence (1954–1962), the
FLN and
ALN's reorganisation of the country created, for the first time, a unified Kabyle administrative territory,
wilaya III, being as it was at the centre of the anti-colonial struggle. As such, along with the
Aurès, it was one of the most affected areas because of the importance of the maquis (aided by the
mountainous terrain) and the high levels of support and collaboration of its inhabitants for the nationalist cause. Several historic leaders of the
FLN came from this region, including
Hocine Aït Ahmed,
Abane Ramdane, and
Krim Belkacem. It was also in Kabylia that the
Soummam conference took place in 1956, the first of the FLN. The flipside of being such a critical region for the independence movement was being one of the major target of French counter-insurgency operations, not least the devastation of agricultural lands, looting, destruction of villages, population displacement, the creation of forbidden zones, etc.
After independence From the moment of independence, tensions had already developed between Kabyle leaders and the central government, with the
Socialist Forces Front (FFS) party of
Hocine Aït Ahmed, strong in
wilayas III and IV (Kabylie and Algiers), opposing the FLN's Political Bureau centred around the person of
Ahmed Ben Bella, who in turn relied upon the forces of the border army group within the
ALN commanded by
Houari Boumediene. The
Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic (based in
Tizi Ouzou) was defeated by the
Oujda Group led by
Ahmed Ben Bella in the 1962 Algerian crisis. As early as 1963 the FFS called into question the authority of the
single-party system, which resulted in two years of armed confrontation in the region. The rebellion was defeated, leaving more than four hundred dead, and most of the FLN leaders from Kabylia and the eastern provinces either executed or forced into exile. In April 1980, following the banning of a conference by writer
Mouloud Mammeri on traditional Kabyle poetry, riots and strikes broke out in
Tizi Ouzou, followed by several months of demonstrations on university campuses in Kabylia and Algiers, known as the
Berber Spring, demanding the officialisation and recognition of the
Tamazight language. These resulted in the extrajudicial imprisonment of thousands of Kabyle intellectuals, along with other clashes in Tizi-Ouzou and Algiers in 1984 and 1985. With the opening up and establishment of the multi-party system in 1989, the
RCD (Rally for Culture and Democracy) party was created by
Saïd Sadi, at the same time as identity politics and the cultural awakening of the Kabyles were intensifying in reaction to the increasingly hard-line
Arabization. In the midst of the civil war, there was an act of massive civil disobedience beginning in September 1994 and lasting the entire school year until mid 1995 where the ten-million strong population of Kabylia conducted a total school boycott, known as the "schoolbag strike". In June and July 1998 the region flared up again after the assassination of protest singer and political activist
Lounès Matoub at the same time that a law requiring the use of
Arabic in all fields of education entered into force, further worsening tensions. Following the death in April 2001 of Massinissa Guermah, a young high school student, in police custody, major riots took place, known as the
Black Spring, in which 123 people died and some two thousand were wounded as a result of the authorities' violent crackdown. Eventually, the government was compelled to negotiate with the
Arouch, a confederation of ancestral local councils over the situation, alongside wider issues such as social justice and the economy, which was deemed by the government as 'regionalist' and dangerous for national unity and cohesion. Nevertheless,
Tamazight was recognised in 2002 as a
national language of Algeria, and as of 7 February 2016, an official language of the State alongside Arabic. The
Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylie (MAK), founded in June 2001, has called for self-government for the region since 2011. The MAK was renamed as "Mouvement pour l'Autodétermination de la Kabylie" seeking independence from Algeria. ==Geography==