Father of France

Chapter 255 Cultural Identification and Population Census

"I have no requirements for what kind of work I do, I only ask to contribute to France." Corman instantly expressed the core spirit of France: to be a brick in the wall, to be moved wherever needed.

The thought of a super-department in the transportation sector potentially emerging in his hands filled Koeman with excitement. The Fourth French Republic had over twenty governments, each wielding a little power; these small gains would eventually create a super-stable military bloc in the overseas provinces.

The railway is a suitable tool to support this military group. In fact, Algeria alone is not enough. There is a second phase of the railway project. Once the Mediterranean line is completed, the second phase will be the Atlantic line. As the railway extends, most of the countries in French Africa will be included.

The military group will not be limited to overseas provinces; military leaders from the Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, and Cameroon can all join. Koeman is not racist, or rather, when it is valuable, he is not a racist but a very good collaborator.

Controlling Africa was also the original intention of the Mediterranean-Atlantic Railway; otherwise, why spend so much money to build a railway? Of course, it would be done if it could bring huge benefits.

“My father’s idea is to conduct it concurrently with this overseas provincial census and ethnic identification,” Koeman mentioned to General Juan, referring to the upcoming census and ethnic identification.

The census itself isn't a major issue; the main challenge is ethnic identification. Besides the Berber and Hague groups, another group that cannot be ignored is the Black population. While the main ethnic group in the overseas provinces is Arab, Black people also exist in the southern territory of Algeria, deep within a large area of ​​the Sahara Desert.

There are two reasons for the formation of the Black community. The first is, of course, because people live there. Algeria is more than two million square kilometers in size, so it is perfectly normal to have some Black people.

Another major source was the slave trade. Arabs have long been involved in the slave trade, but they also traded white slaves. Before the city upon a hill had grown to its current state, when it was still in its infancy, Arab pirates also traded Americans, and in the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire traded Slavs for a long period.

With all naval power falling into the hands of European imperialist powers, the Arab pirates who trafficked Americans disappeared. As for the actions of the Ottoman Empire, the Russo-Turkish War was Tsarist Russia's response.

The majority of Algeria's Black population comes from the descendants of Black slaves who were historically enslaved by Arab-Berber people. Although they have gained their freedom and fully integrated into the local culture and language, they still frequently face discrimination and marginalization based on their skin color. They constitute the vast majority of Algeria's native Black population.

This ethnic group is small, accounting for a little over five percent of the population. If a divide-and-rule approach is adopted, it would actually be easier to incite hatred against Arabs.

"Is ethnic identification like the previous support for Berber culture? But once it's implemented as a policy," General Zhu An sighed, inevitably expressing some concern.

"It's a double-edged sword. The advantages and disadvantages are obvious. We've already used support for Berber culture before, and even if we do nothing now, the effects are already there." Koman also knew that ethnic identification was a controversial method, but such things cannot be judged solely on their disadvantages without considering their advantages.

Does the problem disappear if it is not recognized? In another world, after Algeria gained independence, the Arabs suppressed the culture and national consciousness of the Berbers for a long time, continuing into the 21st century, but eventually gave up and recognized the national status of the Berbers.

Coincidentally, the Turks do not recognize the existence of the Kurds, a period of a full century from the founding of Türkiye to the reign of the Sultan of Egypt.

However, it eventually abandoned the term "mountain Turks," recognized the existence of the Kurds, introduced a series of policies that benefit the Kurds, recognized the Kurdish ethnicity and the Kurdish language, clarified that Kurds have the right to participate in elections and enjoy freedom of speech, helped Kurdish children receive cultural and educational support, and strengthened infrastructure construction in Kurdish-populated areas, among other things.

Both Turkey and the Arabs failed. It should be noted that Arabs and Turks are perceived by other countries as quite stubborn. Similar forced assimilation methods were implemented for decades or even a century, but they were eventually abandoned. This shows that in modern society, it is impossible to eliminate problems simply by denying their existence.

Koeman was certainly aware of the drawbacks of ethnic identification, but it seemed that the two stubborn cultures were powerless to deal with the ethnic minorities within the country.

So, focusing on the benefits, ethnic identification also has advantages. One advantage is that it can curb the emergence of new ethnic groups. Starting with ethnic identification, if a strongman suddenly appears out of nowhere and integrates a new ethnic group through his own abilities, this tactic will no longer work.

In fact, in a backward society, a military leader can easily integrate a new force through war, marriage and other means. If no one finds a successor, that's fine too, and a new nation is born.

Ethnic identification, coupled with this census, will allow the Arabs, who are most opposed to France, to be directly controlled as a minority group in the North African overseas provinces.

"The Arabs we identify could never exceed 50%. The advantage of this is that once the identification is completed and announced, the identified Arabs will know that they are a minority and do not constitute the majority in Algeria. On a psychological level, this has a huge impact." Koeman knew that the power of numbers was a simple truth. Why did Britain dare to attack the Ottoman Empire? The Ottoman Empire was a country with 20 million subjects. At most, it could only give Britain a few blood.

In the end, the Ottoman Empire did indeed inflict a crushing defeat on Britain in the Dardanelles, but that was the limit of the Ottoman Empire's strength. The Ottoman Empire really did it, which surprised the British. But that was all the Ottoman Empire could do. Even if Britain had failed, it would only have felt that it had underestimated its enemy and had not fought well, and it would not have had any other thoughts.

When technology is on equal footing, the key to victory is population. Even when technology is not on the same level, a less advanced people may still dare to use their large population to resist invaders. However, if a people does not have an advantage in either population or technology, they will not be so psychologically emboldened.

Seeing that General Juan agreed with this conjecture, Koeman continued, "We can identify tribes instead of ethnic groups, and categorize them into Berber, Black, and Arab cultures, establishing the Arab cultural group as a minority."

In fact, recognizing only culture without recognizing ethnicity is just self-deception. When facing difficulties, Koeman also comforts himself by incorporating his own knowledge into his mind.

As for specific methods, we can learn from the Soviet Union's methods of suppressing the Uzbeks, the traditional hegemon of Central Asia, and replicate them one-to-one.

“It seems that only the wisdom of future generations can truly define a complete Frenchman,” General Juan said, a statement that made Coman very uncomfortable, a compromise on ethnic identification.

In ancient times, the Arabs of the overseas provinces were, in Koman's eyes, merely reserves for the Dzungars. Why would they believe in the wisdom of later generations? He absolutely did not believe in the wisdom of later generations. But now, in modern society...

The French army certainly dared to carry out large-scale suppression, but to say that they would simply make the Arabs disappear was still too challenging.

Koeman's interview with the Algerian commander-in-chief went very well, and General Dragoon expressed his satisfaction two days later, which indirectly confirmed the appointment of the new position.

“I can go back to the overseas provinces, honey, let’s celebrate.” Koman extended a rocket-like invitation to Ava Gardner.

Ava Gardner readily accepted her man's invitation and showed great tolerance for Koman's defiant behavior.

The French Foreign Ministry is attending a six-nation conference in London, a decisive step in the process, involving the United States, Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The conference reached an agreement to establish an independent West Germany within the Western-occupied territories.

France put forward two conditions: first, the Saar region should be incorporated into France; second, it expressed concern about the security situation in Berlin and suggested that if the Soviet Union used force to exert pressure, the British, American and French troops should withdraw from West Berlin.

The US representative categorically rejected the proposal for the three countries' troops to withdraw from West Berlin, but said that the Saarland issue was open to discussion, not impossible, but it had to be done through a referendum.

The US was trying to appease France with this statement, but it also put forward conditions that could be implemented immediately to alleviate France's concerns. The three conditions were: security guarantees; the requirement that the Ruhr region and the Rhineland region secede from Germany or be permanently internationalized.

Economic compensation: substantial reparations will be obtained from current and future German production to support the reconstruction of the French economy.

Weakening of central authority: Opposes the establishment of any form of strong central government in Germany and hopes that Germany will remain in a loose state of division.

Having already set foot on the overseas provinces, Coman arrived at the Gendarmerie headquarters in his brand-new military uniform, bringing with him the latest instructions from the French military command in Algeria: "According to the orders of the Paris government and the French military command in Algeria, the following orders are now in effect: First, conduct an immediate census of the population in the three overseas provinces and the southern territory; second, conduct cultural identification of the tribes in the overseas provinces and the southern territory, classify them uniformly, and compile the data. Both tasks must be completed within ninety working days."

Koeman, wearing the new military police uniform and a black peaked cap with the Lorraine Cross insignia, read out General Juan's latest order.

The other two orders were announced by General Juan himself upon returning to headquarters: the three overseas provinces of Algeria were upgraded to war-ready provinces, and a special railway corps was established for the construction of the Mediterranean Railway.

(End of this chapter)