Blum–Viollette Plan
BLUM–VIOLLETTE PLAN
french legislation that intended to give algerian muslims full citizenship rights.
Influenced by ex-Governor General and then Minister of State Maurice Viollette, Pierre Viénot, and historian Charles-André Julien, France's Premier Léon Blum submitted a bill to Parliament in 1936 that aimed at giving approximately 30,000 Muslims in Algeria full rights without the loss of their Muslim status. The Senate defeated it in 1938 and the legislation was never brought to the floor of the Chamber of Deputies. This was a terrible blow to the évolués (assimilated Algerians) and convinced many of them (including Ferhat Abbas) to pursue other directions of reform. It has been called a "lost opportunity" that might have prevented the savage Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962).
see also abbas, ferhat; algerian war of independence.
Bibliography
Gordon, David C. The Passing of French Algeria. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1966.
Phillip C. Naylor