Algeria Algeria.
 Arabic We Swear By The Lightning That Destroys.
 N E.
Prime Minister.
Abdelaziz Bouteflika
Ahmed Ouyahia.
July.
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 est.
 census
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 UTC.The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria Arabic     or Algeria Arabic  is a presidential state in north Africa and the second largest country on the African continent Sudan being the largest It is bordered by Tunisia in the northeast Libya in the east Niger in the southeast Mali and Mauritania in the southwest and Morocco as well as a few kilometers of its annexed territory Western Sahara in the west Constitutionally it is defined as an Islamic Arab and Amazigh Berber country The name Algeria is derived from the name of the city of Algiers from the Arabic word al jaz ir which translates as the islands referring to the four islands which lay off that city's coast until becoming part of the mainland in.
 History.Main article History of Algeria
Algeria has been inhabited by Berbers or Amazigh since at least BC From BC on the Carthaginians became an influence on them establishing settlements along the coast Berber kingdoms began to emerge most notably Numidia and seized the opportunity offered by the Punic Wars to become independent of Carthage only to be taken over soon after by the Roman Republic in BC As the western Roman Empire collapsed the Berbers became independent again in much of the area while the Vandals took over parts until later expelled by the generals of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I The Byzantine Empire then retained a precarious grip on the east of the country until the coming of the Arabs in the century.
Roman arch of Trajan at Thamugadi Timgad Algeria
After some decades of fierce resistance under leaders such as Kusayla and Kahina the Berbers adopted Islam en masse but almost immediately expelled the Caliphate from Algeria establishing an Ibadi state under the Rustamids Having converted the Kutama of Kabylie to its cause the Shia Fatimids overthrew the Rustamids and conquered Egypt They left Algeria and Tunisia to their Zirid vassals when the latter rebelled and adopted Sunnism they sent in a populous Arab tribe the Banu Hilal to weaken them thus incidentally initiating the Arabization of the countryside The Almoravids and Almohads Berber dynasties from the west founded by religious reformers brought a period of relative peace and development however with the Almohads' collapse Algeria became a battleground for their three successor states the Algerian Zayyanids Tunisian Hafsids and Moroccan Merinids In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Spain started attacking and taking over many coastal cities prompting some to seek help from the Ottoman Empire.
Algeria was brought into the Ottoman Empire by Khair ad Din and his brother Aruj who established Algeria's modern boundaries in the north and made its coast a base for the corsairs their privateering peaked in Algiers in the Piracy on American vessels in the Mediterranean resulted in the First and Second Barbary War with the United States On the pretext of a slight to their consul the French invaded Algiers in however intense resistance from such personalities as Emir Abdelkader made for a slow conquest of Algeria not technically completed until the early when the last Tuareg were conquered.Constantine Algeria 
Meanwhile however the French had made Algeria an integral part of France a status that would end only with the collapse of the Fourth Republic Tens of thousands of settlers from France Italy Spain and Malta moved in to farm the Algerian coastal plain and occupy the most prized parts of Algeria's cities benefiting from the French government's confiscation of communally held land People of European descent in Algeria the so called pieds noirs as well as the native Algerian Jews were full French citizens starting from the end of the century by contrast the vast majority of Muslim Algerians remained outside of French law a