Editing Alexis de Tocqueville (section)

=== 1837 letters on Algeria ===
In a series of letters penned by Alexis de Tocqueville, he describes the situation of France as well as the geography and society of Algeria at the time.

{{blockquote|“Suppose that the Emperor of China, landing in France at the head of an armed power, should make himself master of our largest cities and of our capital. That after having burned all the public registers before suffering to read them, and having destroyed or dispersed all of the civil service without inquiring into their various attributions, he should finally seize every functionary – from the head of the government to the campesino guards, the peers, the deputies, and in general the whole ruling class – and deport them all at once to some distant country. Do you not think that this great prince, in spite of his powerful army, his fortresses and his treasures, will soon find himself extremely unprepared in administering the conquered country; that his new subjects, deprived of all those who conducted or could conduct affairs of state, will be unable to govern themselves, while he, coming from the antipodes, knows neither the religion, nor the language, nor the laws, nor the habits, nor the administrative customs of the country, and who has taken care to remove all those who could have instructed him in them, will be in no state rule them. You will therefore have no difficulty in foreseeing that if the parts of France which are materially occupied by the victor obey him, the rest of the country will soon be given over to an immense anarchy.”<ref name="Tocqueville 2023, p.135">Alexis de Tocqueville, ''Travels in Algeria'', ed. Yusuf Ritter, Tikhanov Library, 2023</ref>}}

Despite being initially critical of the French invasion of Algeria, Toccqueville also believed that geopolitical necessities of the time would not allow for a withdrawal of military forces for two reasons: first, his understanding of the international situation and France's position in the world; and second, changes in French society.<ref name="Monde diplomatique">{{cite news|author=Olivier LeCour Grandmaison|title=Torture in Algeria: Past Acts That Haunt France – Liberty, Equality and Colony|work=Le Monde diplomatique|date=June 2001|url=http://mondediplo.com/2001/06/11torture2}}</ref> Tocqueville believed that war and colonization would "restore national pride; threatened", he believed, by "the gradual softening of social mores" in the middle classes. Their taste for "material pleasures" was spreading to the whole of society, giving it "an example of weakness and egotism".<ref name="mondediplo806">Alexis de Tocqueville, "Rapports sur l'Algérie", in {{lang|fr|Œuvres complètes}}, Paris, Gallimard, Bibliothèque de [[la Pléiade]], 1991, p. 806, quoted in {{cite news|author=Olivier LeCour Grandmaison|title=Torture in Algeria: Past Acts That Haunt France – Liberty, Equality and Colony|work=Le Monde diplomatique|date=June 2001|url=http://mondediplo.com/2001/06/11torture2}}</ref>