Finely executed map of Algeria by A.H. Dufour, published shortly after the intensification of Algerian resistance to French Colonial Rule in the late 1840s.
The map stretches from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Tunisia border and inland to a region called Sahara Algeria. The topographical detail and attention to the roads in the interior is quite remarkable.
The French began their occupation of Algiers in 1830, starting with a landing in Algiers. As occupation turned into colonization, Kabylie remained the only region independent of the French government. Pressure on the region increased, and the will of her people to resist and defend Kabylie increased as well.
A turning point in Lalla Fadma's life was the arrival in Kabylie, in about 1849, of a mysterious man who presented himself as Mohamed ben Abdallah (the name of the Prophet), but who is more commonly known as Bou Baghla. He was probably an ex-lieutenant in the army of Emir Abdelkader, defeated for the last time by the French in 1847. Bou Baghla refused to surrender at that battle, and retreated to Kabylie. From there he began a war against the French armies and their allies, often employing guerrilla tactics.