What Colonial Cities Looked Like Before Independence - And Why It Matters Today

Before we talk about immigration to the West, we need to talk about emigration from the West - specifically, the era when Europeans transformed the cities of North Africa and the Middle East into extensions of Paris, Rome, and London.

What did Cairo, Algiers, and Casablanca look like in 1950? Who lived there? Who owned the businesses, the land, the best neighborhoods? And why did the locals eventually demand that the foreigners leave?

The answers illuminate something important about human nature - and about what happens when demographic transformation becomes visible and undeniable.

Alexandria: The Paris of the Mediterranean

In the early 20th century, Alexandria, Egypt was one of the most cosmopolitan cities on Earth. Greeks, Italians, French, British, Jews, Armenians, and Syrians mingled in a polyglot metropolis that felt more European than Egyptian.

The demographics tell the story:

The foreign communities - perhaps 25% of Alexandria's population - controlled a vastly disproportionate share of the city's economy. Greeks dominated the cotton trade. Italians ran construction and shipping. French and British firms controlled banking and the Suez Canal Company. Jews were prominent in finance and commerce.

The best neighborhoods - Ramleh, Stanley, Glym - were European enclaves. The architecture was European. The language of business was French. A working-class Egyptian in Alexandria could walk through entire districts and feel like a foreigner in his own country.

The writer Lawrence Durrell captured it:

> "Five races, five languages, a dozen creeds... But what held them together? Commerce, greed, the search for pleasure."

For the cosmopolitan elite, Alexandria was paradise - cafes, beaches, opera, wealth. For ordinary Egyptians watching foreigners prosper while they struggled, it was something else entirely.

Egypt's Early Awakening

Egypt gained nominal independence earlier than other colonized nations - 1922, formally - though British troops remained until 1956. Why so early?

The 1919 Egyptian Revolution was triggered when Britain refused to let Egyptian nationalists attend the Paris Peace Conference. The arrest of nationalist leader Saad Zaghlul sparked massive protests - at least 800 people killed, villages burned, railways destroyed.

What made Egypt different? Several factors:

1. National consciousness was older - Egypt had been a distinct civilization for millennia, not a colonial creation
2. Geographic unity - The Nile Valley created natural cohesion
3. Cross-class, cross-religion unity - Muslims and Coptic Christians protested together
4. Strategic calculation - Britain found it easier to grant nominal independence while keeping troops and control of the Canal

But here's the crucial point: formal independence in 1922 did not result in Europeans leaving. The Greeks, Italians, French, and British stayed. They kept their businesses, their neighborhoods, their dominant economic position.

It took another 35 years - and Gamal Abdel Nasser - to change that.

The Suez Crisis: When Egypt Said "Enough"

On July 26, 1956, President Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal Company. Britain, France, and Israel invaded. They failed. And then came the reckoning.

Nasser's government systematically expelled the foreign communities that had dominated Egyptian life for generations:

• British and French: 12,000 of 18,000 ordered expelled within days, properties seized
• Jews: 23,000-25,000 of 42,500 left between 1956-1958, allowed only one suitcase and small cash, forced to sign documents "donating" their property
• Greeks: Population decreased by 80% between 1956-1960 as nationalization targeted their businesses

By 1970, cosmopolitan Alexandria was gone. The Europeans had left. The city was Egyptian.

Was this just? Was it cruel? Was it necessary?

Those questions depend on your perspective. But one thing is undeniable: Egyptians wanted their city back. They wanted to walk through Alexandria and see Egyptians owning the businesses, living in the nice neighborhoods, running the institutions. They wanted demographic self-determination.

Algeria: The Settler Colony

Algeria was different from Egypt - it wasn't just occupied, it was settled. France didn't just control Algeria; France tried to *become* Algeria.

The numbers were staggering:

Over one million Europeans - the "pieds-noirs" - lived in Algeria by the 1950s. They weren't colonial administrators; they were settlers. They were born there. Their grandparents were buried there. Algeria was their home.

But look at where they lived:

• Oran: 60% European
• Algiers: Europeans dominated the modern city center
• Bône (Annaba): Major European concentration

The cities were literally divided. The French built new European quarters - wide boulevards, Haussmann-style buildings, modern amenities. The native population lived in the old medinas or in shantytowns on the periphery.

An Algerian walking through downtown Algiers in 1955 saw French cafes, French shops, French faces. The architecture was French. The language was French. The wealth was French.

The Algerian journalist Kateb Yacine wrote:

> "Colonialism is not satisfied merely with holding a people in its grip... By a kind of perverted logic, it turns to the past of the oppressed people, and distorts, disfigures, and destroys it."

The Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962) was brutal - perhaps 1.5 million Algerians died. When it ended, the European exodus was almost total:

• 800,000+ pieds-noirs fled to France in 1962
• Half the population of Algiers left in a matter of weeks
• Within months, the million-strong European community had virtually disappeared

They left behind the buildings, the infrastructure, the cities they had built. But they left.

Morocco: The Ville Nouvelle vs. The Medina

Morocco offers the clearest visual example of colonial demographic transformation. The French, under Resident-General Lyautey, made a deliberate choice: rather than demolish the old Moroccan cities (medinas), they would build entirely new European cities (villes nouvelles) alongside them.

The result was urban apartheid:

Casablanca in 1950:

• Total population: ~700,000
• Europeans: 40-50% of city population
• The ville nouvelle was essentially a French city transplanted to Africa

A Moroccan in 1950 could literally walk from his overcrowded medina, pass through a wall, and enter a European city with wide boulevards, modern apartments, and French shops where he wasn't welcome. The contrast was visible, daily, unavoidable.

Scholar Janet Abu-Lughod described French urban policy as creating "urban apartheid" - the native areas frozen in time while European quarters expanded with modern amenities.

After independence in 1956:

Morocco's 500,000 Europeans gradually left. It wasn't as sudden as Algeria - no war of independence - but the trajectory was the same. By the 1970s, the European population had dwindled to a small fraction. Moroccans took over the villes nouvelles that had been built for Europeans.

Why Did They Want the Foreigners Gone?

Let's be clear about what motivated decolonization movements. It wasn't primarily about culture or language. It was about something more fundamental:

1. Economic displacement

Foreigners owned the best land, the major businesses, the export industries. Locals were often laborers in their own country.

2. Visible inequality

The European quarters were wealthy; the native quarters were poor. This wasn't abstract - you could see it by walking across town.

3. Demographic replacement

In Oran, Europeans were 60% of the population. In Casablanca, nearly half. Locals were becoming minorities in their own cities.

4. Loss of self-determination

When foreigners dominate your economy and your cities, you don't control your own destiny - even if you're technically the majority.

The Algerian revolutionary Frantz Fanon captured the psychology:

> "For a colonized people, the most essential value, because the most concrete, is first and foremost the land: the land which will bring them bread and, above all, dignity."

Decolonization was about reclaiming land, cities, economies, and dignity. It was about looking around your own city and seeing your own people in charge.

The Uncomfortable Parallel

Now consider what's happening in Western cities today.

London in 2024:

• White British: 37% of population (down from 86% in 1971)
• Foreign-born: 37%
• Some boroughs are 70%+ non-white

Amsterdam in 2024:

• Native Dutch: 44% of population
• "Non-Western background": 35%+
• Some neighborhoods are 70%+ immigrant-origin

Toronto in 2024:

• "Visible minority": 51% of population (now the majority)
• Some suburbs are 75% South Asian or Chinese

The demographic transformation that took 130 years in Algeria has taken 50 years in London. The mechanism is the same - population movement changing who lives in a city - but the direction is reversed.

And here's the key question: If it was legitimate for Egyptians to want Alexandria to be Egyptian, for Algerians to want Algiers to be Algerian, for Moroccans to want Casablanca to be Moroccan...

Is it legitimate for the English to want London to be English? For the Dutch to want Amsterdam to be Dutch? For Americans to want their cities to remain American?

The decolonization movements said: Yes, people have the right to demographic self-determination in their own homeland.

That principle doesn't expire because the demographics are flowing in the other direction.

What the Colonial Experience Teaches

The European colonial experience in North Africa teaches several lessons:

1. Demographic transformation creates resentment

Whether the newcomers are "better" or "worse" than locals is irrelevant. Humans don't like becoming minorities in their own cities. Egyptians didn't like it. Algerians didn't like it. There's no reason to expect Europeans or Americans to like it either.

2. Economic displacement intensifies the resentment

When the newcomers are wealthier - when they bid up housing prices, when they own the businesses, when they dominate the economy - the resentment is sharper. This was true of Europeans in Alexandria; it's true of wealthy immigrants in San Francisco today.

3. "Formal" independence doesn't solve the problem

Egypt was "independent" in 1922. But Europeans still dominated the economy and the best neighborhoods. It took until 1956 - and forcible expulsion - to change that. Voting rights and citizenship aren't enough if you've become a minority in your own city.

4. The transformation can be reversed

One million Europeans lived in Algeria in 1960. By 1963, almost all were gone. Demographic transformation isn't permanent - but reversing it is traumatic.

The Choice Before the West

Western nations face a choice that colonial subjects faced before them:

Accept demographic transformation - Become minorities in your own cities, watch your culture become one option among many, hope that the new majorities will treat you well.

Or resist it - Through immigration restriction, through policy, through democratic means - while it's still possible to do so peacefully.

The Europeans who settled in Alexandria, Algiers, and Casablanca didn't expect to leave. They had been there for generations. They had built those cities. They considered them home.

They left anyway - some by choice, some by force, but nearly all of them left.

The lesson of decolonization is that demographic majorities eventually assert themselves. The question for Western nations is whether they will assert themselves through democratic policy reform now, or face more difficult choices later.

The people of Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco looked at their cities, saw foreign faces dominating the best neighborhoods and businesses, and said: "This is our country. We want it back."

That impulse - the desire for demographic self-determination - doesn't belong to any one race or civilization. It's human. And it's not going away.

Sources

Alexandria and Egypt

• The Cosmopolitanism of Alexandria - IEMed - Analysis of Alexandria's multicultural era

• The Greeks of Alexandria - GreekReporter - Greek community population data

• The Suez Crisis and the Jews of Egypt - Fathom Journal - Jewish expulsion details

Algeria

• Ruedy, John. *Modern Algeria: The Origins and Development of a Nation* - French settler colonialism data and pieds-noirs population statistics

• Alistair Horne. *A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962* - Algerian War and European exodus

Morocco

• Urban Design in Colonial Morocco - Academia.edu - Ville nouvelle planning

• Janet Abu-Lughod, "Tale of Two Cities: The Origins of Modern Cairo" - Urban apartheid analysis

Image Credit

• Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash