In 1880, it was decided that the Algerian peasants of the Ouarsenis mountains would be dispossessed of their land in favor of French settlers. Two methods were used to achieve this end, either outright force or a roundabout way, forcing the fellahs to pay fines too high to be paid. The uprooted then had to leave for the cities, swelling the mass of proletarians in the shantytowns.—Guy Bellinger