Qualla: Siege of Laghouat https://qualla.com/siege-of-laghouat en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Siege of Laghouat https://qualla.com/siege-of-laghouat Siege of Laghouat: Introduction https://qualla.com/siege-of-laghouat/ Before December 1852, Laghouat was an oasis city of about 4,500 people at the edge of the Sahara. After December 1852, roughly two-thirds of them were dead. The siege and storming of Laghouat during France's pacification of Algeria was not the largest colonial atrocity of the nineteenth century, but it was among the most methodical -- a deliberate exercise in scorched-earth warfare that included what historians have identified as one of the first recorded uses of chemical weapons against a civilian population. The trauma it inflicted on the Laghouati people endures to this day.

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]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/4/0/siege-of-laghouat-wp/sn40-siege-of-laghouat-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Siege of Laghouat: The General and the Oasis https://qualla.com/siege-of-laghouat/ General Aimable Pelissier arrived at Laghouat with 6,000 French troops in November 1852. Pelissier was already known for ruthless tactics -- he would later become a marshal of France -- and the campaign against Laghouat reflected the broader French strategy of breaking resistance...

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]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/4/0/siege-of-laghouat-wp/sn40-siege-of-laghouat-the-general-and-the-oasis.mp3 0:06 2 full Siege of Laghouat: The Storming https://qualla.com/siege-of-laghouat/ The capture of the city turned immediately into a massacre. French soldiers, already inflamed by casualties on their own side -- including the death of General Bouscaren during the fighting -- treated the entire population as enemy combatants. The killing continued for days. The ...

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]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/4/0/siege-of-laghouat-wp/sn40-siege-of-laghouat-the-storming.mp3 0:06 3 full Siege of Laghouat: Chemical Weapons at the Sahara's Edge https://qualla.com/siege-of-laghouat/ Among the many grim distinctions of the siege, one stands out: French forces reportedly employed chemical agents against the civilian population. While the exact nature and scale of the chemical attacks remain subjects of historical investigation, the event has been identified by...

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]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/4/0/siege-of-laghouat-wp/sn40-siege-of-laghouat-chemical-weapons-at-the-saharas-edge.mp3 0:06 4 full Siege of Laghouat: A Wound That Persists https://qualla.com/siege-of-laghouat/ Laghouat survived as a place, but the massacre reshaped its identity. The population that remained carried the memory of what had happened, passing it through generations as both history and warning. The trauma is not abstract or distant for the Laghouati community -- it is a fou...

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]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/4/0/siege-of-laghouat-wp/sn40-siege-of-laghouat-a-wound-that-persists.mp3 0:06 5 full