To further his plans for the royaume…

To further his plans for the royaume arabe, Napoleon III had issued two decrees affecting tribal structure, land tenure, and the legal status of Muslims in French Algeria.

The first, promulgated in 1863, had been intended to renounce the state's claims to tribal lands and eventually provide private plots to individuals in the tribes, thus dismantling "feudal" structures and protecting the lands from the colons.

Tribal areas were to be identified, delimited into douars (administrative units), and given over to councils.

Arable land was to be divided among members of the douar over a period of one to three generations, after which it could be bought and sold by the individual owners.

Unfortunately for the tribes, however, the plans of Napoleon III quickly unravel.

French officials sympathetic to the colons take much of the tribal land they survey into the public domain.

In addition, some tribal leaders immediately sell communal lands for quick gains.

The process of converting arable land to individual ownership is accelerated to only a few years when laws are enacted in the 1870s stipulating that no sale of land by an individual Muslim can be invalidated by the claim that it is collectively owned.

The cudah and other tribal officials, appointed by the French on the basis of their loyalty to France rather than the allegiance owed them by the tribe, lose their credibility as they are drawn into the European orbit, becoming known derisively as beni-oui-ouis (yes- men).