When the Prussians capture Napoleon III at…

When the Prussians capture Napoleon III at the Battle of Sedan (1870), ending the Second Empire, the colons in Algiers topple the military government and install a civilian administration.

Meanwhile, in France the government directs one of its ministers, Adolphe Crémieux, "to destroy the military regime . . . [and] to completely assimilate Algeria into France."

In October 1870, Crémieux, whose concern with Algerian affairs dates from the time of the Second Republic, issues a series of decrees providing for representation of the Algerian departements in the National Assembly of France and confirming colon control over local administration.

A civilian governor general is made responsible to the Ministry of Interior.

The Crémieux Decrees also grant blanket French citizenship to Algerian Jews, who at this time number about forty thousand.

This act set a them apart from Muslims, in whose eyes they are identified thereafter with the colons.

The measure has to be enforced, however, over the objections of the colons, who make little distinction between Muslims and Jews. (Automatic citizenship will subsequently be extended in 1889 to children of non-French Europeans born in Algeria unless they specifically reject it.)