Deportation to New Caledonia

Introduction

After the defeat of the legendary Paris Commune (in May, 1871), a few thousand insurgents were deported to the other end of the world as punishment. New Caledonia, an archipelago in the Pacific, which had been brought under the aegis of the French some 20 years before, was designated as a penitentiary, as Guyana had been. About 100 Algerians were also deported to New Caledonia. They had begun an audacious war of liberation against the French occupation of Algeria and were defeated after months of fighting. The names of the exiled Communards have been thoroughly documented in website les Déportés de la Commune and in books, but the fate of the deported Algerians is largely unknown. Their names surfaced in an intriguing document from New Caledonia. The document, put together by French authorities upon the arrival of the prisoners, contained their names, professions, and other data. This official register mysteriously ended up in the archive of a collector and anarchist, now at the IISH.

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• In Algeria
• Transportation
• In New Caledonia
• Integration and repatriation
• Names of Algerian deportees
• Sources and literature