The geographical works by Élisée Reclus, were very wellknown in Europe in the second half of the 19th century, were at the time among the main encyclopaedic references where both scholars and cultivated readers could

find ethnographic and geographical information on non-European countries.

As Reclus was not only a famous geographer, but also a protagonist in the foundation of the international socialist and anarchist movement, an analysis of these sources is very important to obtain information on the tendencies of

progressive French and European public opinion in the colonial age. This paper deals with that part of Reclus’s work dedicated to French colonialism, analyzing his work and his archives, and comparing them with the existing literature, with a special focus on the paradigmatic case of occupation of Algeria.

Keywords : Algeria, French Colonialism, Postcolonial Studies, Reclus

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