Violent competitions over human rights and universalism: Europe and North Africa in the long 19th century

Abstract

Based on cases from the history of North Africa, the main approach here is to consider Europe in the long 19th century – from the second half of the 18th century to the interwar period – as a place that claims not only to be the cradle of universal values and human rights but also as a place that attempts to monopolise what these so-called universal values and rights were by determining to whom these rights applied. The second section of the article aims to demonstrate that this European and, above all, French claim to formulate and embody universal rights, despite originating violent processes of domination, has been contested in various ways across North Africa.