Thomas Robert Bugeaud, marquis de la Piconnerie, duc d'Isly (15 October 1784 – 10 June 1849) was a Marshal of France and Governor-General of Algeria during the French colonization.

The July Revolution of 1830 reopened his military career, and after a short tenure of regimental command he was in 1831 promoted brigadier-general (maréchal de camp).

He won his first victory on 6 July 1836 against an army of 10,000 regular and tribal warriors of Abd al-Qadir, and returned home with the rank of lieutenant-general.

[4] There is also controversy about the language Bugeaud inserted into the differing versions of the treaty, in French article one read that Abd al-Qadir ‘recognised the sovereignty of France in Africa’.

The Arabic text instead read that "the amir ‘is aware of the rule of French power" (ya‘rifu hukm saltanat firansa) in Africa’.

Bugeaud promised the emir modern weapons, to through French force of arms relocate the Dawa’ir and Zmala tribes away from Abd al-Qadirs domain and to exile from Algeria of their chiefs for which Bugeaud received a cash payment which he utilised to support his political career in France spending it to fund roadworks in his constituency.

[4] The treaty allowed the French space to prioritise other threats to their control over Algeria, and avenge GeneralClauzel's failure to subdue the Beylik of Constantine.

Amidst his other activities he had found time to study the agricultural characteristics of the conquered country, and under his régime the number of French colonists had grown from 17,000 to 100,000.

Before Bugeaud there had been nine changes of governor in eleven years, politics in the metropole too was in flux with a coup in Paris only weeks after the initial landing in Algiers.

Together these factors caused colonial policy to change rapidly, and in those eleven years French holdings expanded slowly from their initial coastal enclaves.

[7] Indeed such events transpired at the Battle of Macta in 1835 where a French force of 2,500 men was destroyed at the hands of Abd al-Qadir, the ensuring outrage provoking the replacement of the then governor by Bugeaud.

Comparatively, the 'oil-spot' method involved a much lesser focus on violence, destruction of property and coercion than Bugeaud's campaign in Algeria.

[7] In the artillery too there was a marked difference from his predecessors who had favoured larger calibres, Bugeaud emphasised lighter guns especially mountain batteries for their ability to keep pace with other elements of the column.

One razzia conducted by General Gentil on the Beni Zeroual tribe in 1843 resulted in 150 killed, 712 prisoners, in exchange for 39 French casualties.

[7] The cumulative effect of raids that targeted the agrarian economy of rural Algeria caused widespread famine and it was as much this combined with the leverage gained from taking prisoners that forced tribes to make peace.

[1] Bugeaud's writings were numerous, including his Œuvres militaires, collected by Weil (Paris, 1883), many official reports on Algeria and the war there, and some works on economics and political science.

In 2021, because of war crimes committed by Bugeaud during the French conquest of Algeria, the municipality of Marseille decides to change his name of a school, and give it those of Ahmed Litim, an Algerian tirailleur killed during the liberation of the city in 1944.