Interns of Empire

Abstract At the height of the Algerian War of Independence, the French government sought to convince the metropolitan public to support its modernization initiatives in Algeria. This article examines the government's outreach to university students through summer internships in administrative, health, and welfare roles in Algeria. Students, however, were not always convinced that France was a force for “good” in raising Algerian living standards. In surveys and reports reflecting on their experiences living and working across the Mediterranean, students identified obstacles to the French administrative and military interventions, especially mistrust between Europeans and Algerians, and the high human and material costs of waging war against Algerian nationalists. This article contributes to scholarship on youth, modernization, and decolonization.