Paul Flatters

Paul-François-Xavier Flatters was the son of Jean-Jacques Flatters (1786–1845) and Émilie-Dircée Lebon.[1] His father came from Westphalia to Paris to study sculpture and painting.[2] He was a student of Jean-Antoine Houdon and Jacques-Louis David, and was second in the Prix de Rome for sculpture in 1813.[1] He served in the French army from February to July 1814 at the close of the First French Empire.[2] During the Bourbon Restoration Jean-Jacques Flatters earned a living by making busts of famous people such as Goethe and Byron. Paul Flatters' maternal grandfather, Simon Lebon, joined the National Guard in 1792 during the French Revolution and served in the army until retiring as a colonel on half pay in December 1815. He married into a leading family of the Naples aristocracy in 1807. His daughter, Émile-Dircée Lebon married Jean-Jacques Flatters in 1830.[3]

Bust of Turenne by Jean-Jacques Flatters c. 1834

Paul Flatters was born in Paris on 16 September 1832.[1] In 1845, when he was just thirteen, he lost his father. A patron and friend of the family, Baron Isidore Taylor, paid for his education in the Lycée de Laval in Laval, Mayenne.[1][3] Paul's mother died in 1850.[3] He was admitted to the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr in 1851.[1] Flatters graduated from Saint-Cyr in October 1853, ranked 65th out of 230 students.[3]

Flatters was made a second lieutenant and posted to Algeria with the 3rd Zouaves.[3] He was appointed lieutenant in 1855.[4] In 1856 he was granted a request to transfer to the Arab Bureaus (bureaux arabes), which had been created by Marshal Thomas Robert Bugeaud to administer the indigenous population.[5] Flatters did not serve in the Crimean War of 1853–56 or the Franco-Austrian War of 1859.[6] In January 1863 he spent three months' leave in Paris. There he met and became engaged to 19-year-old Sara-Marie Le Gros (1845–1933), sister of a former schoolmate at Laval.[6] They married in Paris on 1 May 1864. Their son Étienne Paul Jean Flatters (1868–1950) would become a Brigadier General.[1] Flatters was promoted to captain in 1864.[4] Due to the rough conditions in Algeria his wife could not accompany him when he returned there, so for the next fifteen years they spent time together only when he was on leave or during the short periods when he was stationed in France.[6]

Flatters learned to read classical Arabic and to speak the local vernacular form, and became interested in local history and culture, although his scholarship was always superficial. He published Histoire ancienne du Nord de l'Afrique avant le conquête des Arabes in 1863 for an Arab audience. The book asserted that North Africa was a Berber country to which both Islam and Arabs were alien newcomers. The governor general approved, and ordered the book to be distributed to all the Berbers of the Kabylie. In 1865 he published a revised version of the book for a European audience, Histoire de la géographies et géology de le province de Constantine.[5]

Flatters served in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, but was taken prisoner almost at once and transferred to Germany. He was in Paris in April–May 1871 when the Paris Commune was suppressed.[6] In 1871 responsibility for administration in the departments of Constantine, Algiers and Oran was transferred to civilians, but the army continued to administer the interior of Algeria.[5] In 1871 Flatters was promoted to major.[4] He was based at Laghouat and worked on administrative tasks.[7]

In 1876 and 1877 Flatters wrote three reports on the caravan trade between the Sudan and the Mediterranean, blaming some of the problems on the Senussi Sufi order and tribe. The reports show that Flatters was fully aware that any European who ventured into the desert without strong protection would almost inevitably be killed.[8] He also observed that the Turks and the merchants of Tripoli, Ghadames, Ghat and Murzuk would be opposed to a Trans-Saharan railway that would divert trade to Algeria. He cast doubt on whether France would benefit from such a railway when the British were supplying much cheaper trade goods.[9]

Constantine

Laghouat

Ouargla

Aïn Taïba

Amguid

Rhat

Hoggar Mountains

Bir el-Garama

Tamanrasset

Locations in Algeria

Writing from Laghouat in the spring of 1877 Flatters noted that the Saharan trade was still mainly one of slaves. Many went to other parts of the Maghreb, but Flatters said that 1,000 were brought to Algeria each year. Due to French abolition of slavery, the merchants in the Sahara would not allow a French presence in the desert. Flatters argued that the French should therefore tolerate and regulate the trade in slaves, which was inevitable, so as to gain access to the interior.[10] In 1879 he published a long article in the Revue historique titled Étude sur l'Afrique septentrionale des origines à l'invasion arabe.[5] On 3 May 1879 he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and returned to France.[4]

The Trans-Saharan expedition was appointed in 1879 by Charles de Freycinet, Minister of Public Works, to investigate construction of a railway across the Sahara. Three possible routes starting from Oran in the west, Algiers in the center and Constantine in the east were to be examined by three expeditions. The western expedition was led by the engineer Justin Pouyanne. The central one was led by the engineer Auguste Choisy and included Georges Rolland. These two expeditions would complete their work without difficulty.[11] The eastern route was considered the most dangerous, going via the Hoggar Tuareg town of Rhat.[11] Flatters lobbied in Paris to be chosen as leader of this mission.[12] At the age of 48 he was relatively old to lead the expedition.[7] He suffered from sciatica and depended on morphine to relieve his pain, and had unpredictable moods.[13]

Flatters originally proposed a major expedition with more than 200 tirailleurs to provide strong protection, and was supported in this by the military members of the commission. He was opposed by Henri Duveyrier, who had experience of army blundering and was convinced that only small and unobtrusive expeditions whose members adapted to local customs could succeed.[13] The mid-19th century explorer Duveyrier had developed a romantic view of the Tuaregs as peace-loving, honorable people. In fact they were ruthless in dealing with intruders into their land using whatever methods they saw fit.[14] Duveyrier was supported by Ferdinand de Lesseps of Suez Canal fame and other civilian members.[13] A compromise was agreed where the size of the expedition was cut in half, making it a target without adequate means of defense.[15]

The Flatter expedition crosses a marsh. Chocolats Lombart trading card c. 1900

Flatters returned to Algeria in November 1879, charged with reconnoitering the route that he had himself said was the most favorable for the proposed railway.[4] He left Constantine on 25 January 1880 with 12 Europeans supported by Algerian tirailleurs, cameleers and Chaamba guides.[12] The future Islamologist Alfred Le Châtelier was an assistant topographer.[16] The caravan travelled south to Ouargla.[12] Flatters left from Ouargla on 5 March 1880 with thirty-nine people. They traveled south through the Igharghar valley past Aïn Taïba, El-Bodh and Timassinin. From Timassinin the expedition headed southeast along the Igharghar valley, and on 16 April 1880 encamped on shores of Lake Menghough on the fringe of the Tuareg of the Ajjer country. With provisions running short and the local people showing hostility, Flatters decided to return by the same route.[4]

The French began their retreat northward on the morning of 21 April 1880. Captain Masson was given the rearguard with orders to "die to the last man if need be so the convoy can get away". In fact the Tuareg did little to harass the column.[17] Pressed by Masson, who thought it necessary to save the expedition, on 27 April 1880 Flatters sent a letter to the Amenoukal of the Ahaggar Tuareg in which he promised to return the next winter.[17] The expedition returned intact to Ouargla on 17 May 1880 with valuable information about the country.[4] The valley of the Igharghar river offered a promising route to the Niger River.[18]

The first response when the news reached France was shock, followed by calls to punish the Ahaggar Tuareg and make greater efforts to colonize the Sahara. However, interest soon faded and the tragedy was forgotten.[7] Some of the newspapers held Duveyrier partly to blame for the disaster with his opposition to military force and utterly inaccurate depiction of the "vicious, cruel and barbaric" Tuareg. Duveyrier tried to vindicate his approach by two solo expeditions into the Rif mountains in Morocco. He became increasingly disturbed by guilt and anger, and took his own life on 24 April 1892.[15] The disaster caused plans for a railway to be abandoned.[23] From some of the letters written by Flatters before the disaster it was possible to assemble some information on the country the expedition had travelled through. For several decades this was the main source of information on the central Sahara.[4] There is a marble column with a bronze plaque commemorating the Flatters Expedition in the Parc Montsouris in the 14th arrondissement of Paris.[25] Another memorial was erected in Ouargla.[26]

Publications by Paul Flatters include: