From the French invasion in 1830, Catholic and Protestant churches created strong ties to the French colonial regime in Algeria. The particularities of settler colonialism in Algeria meant that by the late-nineteenth century, “Christianity” had become a mark of European identity, while the French defined the Arab and Berber populations of Algeria by their attachment to Islam. Religion became one of the most symbolic and powerful markers of difference and even legal segregation in Algeria, and was fraught with political meaning well before the outbreak of the Algerian War of Independence.