a cork oak in Algeria

By the end of the 19th century, Algerian cork production accounted for more than a quarter of the world's total. But colonial France's clumsy management and overexploitation of the 400,000 hectares of cork oak led to the gradual depletion of this natural resource.
This engraving is the work of late 19th-century travelers, linked to colonial interests, who wanted to showcase this part of the French Empire.