At noon on March nineteenth, 1962 the ceasefire, which had been agreed upon the previous day at the signing of the Evian accords, went into effect1 ending what historians now refer to as the Algerian war with France. At the time war was a strong word and had not been used officially by the government. As a matter of fact France was putting forth a very strong effort to keep this war undercover. How does a nation hide a war? All they have to do is refuse to admit that it exists or that it existed or to merely forget that it ever happened. The French policy of forgetting is what allowed France to move on without really acknowledging the loss of an estimated 18,000 French in Algeria. Perhaps it was necessary for France to forget or to ignore, after all they had just been through eight years of very brutal fighting which had resulted in zero French gain and extensive loss both in the category of human life and in French capital.
On November 1st 1954 guerilla forces organized together under the banner known as the FLN (Front de Lib�ration Nationale). The FLN set off a series of bombs in various French establishments in Algeria. From Police stations to military depots almost all of the targets were what could be seen as hostile to the Algerian independence movement. This came as quite a surprise to much of France for Algeria had been seen as very different from Frances other colonies. It wasn’t like Algeria was another Vietnam. Algeria had been a colony for over a hundred years; it was organized into departments just like France. It even had representatives in the French Government who were elected by the Algerians. Granted only the Algerian elites and the French colonists (which left out the Algerian Muslim population which if given the chance to vote would have outnumbered the elites 12-1) could vote for the representatives but still it was better than nothing, wasn’t it?
Initially the relations between Algeria and France changed in 1830 when conflict erupted between the ruler of Algiers and the French representative. After being insulted the French representative sent message to France and requested aid. Soon there after naval battles began to erupt between Algiers and France. On June 14th of 1830 a French army consisting of 37,000 troops landed in Algiers and by July 5th Algiers was forced to surrender. This would mark the beginning of what to Algeria was a Holy War and what to France was an opportunity to show other European states that France was and could be a strong opponent. The French King Charles X (the tenth) was desperately trying to prove French superiority and Algeria was an opportunity to do so. Algiers maintained a strong port for the French and so initial interest was based there, this coupled with Charles X’s quest for glory launched the French into Algiers full force. However when the French took over Algiers and began fighting with other local groups they soon realized that all of Algeria would need to be obtained in order to establish a French colony there and to maintain French control over the region.
France spread out over Algeria very rapidly and over the next seven years (1830-1837) French troops secured most of Algeria. Colonists had already existed in Algeria prior to the French take over; most colonists were residing in Algiers. However soon after the total French encapsulation of Algeria many settlers were shipped over and a decent sized European population began to grow within the newly obtained French colony. Algeria was seen as a colony, never mind the fact that prior to the invasion by French troops French had ruled it recognized bodies.
Once Algeria was completely in French control it was divided up into departments and controlled ferociously. Much like what happened to the Native Americans in the U.S. the Algerian tribes of Natives were relocated to lands the French saw as better suited for Tribal use. The French went as far as to portion out the land based upon the amount of resistance received from the tribe. So if a tribe laid down for the French they might receive double the land of a tribe who threw rocks at the French. Overall conflict was still heavy climaxing in 1871 when a widespread revolt broke out. Primarily the revolt occurred due to widespread famine felt severely by the Algerians and a lack of aid from the French during such a famine. However the revolt was suppressed less than a year later and it’s leaders were executed (namely Muhammad al-Muqrani). The main accomplishment of the revolt was nothing. In fact the Muslims who revolted lost land and privileges, the French seized over 500,000 acres of prime farming land and tightened the French military grip around Algeria, stepping up persecution of tribal groups.
The initial seizure of Algeria by the French coupled with the suppression of the Revolt of 1871 instilled an ever-present form of resentment by the Algerians for the French. Furthermore a growing resentment between rival political groups in Algeria touched off the initial conflict in 1954 when the FLN (Front de Lib�ration nationale) initiated guerilla bombings of several French military posts and government buildings. This occurred shortly after the fall of the French union at Dien Bien Phu. The FLN was struggling for liberation from the French government and sought to gain control over Algeria. The FLN was initially known as the CRUA1 (Revolutionary Committee for Unity and Action) but turned into the FLN shortly before its initial attacks on French establishments in 1954. Throughout the conflict in Algeria the FLN would remain the prominent force opposing the French.
Once open conflict had begun on both sides France began digging in, committing over 400,000 troops into Algeria by 1956. This came as a direct result to the increase in FLN activity and brutality. In the town of Phillipeville in 1955, the FLN massacred a23 civilians including women and children. The French responded by bombing several FLN friendly areas, killing Algerians in the thousands. The French government only recognized the killing of some 1,200 guerillas but FLN body counts claimed that over 12,000 Muslim (combatants and noncombatants) were killed. While the Body count will never be truly verified the fact remains that both sides became guilty of horrible atrocities.
Soon after the Phillipeville massacre the then prime minister of France, Edgar Faure called early elections in January of 1956. The result was the installment of Guy Mollet as President of the French counsel, the people believed Mollet would continue with progressive movements in Algeria however under pressure from protestors Mollet put the power in the military’s hands which in turn resulted in even more atrocities against the FLN. A major problem resulting from the military’s unchecked power in Algeria came about when widespread torture methods were implemented by the French army against captured members of the FLN and other Algerian liberation organizations. The torture became so brutal that protests in France broke out comparing the French Army to that of Nazi Germany during world war two.
source
Algeria : the revolution institutionalized / John P. Entelis.
Boulder, Colo. : Westview Press ; London : Croom Helm, 1986.
