V o L u m e I : a d

continue to wage war on the state, which maintains control through brutal

repression and tainted elections.

Elun Gabriel

See also

Africa; Algerian War; France; Morocco; Non-Aligned Movement; Sétif Uprising

References

Ruedy, John. Modern Algeria: The Origins and Development of a Nation. Bloomington:

Indiana University Press, 1992.

Stora, Benjamin. Algeria, 1830–2000: A Short History. Translated by Jane Marie Todd.

Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001.

Eight-year military effort by France (1954–1962) to maintain its hold on its

last, largest, and most important colony. France regarded the Algerian War as

part of the larger Cold War and tried unsuccessfully to convince its North

Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) partners that keeping Algeria French

was in the best interests of the alliance. Unsupported by its allies, France

found itself increasingly isolated in diplomatic circles. Ultimately, it experi-

enced a humiliating defeat and a colonial exodus.

For 130 years, Algeria had been at the core of the French Empire. France

conquered Algiers in 1830 and expanded the territory. Algeria became the

headquarters of the French Foreign Legion (at Sidi-Bel-Abbès) and home to

the largest number of European settlers in the Islamic world. In 1960 there

were 1 million Europeans (colons) in Algeria. Unique among French colonies,

Algeria became a political component of France, as Algiers, Constantine, and

Oran were made departments of the French Republic and had representa-

tion in the French Chamber of Deputies.

Nonetheless, Algeria was not fully three French departments, as only

the European population enjoyed full rights there. The colon and Muslim

populations lived separate and unequal lives, with the Europeans controlling

the bulk of the wealth. During this time, the French expanded Algeria’s

frontiers deep into the Sahara.

The Great Depression of the 1930s affected Algeria’s Muslims more

than any experience since their conquest, as they began to migrate from the

countryside into the cities in search of work. Subsequently, the Muslim birth-

rate climbed dramatically because of easier access to health care facilities.

While the colons sought to preserve their status, French officials vacil-

lated between promoting colon interests and promoting reforms for the

Muslims. Pro-Muslim reform efforts ultimately failed because of political

pressure from the colons and their representatives in Paris. While French

political theorists debated between assimilation and autonomy for Algeria’s

Muslims, the Muslim majority remained largely resentful of the privileged

status of the colons.

Algerian War

103

Algerian War

(1954–1962)

Unique among

French colonies,

Algeria became a

political component

of France, as Algiers,

Constantine, and

Oran were made

departments of the

French Republic

and had represen-

tation in the French

Chamber of

Deputies.

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The first Muslim political organizations appeared in the 1930s, the most

important of these being Ahmed Messali Hadj’s Mouvement pour le Triomphe

des Libertés Démocratiques (MTLD). World War II brought opportunities

for change that increasing numbers of Algerian Muslims desired. Following

the Anglo-American landings in North Africa in November 1942, Muslim

activists met with American envoy Robert Murphy and Free French General

Henri Giraud concerning postwar freedoms but received no firm commit-

ments. As the war in Europe was ending and the Arab League was forming,

pent-up Muslim frustrations were vented in the Sétif Uprising of 8 May

1945. Muslim mobs massacred colons before colonial troops restored order,

and hundreds of Muslims were killed in a colon reprisal that was termed a

“rat-hunt.”

Returning Muslim veterans were shocked by what they regarded as the

French government’s heavy-handed actions after Sétif, and some (including

veteran Ahmed Ben Bella) joined the MTLD. Ben Bella went on to form the

MTLD’s paramilitary branch, the Organization Speciale, and soon fled to

Egypt to enlist the support of President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Proindepen-

dence Algerian Muslims were emboldened by Ho Chi Minh’s victory over

French forces at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam in May 1954, and when Algerian

Muslim leaders met Ho at the Bandung Conference in April 1955, he told

them that the French could be defeated.

Ben Bella and his compatriots formed the Front de Libération Nationale

(FLN) on 10 October 1954, and the FLN revolution officially began on the

night of 31 October–1 November. The FLN organized its manpower into

several military districts, or wilayas. Its goal was to end French control of

Algeria and drive out or eliminate the colon population. Wilaya 4, located

near Algiers, was especially important, and the FLN was particularly active

in Kabylia and the Aures Mountains. The party’s organization was rigidly

hierarchical and tolerated no dissent. In form and style, it resembled Soviet

bloc communist parties, although it claimed to offer a noncommunist and

non-Western alternative ideology, articulated by Frantz Fanon.

As France increased the number of its military forces in Algeria to fight

the growing insurgency, French officials sought support from NATO partners

in the Algerian War, arguing that keeping Algeria French would ensure that

NATO’s southern flank would be safe from communism. As a part of France,

Algeria was included in the original NATO charter. Washington’s position,

nonetheless, was that European colonial empires were obsolete. Furthermore,

U.S. officials believed that the United States could positively influence

decolonization movements in the developing world.

The Arab League promoted Pan-Arabism and the image of universal

Arab and Muslim support for the FLN. The French grant of independence

to both Tunisia and Morocco in March 1956 further bolstered Algeria’s

Muslims. When France, Britain, and Israel invaded Egypt in the Suez Crisis

of 1956, both the United States and the Soviet Union condemned the move,

and the French, unable to topple Nasser, were forced to contend with an

FLN supply base that they could neither attack nor eliminate.

104

Algerian War

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