The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian War of Independence or the Algerian Revolution ( ; ; or ) was fought between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (. FLN) from 1954 to 1962.
The war led to Algeria gaining its independence from France. It was known for its use of guerrilla warfare and for the massive use of torture on both sides. The war took place mainly in Algeria.
It brought France to the verge of military coup d'état; which caused the fall of the Fourth Republic (1946-58), and transformed the French constitution.
Background and causes
Conquest of Algeria
Until the early nineteenth century, Algeria or the Regency of Algeris was part of the Ottoman Empire. The area was governed by local governors called dey. The population was made up largely of Arabs and Berbers, but there were other tribal communities spread throughout the provinces and the Sahara. After the French Revolution and the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the French Republic had bought 8 million francs worth of grain from the Algerians. That was to be refunded later, which did not happen.
In 1827, the dey invited a French ambassador to pay some of the debt. The encounter resulted into a conflict in which the Algerian dey hit the French consul in the face with a fly-whisk. The French were furious and decided to blockade the Algerian city of Algiers. However, historians agree that the fly-whisk incident, as serious as it was, was only a pretext.
The initial French conquest of Algeria was relatively easy. French troops left Toulon on May 25 1830, landed in Algeria on June 14, and by July 5, Algiers had capitulated. The French troops slaughtered civilians, looted, and destroyed mosques and cemeteries. In 1834, the dey was overthrown, and Algeria became a colony of France. In 1848, France added the region to its own empire and divided it into three departments: Alger, Oran and Constantine. The French thought that they would conquer the rest of the country in a matter of time, but they faced a strong resistance from Algerians that could not be put down until 1857 with the bloody Campaign of Kabylie and the Battle of Icheridden. Moreover, French became the official language.
Many French people and other Europeans migrated to Algeria. Known as pieds-noirs (literally "black feet"), they were Algerian-born French and often often cruel against indigenous populations. They killed and expelled many local inhabitants. According to the American historian Jennifer Sessions, the local population shrank from more than 4 million to 2.3 million during the first 25years of French colonisation (1830-1855).
Algerian Nationalism
The first expressions of Algerian nationalism started with the revolt of an Algerian chief, Emir Abdelkader, against French colonial rule in the 1830s. It was only a stubborn and unsuccessful opposition, Abdelkader's defence of his country can be seen as the first step to an eventual nationalist identity. It was, however, by no means the end of the resistance to the French presence in Algeria since outbreaks of armed rebellion continued throughout the 19th century. The Kabyles in the mountains east of Algiers, for example, fought in the Battle of Icheridden in 1857 and rose again in 1871, when France had lost a war against Prussia. Anti-French revolts came up in the southern towns of Touggourt and Ouargla about the same time.
In the early 20th century, Algerians again sought for equality of rights and the removal of special administrative powers over Muslims. Algerian nationalism arose out of the efforts of four different groups.