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{{Lead section|date=January 2013}}
{{Refimprove|date=November 2010}}
{{Infobox military conflict
|conflict=Algerian War
|partof=
|image=[[File:Algerian war collage wikipedia.jpg|300px]]
|caption=
|date=1 November 1954 – 19 March 1962<br />({{Age in years, months, weeks and days|month1=11|day1=01|year1=1954|month2=03|day2=19|year2=1962}})
|place=[[Algeria]]
|casus=Toussaint Rouge terrorist attacks in French Algeria by the FLN, 1 November 1954.
|territory=
|result=French military victory<br />FLN political victory<br />[[Évian Accords]]
* Algerian independence
* Exodus of the [[Pied-Noir|Pieds-Noirs]]
|combatant1= {{Flag icon|Algeria|1958}} [[National Liberation Front (Algeria)|FLN]] ([[Armée de Libération Nationale|ALN]])<br />{{Flag icon|Algeria|1958}} [[Mouvement National Algérien|MNA]]<br />[[File:Flag of Algerian Communist Party.svg|23px]] [[Algerian Communist Party|PCA]]
|combatant2={{Flag icon|France}} [[French Fourth Republic]] (1954–1958)<br />{{Flag icon|France}} [[French Fifth Republic]] (1958–1962)
|combatant3={{Flag icon|France}} [[Front Algérie Française|FAF]]<br />(1960–61)<br />[[File:Oas logo public.svg|23px]] [[Organisation de l'armée secrète|OAS]] <br />(1961–62)
|commander1=[[Saadi Yacef]]<br />[[Mustapha Benboulaïd]]†<br />[[Ferhat Abbas]]<br />[[Houari Boumedienne]]<br />[[Hocine Aït Ahmed]]<br />[[Ahmed Ben Bella]]<br />[[Krim Belkacem]]<br />[[Frantz Fanon]]<br />[[Larbi Ben M'Hidi]]†<br />[[Rabah Bitat]]<br />[[Mohamed Boudiaf]]<br /> [[Ali La Pointe]]
|commander2=[[Paul Cherrière]] (1954–55)<br /> [[Henri Lorillot]] (1955–56) <br /> [[Raoul Salan]] (1956–58) <br /> [[Maurice Challe]] (1958–60) <br /> [[Jean Crepin]] (1960–61) <br /> [[Fernand Gambiez]] (1961)
|commander3=[[Pierre Lagaillarde]]<br />[[Raoul Salan]]<br />[[Edmond Jouhaud]]<br />[[Jean-Jacques Susini]] <br /> [[Said Boualam]]<br /> [[Paul Aussaresses]]
|strength1=40,000
|strength2=670,000<ref name="French Army strength">Martin Windrow, ''The Algerian War 1954–62.'' p. 17</ref><br />90,000 [[Harki]]
|strength3=3,000 (OAS)
|casualties1=  153,000 dead<ref>Anthony Clayton, Frontiersmen: Warfare In Africa Since 1950</ref><ref name="Alistair Horne 1977">Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace (1977)</ref><br />unknown number of wounded
|casualties2=25,600 dead<br />65,000 wounded
|casualties3=100 dead (OAS)<br />2,000 jailed (OAS)
|notes = <big><center>400,000–1,500,000 total Algerian war dead<ref>[http://www.france24.com/en/20120316-commemorations-mark-end-algerian-war-independence-france-evian-accords France remembers the Algerian War, 50 years on] France 24</ref>
}}

{{Campaignbox Algerian War}}

The '''Algerian War''', also known as the '''Algerian War of Independence''' or the '''Algerian Revolution''' ({{langx|ar|الثورة الجزائرية}} ''Ath-Thawra Al-Jazā’iriyya''; {{langx|fr|Guerre d'Algérie}}, "Algerian War") was a war between [[France]] and the [[Algeria]]n independence movements from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria gaining its independence from France. An important [[Wars of national liberation|decolonization war]], it was a complex conflict characterized by [[guerrilla warfare]], [[Maquis (World War II)|maquis]] fighting, [[terrorism]] against civilians, the use of torture on both sides, and [[counter-terrorism]] operations by the [[French Army]]. The conflict was also a [[civil war]] between loyalist Algerians who believed in a French Algeria and their insurrectionist Algerian [[Muslim]] counterparts.<ref>[[:fr:Guy Pervillé|Guy Pervillé]], ''Pour une histoire de la guerre d´Algérie'', chap. "Une double guerre civile", Picard, 2002, pp.132–139</ref> Effectively started by members of the [[National Liberation Front (Algeria)|National Liberation Front]] (FLN) on November 1, 1954, during the ''[[Toussaint Rouge]]'' ("Red [[All Saints' Day]]"), the conflict shook the foundations of the [[French Fourth Republic]] (1946–58) and led to its eventual collapse.

== Overview ==
The war involved a large number of rival movements which fought against each other at different moments, such as on the independence side, when the [[National Liberation Front (Algeria)|National Liberation Front]] (FLN) fought viciously against the [[Algerian National Movement]] (MNA) in Algeria and in the [[Café Wars]] on the French mainland; on the pro-French side, during its final months, when the conflict evolved into a civil war between pro-French hardliners in Algeria and supporters of General [[Charles de Gaulle]]. The French Army split during two attempted coups, while the right-wing [[Organisation de l'armée secrète]] (OAS) fought against both the FLN and the French government's forces.

Under directives from [[Guy Mollet]]'s [[French Section of the Workers' International]] (SFIO) government and from [[François Mitterrand]], who was minister of the interior, the French Army initiated a campaign of "pacification" of what was considered at the time to be a full part of France. This "public-order operation" quickly grew to a full-scale war. Algerians, who had at first largely favored a peaceful resolution, turned increasingly toward the goal of independence, supported by Arab countries and, more generally, by worldwide opinion fueled by anti-colonialist ideas. Meanwhile, the French were divided on the issues of "[[French Algeria]]" (''l'Algérie Française''), specifically, concerning whether to keep the status-quo, negotiate a status intermediate between independence and complete integration in the French Republic, or allow complete independence. The French army finally obtained a military victory in the war, but the situation had changed, and Algerian independence could no longer be forestalled.

Because of the instability in France, the French Fourth Republic was dissolved. [[Charles de Gaulle]] returned to power during the [[May 1958 crisis]] and subsequently founded the [[French Fifth Republic|Fifth Republic]] with his [[Gaullist]] followers. De Gaulle's return to power was supposed to ensure Algeria's continued occupation and integration with the [[French Community]], which had replaced the [[French Union]] and brought together [[French colonial empire|France's colonies]]. However, de Gaulle progressively shifted in favor of Algerian independence, purportedly seeing it as inevitable. De Gaulle organized a vote for the Algerian people. The Algerians chose independence, and France engaged in negotiations with the FLN, leading to the March 1962 [[Evian Accords]], which resulted in the independence of Algeria.

After the failed April 1961 [[Algiers putsch]], organized by generals hostile to the negotiations headed by [[Michel Debré]]'s Gaullist government, the [[Organisation de l'armée secrète|OAS]] (''Organisation de l'armée secrète''), which grouped various opponents of Algerian independence, initiated a campaign of bombings. It also initiated peaceful strikes and demonstrations in Algeria in order to block the implementation of the Evian Accords and the exile of the [[Pied-Noir|pieds-noirs]] (Algerians of European origin). [[Ahmed Ben Bella]], who had been arrested in 1956 along with other FLN leaders, became the first [[President of Algeria]].

To this day, the war has provided an important strategy frame for [[counter-insurgency]] thinkers, while the use of torture by the French Army has provoked a moral and political debate on the legitimacy and effectiveness of such methods. This debate is far from being settled because torture was used by both sides.

The Algerian war was a founding event in modern Algerian history. It left long-standing scars in both French and Algerian societies and continues to affect some segments of society in both countries.{{Citation needed|date=February 2009}} It was not until June 1999, 37 years after the conclusion of the conflict, that the [[French National Assembly]] officially acknowledged that a "war" had taken place,<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/365868.stm World: Africa, France admits Algerian campaign was 'war'], [[BBC]]. Retrieved on 2008-11-16.</ref> while the [[Paris massacre of 1961]] was recognized by the French state only in October 2001. On the other hand, the [[Oran massacre of 1962]] by the FLN has also not yet been recognized by the Algerian state. Relations between France and Algeria are still deeply marked by this conflict and its aftermath.

== Background: French Algeria ==
{{Main|French rule in Algeria |Nationalism and resistance in Algeria}}

=== Conquest of Algeria ===
On the pretext of a slight to their consul, the French invaded Algiers in 1830.<ref>Alistair Horne, (2006). A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954–1962, New York</ref> Directed by [[Thomas Robert Bugeaud|Marshall Bugeaud]], who became the first [[Colonial heads of Algeria|Governor-General of Algeria]], the conquest was violent, marked by a "[[scorched earth]]" policy designed to reduce the power of the [[Dey]]; this included massacres, mass rapes, and other atrocities.<ref name=Grandmaison/> Applauding Bugeaud's method, [[Liberalism|liberal]] thinker [[Alexis de Tocqueville]] could declare: "War in Africa is a science. Everyone is familiar with its rules and everyone can apply those rules with almost complete certainty of success. One of the greatest services that Field Marshal Bugeaud has rendered his country is to have spread, perfected and made everyone aware of this new science."<ref name=Grandmaison>{{Cite news| author=[[Olivier Le Cour Grandmaison]] | title=Torture in Algeria: Past Acts That Haunt France – Liberty, Equality and Colony | work=[[Le Monde diplomatique]] | date=June 2001 | year=2001 | url=http://mondediplo.com/2001/06/11torture2}} (quoting [[Alexis de Tocqueville]], ''Travail sur l'Algérie'' in ''Œuvres complètes'', Paris, Gallimard, [[Bibliothèque de la Pléiade]], 1991, pp 704 and 705.{{in lang|en|fr}}</ref>

In 1834, Algeria became a French military colony and, in 1848, was declared by the [[French Constitution of 1848|constitution of 1848]] to be an integral part of French territory and divided into three [[French departments]] (Algiers, [[Oran (department)|Oran]] and Constantine). After Algeria was divided into the French departments, many French and other Europeans (Spanish, Italians, Maltese, and others) began to settle in Algeria.

Under the [[Second French Empire|Second Empire]] (1852–1871), the ''[[Indigénat|Code de l'indigénat]]'' (Indigenous Code) was implemented by the ''[[Sénatus-consulte]]'' of July 14, 1865. It allowed Muslims to apply for full French citizenship, a measure that few took, since it involved renouncing the right to be governed by ''[[sharia]]'' law in personal matters and was considered a kind of [[apostasy]]. Its first article stipulated <blockquote>: "The indigenous Muslim is French; however, he will continue to be subjected to Muslim law. He may be admitted to serve in the army (armée de terre) and the navy (armée de mer). He may be called to functions and civil employment in Algeria. He may, on his demand, be admitted to enjoy the rights of a [[French citizenship|French citizen]]; in this case, he is subjected to the political and civil laws of France." (for French original, see below)<ref>''"L'indigène musulman est français; néanmoins il continuera à être régi par la loi musulmane. Il peut être admis à servir dans les armées de terre et de mer. Il peut être appelé à des fonctions et emplois civils en Algérie. Il peut, sur sa demande, être admis à jouir des droits de citoyen français; dans ce cas, il est régi par les lois civiles et politiques de la France" (article 1 of the 1865 [[Code de l'indigénat]])</ref></blockquote>

However, until 1870, fewer than 200 demands were registered by Muslims and 152 by Jewish Algerians.<ref name="Indigenous">[http://www.ldh-toulon.net/spip.php?article527 le code de l'indigénat dans l'Algérie coloniale], ''[[Human Rights League (France)|Human Rights League]]'' (LDH), March 6, 2005 – URL accessed on January 17, 2007 {{in lang|fr}}</ref>
The 1865 decree was then modified by the 1870 [[Adolphe Crémieux|Crémieux decrees]], which granted [[French nationality]] to Jews living in one of the three Algerian departments. In 1881, the ''Code de l'Indigénat'' made the [[discrimination]] official by creating specific penalities for indigenes and organizing the seizure or appropriation of their lands.<ref name="Indigenous"/>

After the World War II, equality of rights was proclaimed by the ''Ordonnance'' of March 7, 1944, and later confirmed by the ''Loi Lamine Guèye'' of May 7, 1946, which granted French citizenship to all the subjects of France's territories and overseas departments, and by the 1946 Constitution. The Law of September 20, 1947, granted French citizenship to all Algerian subjects, who were not required to renounce their Muslim personal status.<ref>Gianluca P. Parolin, ''Citizenship in the Arab World: Kin, Religion and Nation'', Amsterdam University Press, 2009, pp.94–95</ref>

Algeria was unique to France because, unlike all other overseas possessions acquired by France during the 19th century, only Algeria was considered an integral part of France in the same manner that Alaska and Hawaii are considered states in the United States of America, despite their geographic distance from the mainland.

=== Algerian nationalism ===
[[File:Algier1954.ogg|thumb|1954 film about French Algeria]]
Both native and European Algerians took part in World War I, fighting for France. Natives as ''[[Tirailleur#Colonial period|tirailleurs]]'' (such regiments were created as early as 1842<ref>[http://www.ldh-toulon.net/spip.php?article297 les tirailleurs, bras armé de la France coloniale], ''[[Human Rights League (France)|Human Rights League]]'' (LDH), August 25, 2004 – URL accessed on January 17, 2007 {{in lang|fr}}</ref>) and [[spahi]]s ; and French settlers as [[Zouaves]] or [[Chasseurs d'Afrique]]. With [[Woodrow Wilson|Wilson]]'s 1918 proclamation of the [[Fourteen Points]], whose fifth point proclaimed: "A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of [[sovereignty]] the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined", some Algerian intellectuals—dubbed ''[[oulémas]]'' began to nurture the desire for independence or, at least, [[autonomy]] and [[self-rule]].

Within this context, a grandson of [[Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza'iri|Abd el-Kadir]], spearheaded the resistance against the French in the first half of the 20th century. He was a member of the directing committee of the [[French Communist Party]] (PCF)). In 1926, he founded the ''[[Étoile Nord-Africaine]]'' (North African Star) party, to which [[Messali Hadj]], also a member of the PCF and of its affiliated trade union, the [[Confédération générale du travail unitaire]] (CGTU), joined the following year.

The North African Star broke from the PCF in 1928, before being dissolved in 1929 at Paris's demand. Amid growing discontent from the Algerian population, the [[French Third Republic|Third Republic]] (1871–1940) acknowledged some demands, and the [[Popular Front (France)|Popular Front]] initiated the [[Blum-Viollette proposal]] in 1936 which was supposed to enlighten the Indigenous Code by giving French citizenship to a small number of Muslims. The ''pieds-noirs'' (Algerians of European origin), however, violently demonstrated against it; North African Party opposed it; these led to the project's abandonment. The independent party was dissolved in 1937, and its leaders were charged with the illegal reconstitution of a dissolved league, leading to Messali Hadj's 1937 founding of the ''[[Algerian People's Party|Parti du peuple algérien]]'' (Algerian People's Party, PPA), which, at this time, no longer espoused full independence but only an extensive autonomy. This new party was again dissolved in 1939. Under [[Vichy France|Vichy]], the French state attempted to abrogate the Crémieux decree in order to suppress the Jews' having French citizenship, but the measure was never implemented.

On the other hand, independent leader [[Ferhat Abbas]] founded the [[Algerian Popular Union]] (''Union populaire algérienne'') in 1938, while writing in 1943 the Algerian People's Manifest (''Manifeste du peuple algérien''). Arrested after the [[Sétif massacre]] of May 8, 1945, during which the French Army and Pied Noir mobs killed about 6,000 Algerians,<ref>Horne, Alistair, ''A Savage War of Peace'', s. 27</ref> Abbas founded the [[Democratic Union of the Algerian Manifesto]] (UDMA) in 1946 and was elected as a deputy. Founded in 1954, the [[National Liberation Front (Algeria)|National Liberation Front]] (FLN) succeeded Messali Hadj's Algerian People's Party (PPA), while its leaders created an armed wing, the ''[[Armée de Libération Nationale]]'' (National Liberation Army) to engage in an [[armed struggle]] against French authority.

== War chronology ==
=== Beginning of hostilities ===
In the early morning hours of November 1, 1954, FLN ''maquisards'' (guerrillas) or "terrorists", as they were called by the French, launched attacks in various parts of Algeria against military and civilian targets in what became known as the ''[[Toussaint Rouge]]'' (Red [[All-Saints' Day]]). They also attacked many French civilians, killing several.{{Citation needed|date=October 2007}} From [[Cairo]], the FLN broadcast a proclamation calling on Muslims in Algeria to join in a national struggle for the "restoration of the Algerian state – sovereign, democratic and social – within the framework of the principles of Islam." It was the reaction of Premier [[Pierre Mendès France]] ([[Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party|Radical-Socialist Party]]), who only a few months before had completed the liquidation of France's empire in [[French Indochina|Indochina]], which set the tone of French policy for five years. On November 12, he declared in the National Assembly: "One does not compromise when it comes to defending the internal peace of the nation, the unity and integrity of the Republic. The Algerian departments are part of the French Republic. They have been French for a long time, and they are irrevocably French.... Between them and metropolitan France there can be no conceivable secession." At first, and despite the [[Sétif massacre]] of May 8, 1945 "that have between 20 000 and 45 000 deaths, according to other sources", and the pro-Independence struggle before World War II, most Algerians were in favor of a relative status-quo. While Messali Hadj had radicalized by forming the FLN, Ferhat Abbas maintained a more moderate, electoral strategy. Fewer than 500 ''[[fellaghas]]'' (pro-Independence fighters) could be counted at the beginning of the conflict.<ref name="Boisset">"Alger-Bagdad", account of [[Yves Boisset]]'s film documentary, ''[[The Battle of Algiers (film)|La Bataille d'Algers]]'' (2006), in ''[[Le Canard enchaîné]]'', January 10, 2007, n°4498, p.7</ref> The Algerian population radicalized itself in particular because of the ''[[Main Rouge]]'' (Red Hand) terrorist attacks.<ref name="Boisset"/> This terrorist group engaged in anti-colonialist actions in all of the [[Maghreb]] region ([[Morocco]], [[Tunisia]] and Algeria), killing, for example, Tunisian activist [[Farhat Hached]] in 1952.

=== The FLN ===


The FLN uprising presented nationalist groups with the question of whether to adopt armed revolt as the main course of action. During the first year of the war, [[Ferhat Abbas]]'s [[Democratic Union of the Algerian Manifesto]] (UDMA), the [[ulema]], and the [[Algerian Communist Party]] (PCA) maintained a friendly neutrality toward the FLN. The [[communism|communists]], who had made no move to cooperate in the uprising at the start, later tried to infiltrate the FLN, but FLN leaders publicly repudiated the support of the party. In April 1956, Abbas flew to Cairo, where he formally joined the FLN. This action brought in many ''évolués'' who had supported the UDMA in the past. The [[AUMA]] also threw the full weight of its prestige behind the FLN. Bendjelloul and the pro-integrationist moderates had already abandoned their efforts to mediate between the French and the rebels.

After the collapse of the [[MTLD]], the veteran nationalist [[Messali Hadj]] formed the [[leftist]] [[Mouvement National Algérien]] (MNA), which advocated a policy of violent revolution and total independence similar to that of the FLN, but aimed to compete with that organisation. The [[Armée de Libération Nationale]] (ALN), the military wing of the FLN, subsequently wiped out the MNA [[guerrilla warfare|guerrilla]] operation in Algeria, and Messali Hadj's movement lost what little influence it had had there. However, the MNA retained the support of many Algerian workers in France through the [[Union Syndicale des Travailleurs Algériens]] (the [[Trade union|Union]] of Algerian Workers). The FLN also established a strong organization in France to oppose the MNA. The "[[Café wars]]", resulting in nearly 5,000 deaths, were waged in France between the two rebel groups throughout the years of the War of Independence.

[[File:Six chefs FLN - 1954.jpg|thumb|left|the six historical Leaders of the FLN]]

On the political front, the FLN worked to persuade — and to coerce — the Algerian masses to support the aims of the independence movement through contributions. FLN-influenced labor unions, professional associations, and students' and women's organizations were created to lead opinion in diverse segments of the population, but here too violent coercion was widely used. [[Frantz Fanon]], a psychiatrist from [[Martinique]] who became the FLN's leading political theorist, provided a sophisticated intellectual justification for the use of violence in achieving national liberation.<ref>Wretched of the Earth, 1961, Fanon.</ref> He stated that only through violence could an oppressed people attain human status.{{Citation needed|date=June 2008}} From [[Cairo]], [[Ahmed Ben Bella]] ordered the liquidation of potential ''interlocuteurs valables'', those independent representatives of the [[Muslim]] community acceptable to the French through whom a compromise or reforms within the system might be achieved.

As the FLN campaign of influence and terror spread through the countryside, many European farmers in the interior (called ''[[pied-noir|Pieds-Noirs]]'') sold their holdings and sought refuge in [[Algiers]] and other Algerian cities. After a series of bloody, random massacres and bombings by Muslim Algerians in several towns and cities, the French ''Pieds-Noirs'' and urban French population began to demand that the French government engage in sterner countermeasures, including the proclamation of a state of emergency, capital punishment for political crimes, denunciation of all separatists, and most ominously, a call for 'tit-for-tat' reprisal operations by police, military, and para-military forces. ''[[Colon (Algeria)|Colon]]'' vigilante units, whose unauthorized activities were conducted with the passive cooperation of police authorities, carried out ''ratonnades'' (literally, ''rat-hunts'', ''raton'' being a racist term for denigrating Muslim Algerians) against suspected FLN members of the Muslim community.

By 1955 effective political action groups within the Algerian colonial community succeeded in convincing many of the governors general sent by Paris that the military was not the way to resolve the conflict. A major success was the conversion of [[Jacques Soustelle]], who went to Algeria as governor general in January 1955 determined to restore peace. Soustelle, a one-time leftist and by 1955 an ardent Gaullist, began an ambitious reform program (the [[Soustelle Plan]]) aimed at improving economic conditions among the Muslim population (Library of Congress).

=== After the Philippeville massacre ===
[[File:1955-08-25 Rebellion Spreads in North Africa.ogv|thumb|Universal [[Newsreel]]s ''Rebellion Spreads in North Africa'', 1955]]

The FLN adopted tactics similar to those of nationalist groups in Asia, and the French did not realize the seriousness of the challenge they faced until 1955, when the FLN moved into urbanized areas. "An important watershed in the War of Independence was [[Battle of Philippeville|the massacre of Pieds-Noirs civilians]] by the FLN near the town of [[Philippeville, Algeria|Philippeville]] (now known as [[Skikda]]) in August 1955. Before this operation, FLN policy was to attack only military and government-related targets. The commander of the [[Constantine, Algeria|Constantine]] ''wilaya''/region, however, decided a drastic escalation was needed. The killing by the FLN and its supporters of 123 people, including 71 French,<ref name="Gers">[http://www.gers.pref.gouv.fr/acvg/documents/reperesalger.htm Number given by the] [[Prefectures in France|Préfecture]] du [[Gers]], French governmental site – URL accessed on February 17, 2007</ref> including old women and babies, shocked [[Jacques Soustelle]] into calling for more repressive measures against the rebels. The government claimed it killed 1,273 guerrillas in retaliation; according to the FLN and to ''[[The Times]]'' magazine, 12,000 Algerians were massacred by the armed forces and police, as well as ''Pieds-Noirs'' gangs.<ref>[http://uk.encarta.msn.com/sidebar_1461500715/Philippeville_Massacre_The_Times_Report.html Philippeville Massacre]{{Dead link|date=October 2009|bot=WebCiteBOT}}, ''[[The Times]]'' Report published on August 22, 1955</ref> Soustelle's repression was an early cause of the Algerian population's rallying to the FLN.<ref name="Gers"/> After Philippeville, Soustelle declared sterner measures and an all-out war began. In 1956 demonstrations of French Algerians forced the French government to abolish an idea of reform.

Soustelle's successor, Governor General Lacoste, a socialist, abolished the [[Algerian Assembly]]. Lacoste saw the assembly, which was dominated by ''[[pied-noir|pieds-noirs]]'', as hindering the work of his administration, and he undertook the rule of Algeria by decree. He favored stepping up French military operations and granted the army exceptional police powers—a concession of dubious legality under French law—to deal with the mounting political violence. At the same time, Lacoste proposed a new administrative structure that would give Algeria a degree of autonomy and a decentralized government. Whilst remaining an integral part of France, Algeria was to be divided into five districts, each of which would have a territorial assembly elected from a single slate of candidates. Deputies representing Algerian risings were able to delay until 1958 passage of the measure by the [[National Assembly of France]].

In August/September 1956, the internal leadership of the FLN met to organize a formal policy-making body to synchronize the movement's political and military activities. The highest authority of the FLN was vested in the thirty-four-member [[National Council of the Algerian Revolution]] (Conseil National de la Révolution Algérienne, CNRA), within which the five-man Committee of Coordination and Enforcement (''Comité de Coordination et d'Exécution'', CCE) formed the executive. The externals, including Ben Bella, knew the conference was taking place but by chance or design on the part of the internals were unable to attend.

Meanwhile, in October 1956, the [[French Air Force]] intercepted a Moroccan [[DC-3]] that was flying to [[Tunis]], carrying [[Ahmed Ben Bella]], [[Mohammed Boudiaf]], [[Mohamed Khider]] and [[Hocine Aït Ahmed]], and forced it to land in Algiers. Lacoste had the FLN external political leaders arrested and imprisoned for the duration of the war. This action caused the remaining rebel leaders to harden their stance.

France took a more openly hostile view of [[Egypt]]ian President [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]]'s material and political assistance to the FLN, which some French analysts believed was the most important element in sustaining continued rebel activity in Algeria. This attitude was a factor in persuading France to participate in the November 1956 British attempt to seize the [[Suez Canal]] during the [[Suez Crisis]].

During 1957 support for the FLN weakened as the breach between the internals and externals widened. To halt the drift, the FLN expanded its executive committee to include Abbas, as well as imprisoned political leaders such as Ben Bella. It also convinced communist and Arab members of the [[United Nations]] (UN) to put diplomatic pressure on the French government to negotiate a cease-fire.

Writer, philosopher and playwright [[Albert Camus]], native of Algiers, often associated with [[existentialism]], tried unsuccessfully to persuade both sides to at least leave civilians alone, writing editorials against the use of torture in ''[[Combat (newspaper)|Combat]]'' newspaper.

The FLN considered him a fool, and some [[Pied-Noir]]s considered him a traitor. Nevertheless, in his speech when he received the Literature Nobel Prize in Oslo, Camus said that when faced with a radical choice he would eventually support his community. This statement made him lose his status among the left-wing intellectuals; when he died in 1960 in a car crash, the official thesis of an ordinary accident (a quick open-and-shut case) has left more than a few observers doubtful. His widow has claimed that Camus, though discreet, was in fact an ardent supporter of French Algeria in the last years of his life.

=== Battle of Algiers ===
To increase international and domestic French attention to their struggle, the FLN decided to bring the conflict to the cities and to call a nationwide [[general strike]] and also to plant bombs in public places. The most notable manifestation of the new urban campaign was the Battle of Algiers, which began on September 30, 1956, when three women, including [[Djamila Bouhired]] and [[Zohra Drif]], simultaneously placed bombs at three sites including the downtown office of [[Air France]]. The FLN carried out an average of 800 shootings and bombings per month through the spring of 1957,{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}} resulting in many civilian casualties and inviting a crushing response from the authorities. The 1957 general strike, timed to coincide with, and influence, the UN debate on Algeria, was largely observed by Muslim workers and businesses.{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}}

General [[Jacques Massu]] was instructed to use whatever methods deemed necessary to restore order in the city and to find and eliminate terrorists. Using paratroopers, he broke the strike and then in the succeeding months systematically destroyed the FLN infrastructure in Algiers. But the FLN had succeeded in showing its ability to strike at the heart of French Algeria and to rally and force a mass response to its demands among urban Muslims. The publicity given to the brutal methods used by the army to win the Battle of Algiers, including the use of torture, a strong movement control and curfew called ''quadrillage'' and where all authority was under the military, created doubt in France about its role in Algeria. This doubt was strongly communicated to France by French sympathisers in Algiers who supported the idea of independence morally, financially and materially. What had been originally thought of as a simple "[[Peace|pacification]]" or "public order operation" had turned into a fully fledged [[colonial war]] to block the influence of the guerillas and had resulted in the introduction of torture.

=== Guerrilla war ===
[[File: 1956-05-21 France Digs in For Total War in Algeria.ogv|thumb|1956 newsreel about the war]]
From its origins in 1954 as ragtag ''maquisards'' numbering in the hundreds and armed with a motley assortment of hunting rifles and discarded French, German, and American light weapons, the FLN had evolved by 1957 into a disciplined fighting force of 40,000.{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}} More than 30,000 were organized along conventional lines in external units that were stationed in Moroccan and Tunisian sanctuaries,{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}} where they served primarily to divert some French manpower from the main theaters of guerrilla activity to guard against infiltration. The brunt of the fighting was borne by the internals in the ''[[wilayat]]''; estimates of the numbers of internals range from 6,000 to more than 25,000.{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}}

During 1956 and 1957, the FLN successfully applied [[hit-and-run tactics|hit-and-run]] tactics in accordance with [[guerrilla warfare]] theory. Whilst some of this was aimed at military targets, a significant amount was invested in a terror campaign against those in any way deemed to be supporting or encouraging French authority. This resulted in acts of sadistic torture and the most brutal violence against all, including women and children. Specializing in ambushes and night raids and avoiding direct contact with superior French firepower, the internal forces targeted army patrols, military encampments, police posts, and colonial farms, mines, and factories, as well as transportation and communications facilities. Once an engagement was broken off, the guerrillas merged with the population in the countryside, in accordance with Mao's theories. Kidnapping was commonplace, as were the ritual murder and mutilation of civilians<ref name="globalsecurity.org">[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/algeria.htm Globalsecurity.org]</ref> (see ''Torture section'').

Although successful in engendering an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty within both communities in Algeria, the revolutionaries' coercive tactics suggested that they had not yet inspired the bulk of the Muslim people to revolt against French colonial rule. Gradually, however, the FLN gained control in certain sectors of the [[Aurès]], the [[Kabylie]], and other mountainous areas around Constantine and south of Algiers and [[Oran]]. In these places, the FLN established a simple but effective— although frequently temporary—military administration that was able to collect/extort taxes and food and to recruit manpower. But it was never able to hold large fixed positions. Algerians all over the country also initiated underground social, judicial, and civil organizations, gradually building their own state.{{Citation needed|date=October 2007}}

The loss of competent field commanders both on the battlefield and through defections and political purges created difficulties for the FLN. Moreover, power struggles in the early years of the war split leadership in the wilayat, particularly in the Aurès. Some officers created their own fiefdoms, using units under their command to settle old scores and engage in private wars against military rivals within the FLN.

=== French counter-insurgency operations ===
[[
Despite complaints from the military command in Algiers, the French government was reluctant for many months to admit that the Algerian situation was out of control and that what was viewed officially as a pacification operation had developed into a major war. By 1956 France had committed more than 400,000 troops to Algeria. Although the elite colonial infantry airborne units and the [[French Foreign Legion|Foreign Legion]] bore the brunt of offensive counterinsurgency combat operations, approximately 170,000 Muslim Algerians also served in the regular French army, most of them volunteers. France also sent air force and naval units to the Algerian theater, including helicopters. In addition to service as a flying ambulance and cargo carrier, French forces utilized the [[helicopter]] for the first time in a ground attack role in order to pursue and destroy fleeing FLN guerrilla units. The American military later used the same helicopter combat methods in [[Vietnam War|Vietnam]]. The French also used [[napalm]],<ref name=StoraSiri/> which was depicted for the first time in the 2007 film [[L'Ennemi Intime|''L'Ennemi intime'' (Intimate Enemies)]] by [[Florent Emilio Siri]].<ref name=StoraSiri>[[Benjamin Stora]], "Avoir 20 ans en Kabylie", in ''[[L'Histoire]]'' n°324, October 2007, pp.28–29 {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

The French army resumed an important role in local Algerian administration through the Special Administration Section (''[[Section Administrative Spécialisée]]'', SAS), created in 1955. The SAS's mission was to establish contact with the Muslim population and weaken nationalist influence in the rural areas by asserting the "French presence" there. SAS officers—called ''képis bleus'' (blue caps)—also recruited and trained bands of loyal Muslim irregulars, known as ''[[harki]]s''. Armed with shotguns and using guerrilla tactics similar to those of the FLN, the ''harkis'', who eventually numbered about 180,000 volunteers, more than the FLN effectives,<ref name="Peterson">Major Gregory D. Peterson, ''The French Experience in Algeria, 1954–62: Blueprint for U.S. Operations in Iraq'', [[Fort Leavenworth|Ft Leavenworth]], Kansas: [[School of Advanced Military Studies]], p.33</ref> were an ideal instrument of counterinsurgency warfare.

''Harkis'' were mostly used in conventional formations, either in all-Algerian units commanded by French officers or in mixed units. Other uses included [[platoon]] or smaller size units, attached to French battalions, in a similar way as the [[Kit Carson Scouts]] by the US in Vietnam. A third use was an [[intelligence gathering]] role, with some reported minor [[pseudo-operation]]s in support of their intelligence collection.<ref>[[John Pimlott]], "The French Army: From Indochina to Chad, 1946–1984", in [[Ian F. W. Beckett]] and John Pimlott, ''Armed Forces & Modern Counter-Insurgency'', New York: [[St Martin's Press]], 1985, p.66</ref> According to U.S. military expert [[Lawrence E. Cline]], however: "The extent of these pseudo-operations appears to have been very limited both in time and scope.... The most widespread use of pseudo type operations was during the 'Battle of Algiers' in 1957. The principal French employer of [[covert agents]] in Algiers was the Fifth Bureau, the [[psychological warfare]] branch." The Fifth Bureau "made extensive use of "turned" FLN members, one such network being run by Captain Paul-Alain Leger of the 10th Paras. "[[Persuasion|Persuaded]]" to work for the French forces included by the use of torture and threats against their family; these agents "mingled with FLN cadres. They planted incriminating forged documents, spread false rumors of treachery and fomented distrust.... As a frenzy of throat-cutting and disemboweling broke out among confused and suspicious FLN cadres, nationalist slaughtered nationalist from April to September 1957 and did France's work for her."<ref>[[Martin S. Alexander]] and [[J. F. V. Kieger]], "France and the Algerian War: Strategy, Operations, and Diplomacy", ''[[Journal of Strategic Studies]]'', Vol.25, No. 2, June 2002, pp.6–7</ref> But this type of operation involved individual operatives rather than organized covert units.

One organized pseudo-guerrilla unit, however, was created in December 1956 by the French [[Direction de la surveillance du territoire|DST]] domestic intelligence agency. The [[Organization of the French Algerian Resistance]] (ORAF), a group of counter-terrorists had as its mission to carry out [[false flag]] terrorist attacks with the aim of quashing any hopes of political compromise.<ref>[[Roger Faligot]] and [[Pascal Krop]], ''DST, Police Secrète'', Flammarion, 1999, p.174</ref>

But it seemed that, as in Indochina, "the French focused on developing native guerrilla groups that would fight against the FLN", one of whom fought in the Southern [[Atlas Mountains]], equipped by the French Army.<ref name="Cline">Lawrence E. Cline, "Pseudo Operations and Counterinsurgency: Lessons From Other Countries", p.8 June 2005, {{ISBN|1-58487-199-7}}, [[Strategic Studies Institute]] (SSI) ([http://www.blackwaterusa.com/btw2005/articles/080105counter.pdf available here])</ref>

The FLN also used pseudo-guerrilla strategies against the French Army on one occasion, with Force K, a group of 1,000 Algerians who volunteered to serve in Force K as guerrillas for the French. But most of these members were either already FLN members or were turned by the FLN, once enlisted. Corpses of purported FLN members displayed by the unit were in fact those of dissidents and members of other Algerian groups killed by the FLN. The French Army finally discovered the war ruse and tried to hunt down Force K members. However, some 600 managed to escape and join the FLN with weapons and equipment.<ref>Lawrence E. Cline, "Pseudo Operations and Counterinsurgency: Lessons From Other Countries", p.8 June 2005, {{ISBN|1-58487-199-7}}, [[Strategic Studies Institute]] (SSI) ([http://www.blackwaterusa.com/btw2005/articles/080105counter.pdf available here] Cline sends for more details to [[Alistair Horne]], ''A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954–62'', London: [[Mac Millan]], 1977, pp.255–257)</ref>

Late in 1957, General [[Raoul Salan]], commanding the French Army in Algeria, instituted a system of ''quadrillage'' (surveillance using a grid pattern), dividing the country into sectors, each permanently garrisoned by troops responsible for suppressing rebel operations in their assigned territory. Salan's methods sharply reduced the instances of FLN terrorism but tied down a large number of troops in static defense. Salan also constructed a heavily patrolled system of barriers to limit infiltration from Tunisia and Morocco. The best known of these was the [[Morice Line]] (named for the French defense minister, [[André Morice]]), which consisted of an electrified fence, barbed wire, and mines over a 320-kilometer stretch of the Tunisian border.

The French military command ruthlessly applied the principle of collective responsibility to villages suspected of sheltering, supplying, or in any way cooperating with the guerrillas. Villages that could not be reached by mobile units were subject to aerial bombardment. FLN guerrillas that fled to caves or other remote hiding places were tracked and hunted down. In one episode, FLN guerrillas, who refused to surrender and withdraw from a cave complex, were dealt with by French Foreign Legion Pioneer troops, who, lacking flamethrowers or explosives, simply bricked up each cave, leaving the residents to die of suffocation.<ref name="Leulliette">Leulliette, Pierre, St. Michael and the Dragon: Memoirs of a Paratrooper, Houghton Mifflin, 1964</ref>

Finding it impossible to control all of Algeria's remote farms and villages, the French government also initiated a program of concentrating large segments of the rural population, including whole villages, in camps under military supervision to prevent them from aiding the rebels. In the three years (1957–60) during which the ''regroupement'' program was followed, more than 2 million Algerians<ref>[http://countrystudies.us/algeria/55.htm Algeria - The Revolution and Social Change<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> were removed from their villages, mostly in the mountainous areas, and resettled in the plains, where many found it impossible to reestablish their accustomed economic or social situations. Living conditions in the fortified villages were poor. Hundreds of empty villages were devastated, {{Citation needed|date=February 2007}} and in hundreds of others, orchards and croplands not previously burned by French troops went to seed for lack of care. These [[population transfers]] were effective in denying the use of remote villages to FLN guerrillas, who had used them as a source of rations and manpower, but also caused significant resentment on the part of the displaced villagers. The disruptive social and economic effects of this massive relocation continued to be felt into a generation later.

The French Army shifted its tactics at the end of 1958 from dependence on ''quadrillage'' to the use of mobile forces deployed on massive [[search-and-destroy]] missions against FLN strongholds. Within the next year, Salan's successor, General [[Maurice Challe]], appeared to have suppressed major rebel resistance. But political developments had already overtaken the French Army's successes.

=== Fall of the Fourth Republic ===
{{Main|May 1958 crisis}}
Recurrent cabinet crises focused attention on the inherent instability of the [[Fourth French Republic|Fourth Republic]] and increased the misgivings of the army and of the pied-noirs that the security of Algeria was being undermined by party politics. Army commanders chafed at what they took to be inadequate and incompetent political initiatives by the government in support of military efforts to end the rebellion. The feeling was widespread that another debacle like that of Indochina in 1954 was in the offing and that the government would order another precipitate pullout and sacrifice French honor to political expediency. Many saw in de Gaulle, who had not held office since 1946, the only public figure capable of rallying the nation and giving direction to the French government.

[[File:Ex voto mg 6329.jpg|thumb|Ex-voto in [[Notre-Dame de la Garde]] thanking for the safe return of a son from Algeria, August 1958]]
After his tour as governor general, Soustelle had returned to France to organize support for de Gaulle's return to power, while retaining close ties to the Army and the ''pied-noirs''. By early 1958, he had organized a [[coup d'état]], bringing together dissident Army officers and ''pied-noirs'' with sympathetic Gaullists. An Army junta under General Massu seized power in Algiers on the night of May 13, thereafter known as the [[May 1958 crisis]]. General Salan assumed leadership of a Committee of Public Safety formed to replace the civil authority and pressed the junta's demands that de Gaulle be named by French president [[René Coty]] to head a government of national unity invested with extraordinary powers to prevent the "abandonment of Algeria."

On May 24, French paratroopers from the Algerian corps landed on [[Corsica]], taking the French island in a bloodless action, Operation Corse. Subsequently, preparations were made in Algeria for [[Operation Resurrection]], which had as objectives the seizure of Paris and the removal of the French government. Resurrection was to be implemented if one of three scenarios occurred: if de Gaulle was not approved as leader of France by the parliament; if de Gaulle asked for military assistance to take power; or if it seemed that communist forces were making any move to take power in France. De Gaulle was approved by the French parliament on May 29, by 329 votes against 224, 15 hours before the projected launch of Operation Resurrection. This indicated that the Fourth Republic by 1958 no longer had any support from the French Army in Algeria and was at its mercy even in civilian political matters. This decisive shift in the balance of power in civil-military relations in France in 1958, and the threat of force was the main, immediate factor in the return of de Gaulle to power in France.

=== De Gaulle ===
Many people, regardless of citizenship, greeted de Gaulle's return to power as the breakthrough needed to end the hostilities. On his June 4 trip to Algeria, de Gaulle calculatedly made an ambiguous and broad emotional appeal to all the inhabitants, declaring: "Je vous ai compris" ("I have understood you."). De Gaulle raised the hopes of the ''pied-noir'' and the professional military, disaffected by the indecisiveness of previous governments, with his exclamation of "Vive l'[[Algérie française]]" ("Long live French Algeria") to cheering crowds in Mostaganem. At the same time, he proposed economic, social, and political reforms to improve the situation of the Muslims. Nonetheless, de Gaulle later admitted to having harbored deep pessimism about the outcome of the Algerian situation even then. Meanwhile, he looked for a "third force" among the population of Algeria, uncontaminated by the FLN or the "ultras" (''colon'' extremists) through whom a solution might be found.

De Gaulle immediately appointed a committee to draft a new constitution for France's Fifth Republic, which would be declared early the next year, with which Algeria would be associated but of which it would not form an integral part. All Muslims, including women, were registered for the first time on electoral rolls to participate in a referendum to be held on the new constitution in September 1958.

De Gaulle's initiative threatened the FLN with the prospect of losing the support of the growing numbers of Muslims, who were tired of the war and had never been more than lukewarm in their commitment to a totally independent Algeria.{{Citation needed|date=November 2007}} In reaction, the FLN set up the [[Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic]] (Gouvernement Provisoire de la République Algérienne, GPRA), a government-in-exile headed by [[Ferhat Abbas|Abbas]] and based in Tunis. Before the referendum, Abbas lobbied for international support for the GPRA, which was quickly recognized by [[Morocco]], [[Tunisia]], several other Arab countries, China, and a number of African and other Asian states but not by the Soviet Union.

ALN commandos committed numerous acts of sabotage in France in August, and the FLN mounted a desperate campaign of terror in Algeria to intimidate Muslims into [[boycott]]ing the referendum.{{Citation needed|date=April 2009}} Despite threats of reprisal, however, 80 percent of the Muslim electorate turned out to vote in September,{{Citation needed|date=April 2009}} and of these 96 percent approved the constitution.{{Citation needed|date=April 2009}} In February 1959, de Gaulle was elected president of the new Fifth Republic. He visited Constantine in October to announce a program to end the war and create an Algeria closely linked to France. De Gaulle's call on the rebel leaders to end hostilities and to participate in elections was met with adamant refusal. "The problem of a cease-fire in Algeria is not simply a military problem", said the GPRA's Abbas. "It is essentially political, and negotiation must cover the whole question of Algeria." Secret discussions that had been underway were broken off.

In 1958–59 the French army had won military control in Algeria and was the closest it would be to victory. In late July 1959, during [[Operation Jumelles]] [[Marcel Bigeard|Colonel Bigeard]], whose elite paratrooper unit fought at [[Dien Bien Phu]] in 1954, told journalist [[Jean Lartéguy]] ([http://www.ina.fr/archivespourtous/index.php?vue=notice&from=fulltext&full=alg%E9rie+r%E9trospective&num_notice=1&total_notices=28 source]): {{quote|"We are not making war for ourselves, not making a colonialist war, Bigeard wears no shirt (he shows his opened uniform) as do my officers. We are fighting right here right now for them, for the evolution, to see the evolution of these people and this war is for them. We are defending their freedom as we are, in my opinion, defending the West's freedom. We are here ambassadors, Crusaders, who are hanging on in order to still be able to talk and to be able to speak for." <small>Col. Bigeard (July 1959)</small>}}

During this period in France, however, opposition to the conflict was growing among many segments of the population, notably the [[leftism|leftists]], with the [[French Communist Party]], then one of the country's strongest political forces, which was supporting the Algerian Revolution. Thousands of relatives of conscripts and reserve soldiers suffered loss and pain; revelations of torture and the indiscriminate brutality the army visited on the Muslim population prompted widespread revulsion, and a significant constituency supported the principle of national liberation. International pressure was also building on France to grant Algeria independence. Annually since 1955 the [[UN General Assembly]] had considered the Algerian question, and the FLN position was gaining support. France's seeming intransigence in settling a colonial war that tied down half the manpower of its armed forces was also a source of concern to its [[NATO|North Atlantic Treaty Organization]] allies. In a September 16, 1959, statement, de Gaulle dramatically reversed his stand and uttered the words "self-determination" as the third and preferred solution [http://123helpme.com/view.asp?id=22721], which he envisioned as leading to majority rule in an Algeria formally associated with France. In Tunis, Abbas acknowledged that de Gaulle's statement might be accepted as a basis for settlement, but the French government refused to recognize the GPRA as the representative of Algeria's Muslim community.

===The week of barricades===<!-- This section is linked from [[Organisation de l'armée secrète]] -->
[[Image:Semaine des barricades Alger 1960 Haute Qualité.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Barricades in Algiers. "Long live Massu" (''Vive Massu'') is written on the banner, January 1960.]]
Convinced that de Gaulle had betrayed them, some units of European volunteers (Unités Territoriales) in Algiers led by student leaders [[Pierre Lagaillarde]] and [[Jean-Jacques Susini]], café owner [[Joseph Ortiz]], and lawyer [[Jean-Baptiste Biaggi]] staged an insurrection in the Algerian capital starting on January 24, 1960, and known in France as ''La semaine des barricades'' ("the week of barricades"). The ''ultras'' incorrectly believed that they would be supported by [[General Massu]]. The insurrection order was given by Colonel Jean Garde of the Fifth Bureau. As the army, police, and supporters stood by, civilian ''pied-noirs'' threw up barricades in the streets and seized government buildings. General [[Maurice Challe]], responsible for the Army in Algeria, declared Algiers under [[siege]] but forbade the troops from firing on the insurgents. Nevertheless, 20 rioters were killed during a firing on the boulevard Laferrière. Eight [[arrest warrants]] were issued in Paris against the initiators of the insurrection. [[Jean-Marie Le Pen]], a member of parliament, who called for the barricades to be extended to Paris, and theorician [[Georges Sauge]] were then placed under [[police custody|custody]].<ref name="Voltaire">[http://www.voltairenet.org/article8701.html Quand le stay-behind voulait remplacer De Gaulle], [[Thierry Meyssan]], September 10, 2001, [[Voltaire Network]] {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

In Paris on January 29, 1960, de Gaulle called on the army to remain loyal and rallied popular support for his Algerian policy in a televised address:
<blockquote>I took, in the name of France, the following decision — the Algerians will have the free choice of their destiny. When, in one way or another – by ceasefire or by complete crushing of the rebels – we will have put an end to the fighting, when, after a prolonged period of appeasement, the population will have become conscious of the stakes and, thanks to us, realised the necessary progress in political, economic, social, educational, and other domains. Then it will be the Algerians who will tell us what they want to be.... Your French of Algeria, how can you listen to the liars and the conspirators who tell you that, if you grant free choice to the Algerians, France and de Gaulle want to abandon you, retreat from Algeria, and deliver you to the rebellion?.... I say to all of our soldiers: your mission comprises neither equivocation nor interpretation. You have to liquidate the rebellious forces, which want to oust France from Algeria and impose on this country its dictatorship of misery and sterility.... Finally, I address myself to France. Well, well, my dear and old country, here we face together, once again, a serious ordeal. In virtue of the mandate that the people have given me and of the national legitimacy, which I have incarned for 20 years, I ask everyone to support me whatever happens.<ref>French: "''J'ai pris, au nom de la France, la décision que voici: les Algériens auront le libre choix de leur destin. Quand d'une manière ou d'une autre – conclusion d'un cessez-le-feu ou écrasement total des rebelles – nous aurons mis un terme aux combats, quand, ensuite, après une période prolongée d'apaisement, les populations auront pu prendre conscience de l'enjeu et, d'autre part, accomplir, grâce à nous, les progrès nécessaires dans les domaines, politique, économique, social, scolaire, etc., alors ce seront les Algériens qui diront ce qu'ils veulent être.... Français d'Algérie, comment pouvez-vous écouter les menteurs et les conspirateurs qui vous disent qu'en accordant le libre choix aux Algériens, la France et De Gaulle veulent vous abandonner, se retirer de l'Algérie et vous livrer à la rébellion?.... Je dis à tous nos soldats: votre mission ne comporte ni équivoque, ni interprétation. Vous avez à liquider la force rebelle qui veut chasser la France de l'Algérie et faire régner sur ce pays sa dictature de misère et de stérilité.... Enfin, je m'adresse à la France. Eh bien! mon cher et vieux pays, nous voici donc ensemble, encore une fois, face à une lourde épreuve. En vertu du mandat que le peuple m'a donné et de la légitimité nationale que j'incarne depuis vingt ans (sic), je demande à tous et à toutes de me soutenir quoi qu'il arrive''".</ref></blockquote>

Most of the Army heeded his call, and the siege of Algiers ended on February 1 with Lagaillarde surrendering to General Challe's command of the French Army in Algeria. The loss of many ''ultra'' leaders who were imprisoned or transferred to other areas did not deter the French Algeria militants. Sent to prison in Paris and then paroled, Lagaillarde fled to Spain. There, with another French army officer, [[Raoul Salan]], who had entered [[clandestine operation|clandestinely]], and with Jean-Jacques Susini, he created the [[Organisation de l'armée secrète]] (Secret Army Organization, OAS) on December 3, 1960, with the purpose to follow-up the fight for French Algeria. Highly organized and well-armed, the OAS stepped up its terrorist activities, which were directed against both Algerians and pro-government French citizens, as the move toward negotiated settlement of the war and self-determination gained momentum. To the FLN rebellion against France were added civil wars between extremists in the two communities and between the ''ultras'' and the French government in Algeria.

Beside Pierre Lagaillarde, Jean-Baptiste Biaggi was also imprisoned, while [[Alain de Sérigny]] got arrested, and [[Joseph Ortiz]]'s [[FNF]] dissolved, as well as General [[Lionel Chassin]]'s [[MP13]]. De Gaulle also modified the government, excluding [[Jacques Soustelle]], believed to be too pro-French Algeria, and granting the Minister of Information to [[Louis Terrenoire]], who quit [[Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française|RTF]] (French broadcasting TV). [[Pierre Messmer]], who had been member of the [[French Foreign Legion|Foreign Legion]], was named Minister of Defense, and dissolved the Fifth Bureau, the [[psychological warfare]] branch, which had ordered the rebellion. These units had theorized the principles of a [[counter-revolutionary war]], including the use of torture. During the [[Indochina War]] (1947–54), officers such as [[Roger Trinquier]] and [[Lionel-Max Chassin]] were inspired by [[Mao Zedong]]'s strategic doctrine and acquired knowledge of [[crowd psychology|convince the population]] to support the fight. The Fifth Bureau were organized by [[Jean Ousset]], French representant of the [[Opus Dei]], under the order of Permanent Secretary General of the National Defense (SGPDN) [[Geoffroy Chodron de Courcel]].<ref name="Voltaire"/> The officers were initially formed in the ''[[Centre d'instruction et de préparation à la contre-guérilla]]'' (Arzew). [[Jacques Chaban-Delmas]] added to that the ''[[Centre d'entraînement à la guerre subversive Jeanne-d'Arc]]'' (Center of Training to Subversive War Jeanne-d'Arc) in [[Skikda|Philippeville]], Algeria, directed by Colonel [[Marcel Bigeard]]. According to the [[Voltaire Network]], the Catholic [[stay-behind]] [[Georges Sauge]] animated conferences there, and one could read on the walls of the center the following maxim: "This Army must be fanatic, despising luxury, animated by the spirit of the [[Crusades]]"<ref>French: "Cette Armée doit être fanatique, méprisant le luxe, animée de l'esprit des croisés".</ref> Pierre Messmer hence dissolved structures which had turned themselves against de Gaulle, leaving the "revolutionary war" to the exclusive responsibility of Gaullist General [[André Beaufre]].<ref name="Voltaire"/>

[[File:Commando de chasse V66 du 4me Zouaves.jpg|thumb|[[Commandos de Chasse]]]]
The French army officers uprising can be understood as following; some officers, most notably from the paratroopers corps, felt betrayed by the government for the second time after [[Indochina War|Indochina]] (1947–1954). In some aspects the [[Dien Bien Phu]] garrison was sacrificed with no metropolitan support, order was given to commanding officer [[Christian de Castries|General de Castries]] to "let the affair die of its own, in serenity" ("''laissez mourrir l'affaire d'elle même en sérénité''"<ref>[http://www.ena.lu/mce.cfm French Army audio archives]</ref>).

The opposition of the [[MNEF]] student trade-union to the participation of the conscripts to the war led to a secession in May 1960, with the creation of the ''[[Fédération des étudiants nationalistes]]'' (FEN, Federation of Nationalist Students) around [[Dominique Venner]], a former member of [[Jeune Nation]] and of [[MP-13]], [[François d'Orcival]] and [[Alain de Benoist]], who would theorize in the 1980s the "[[New Right]]" movement. The FEN then published the ''Manifeste de la classe 60''.

A [[Front national pour l'Algérie française]] (FNAF, National Front for French Algeria) was created in June 1960 in Paris, gathering around former De Gaulle's Secretary [[Jacques Soustelle]] [[Claude Dumont]], [[Georges Sauge]], [[Yvon Chautard]], [[Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour]] (who would present himself as far-right candidate in the [[French presidential election, 1965|1965 presidential election]]), [[Jacques Isorni]], [[Victor Barthélemy]], [[François Brigneau]] and Jean-Marie Le Pen. Another ''ultra'' rebellion occurred in December 1960, which led de Gaulle to dissolve the FNAF.

After the publication of the ''[[Manifeste des 121]]'' against the use of torture and the war,<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/history/france/algerian-war/1960/manifesto-121.htm Manifeste des 121, transl. in English]</ref> the opponents to the war created the [[Rassemblement de la gauche démocratique]] (Assembly of the Democratic Left), which included the [[French Section of the Workers' International]] (SFIO) socialist party, the [[Radical-Socialist Party]], [[Force ouvrière]] (FO) trade union, [[Confédération Française des Travailleurs Chrétiens]] trade-union, [[Fédération des étudiants nationalistes|FEN]] trade-union, etc., which supported de Gaulle against the ''ultras''.

=== Role of women ===
{{Main|Women in the Algerian War}}
Women fulfilled a number of different functions during the Algerian War. The majority of Muslim women who became active participants did so on the side of the National Liberation Front (FLN). The French included some women, both Muslim and French, in their war effort, but they were not as fully integrated, nor were they charged with the same breadth of tasks as their Algerian sisters. The total number of women involved in the conflict, as determined by post-war veteran registration, is numbered at 11,000, but it is possible that this number was significantly higher due to underreporting.<ref>De Groot, Gerard, Peniston-Bird, Corinna. A Soldier and a Woman: Sexual integration in the Military. New York: Longman, 2000 p. 247</ref>

There exists a distinction between two different types of women who became involved, urban and rural. Urban women, who constituted about twenty percent of the overall force, had received some kind of education and usually chose to enter on the side of the FLN of their own accord.<ref name="Lazreg, Marnia p. 120">Lazreg, Marnia. The Eloquence of Silence. London: Routledge, 1994 p. 120</ref> Largely illiterate rural women, on the other hand, the remaining eighty percent, due to their geographic location in respect to the operations of FLN often became involved in the conflict as a result of proximity paired with force.<ref name="Lazreg, Marnia p. 120"/>

Women operated in a number of different areas during the course of the rebellion. "Women participated actively as combatants, spies, fundraisers, as well as nurses, launderers, and cooks",<ref>Turshen, Meredith. "Algerian Women in the Liberation Struggle and the Civil War: From Active Participants to Passive Victims". Social Research Vol. 69 No. 3 (Fall 2002) p. 889-911, p.890</ref> "women assisted the male fighting forces in areas like transportation, communication and administration" <ref>De Groot, Gerard, Peniston-Bird, Corinna. A Soldier and a Woman: Sexual integration in the Military. New York: Longman, 2000 p. 223</ref> the range of involvement by a woman could include both combatant and non-combatant roles. While the majority of the tasks that women undertook centered on the realm of the non-combatant, those that surrounded the limited number that took part in acts of violence were more frequently noticed. The reality was that "rural women in maquis [rural areas] support networks" <ref>Vince, Natalya "Transgressing Boundaries: Gender, Race, Religion and ‘Fracaises Musulmannes during Algerian War of Independence." French Historical Studies. Vol. 33 No. 3 (Summer 2010) p. 445-474, p.445</ref> contained the overwhelming majority of those who participated. This is not to marginalize those women who did engage in acts of violence but simply to illustrate that they constituted in the minority.

=== End of the war ===
{{Main|Algiers putsch of 1961 |Evian agreements}}
[[File:1962-03-22 Algeria tense cease fire.ogv|thumb|[[Universal Newsreel]] about the 1962 cease fire]]
De Gaulle convoked the first [[French referendum on Algerian self-determination, 1961|referendum on the self-determination of Algeria]] on January 8, 1961, which 75% of the voters (both in France and Algeria) approved and De Gaulle's government began secret peace negotiations with the FLN. In the Algerian ''départements'' 69.51% voted in favor of self-determination.<ref name=voteresults>{{cite web|title=Référendum sur l'autodétermination en Algérie|url=http://mjp.univ-perp.fr/france/ref1961.htm|publisher=Université Perpignan|accessdate=5 September 2011| archiveurl= http://web.archive.org/web/20110726011708/http://mjp.univ-perp.fr/france/ref1961.htm| archivedate= 26 July 2011 <!--DASHBot-->| url-status= live}}</ref>

The "[[generals' putsch]]" in April 1961, aimed at canceling the government's negotiations with the FLN, marked the turning point in the official attitude toward the Algerian war. [[Charles de Gaulle|De Gaulle]] was now prepared to abandon the pieds-noirs, the group that no previous French government was willing to write off. The army had been discredited by the putsch and kept a low profile politically throughout the rest of France's involvement with Algeria.

Talks with the FLN reopened at [[Évian-les-Bains|Évian]] in May 1961; after several false starts, the French government decreed that a ceasefire would take effect on March 18, 1962. In their final form, the [[Évian Accords]] allowed the pieds-noirs equal legal protection with Algerians over a three-year period. These rights included respect for property, participation in public affairs, and a full range of civil and cultural rights. At the end of that period, however, all Algerian residents would be obliged to become Algerian citizens or be classified as aliens with the attendant loss of rights. The agreement also allowed France to establish military bases in Algeria even after the independence (including the nuclear test site of Regghane, the naval base of Mers-el-Kebir and the aerial base of Bou Sfer) and to have advantages on the Algerian oil.

In the second [[French Évian Accords referendum, 1962|referendum on the independence of Algeria]] held in April 1962 the French electorate approved the Evian Accords by an overwhelming 91 percent vote. On July 1, 1962, some 6 million of a total Algerian electorate of 6.5 million cast their ballots. The vote was nearly unanimous, with 5,992,115 votes for independence, 16,534 against, with most Pied-noirs and Harkis either having fled or abstained from voting.<ref>
{{Cite journal
 | author=
 | title= Proclamation des résultats du référendum d'autodétermination du 1er juillet 1962
 | url= http://www.joradp.dz/JO6283/1962/001/FP3.pdf
 | date= 6 July 1962
 | journal= Journal Officiel de l'État Algérien
 | accessdate=2009-04-08
 | quote = Total d'inscrits dans les 15 départements : 6.549.736 — Votants : 6.017.800 — Blancs ou nul : 25.565 — Suffrages exprimés : 5.992.115 — OUI : 5.975.581 — NON : 16.534
}}
</ref> De Gaulle pronounced Algeria an independent country on July 3. The Provisional Executive, however, proclaimed July 5, the 132nd anniversary of the French entry into Algeria, as the day of national independence.

During the three months between the cease-fire and the French referendum on Algeria, the OAS unleashed a new terrorist campaign. The OAS sought to provoke a major breach in the ceasefire by the FLN but the terrorism now was aimed also against the French army and police enforcing the accords as well as against Muslims. It was the most wanton carnage that Algeria had witnessed in eight years of savage warfare. OAS operatives set off an average of 120 bombs per day in March, with targets including hospitals and schools. Ultimately, the terrorism failed in its objectives, and the OAS and the FLN concluded a truce on June 17, 1962. In the same month, more than 350,000 [[Pied-noir]]s left Algeria.

Despite the Evian Accords guarantees towards the French citizens, after the end of June civilians became the target of systematic FLN attacks. It quickly became apparent to Europeans that the new government would not ensure their safety or enforce their rights. The [[Oran massacre of 1962]], four days after the vote, is the main example of deliberate strategy of killing to terrorize pieds-noirs and push them to leave. These tactics proved effective. Summer 1962 saw a rush to France. Within a year, 1.4 million refugees, including almost the entire [[Judaism|Jewish]] community and some pro-French Muslims, had joined the exodus to France. Despite the declaration of Independence on July 5, 1962, the last French forces did not leave the Naval Base of [[Mers El Kébir]] until 1967. (The Evian Accords had permitted France to maintain its military presence for fifteen years—the withdrawal in 1967 was significantly ahead of schedule.)<ref>''Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954–1962.''</ref>

== Pieds-Noirs' and Harkis' exodus ==
''[[Pied-noir|Pieds-Noirs]]'' (including indigenous [[Mizrahi Jews|Mizrachi]] and [[Sephardi Jews]]) and ''[[Harkis]]'' accounted for 13% of the total population of Algeria in 1962. For the sake of clarity, each group's exodus is described separately here, although their fate shared many common elements.

=== Pieds-noirs ===
{{Plitim}}
''Pied-noir'' (literally "black foot") is a term used to name the European-descended population (mostly [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic]]), who had resided in Algeria for generations; it is sometimes used to include the indigenous [[Sephardi]] Jewish population as well, which likewise emigrated after 1962. The Europeans had arrived to Algeria as immigrants from all over the western Mediterranean (particularly France, Spain, Italy and [[Malta]]), starting in 1830. The Jews had arrived in several waves, some coming as early as 600 BC and during the Roman period, known as the [[Maghrebi Jews]]. Some Jews were in fact indigenous Berbers who had embraced Judaism before the advent of Christianity.{{citation needed|date=September 2012}} The Maghrebi Jewish population was overwhelmed with the Sephardic Jews, driven out from Spain in 1492 and was further strengthened by Marranos refugees from the [[Spanish Inquisition]] through the 16th century. Algerian Jews had largely embraced French citizenship after the [[décret Crémieux]] in 1871. In 1959, the ''pieds-noirs'' numbered 1,025,000 (85% of European Christian descent, and 15% were made up of the indigenous Algerian population of [[Maghrebi]] and [[Sephardi]] [[Jewish]] descent), and accounted for 10.4% of the total population of Algeria. In just a few months in 1962, 900,000 of them fled or left the country, the first third prior to the referendum, in the most massive relocation of population to Europe since the [[World War II|Second World War]]. A motto used in the FLN propaganda designating the Pied-noirs community was "Suitcase or coffin" ("''La valise ou le cercueil''") – an expropriation of a term first coined years earlier by ''pied-noir'' "ultras" when rallying the European community to their hardcore line.

The French government claimed not to have anticipated that such a massive number would leave; at the most it said it estimated that perhaps 250–300,000 might choose to go to metropolitan France temporarily. Nothing was planned for their move to France, and many had to sleep in streets or abandoned farms on their arrival. A minority of departing ''pieds-noirs'', including soldiers, destroyed their possessions before departure, applying [[scorched earth]] policy in a sign of protestation and as a desperate symbolic attempt to leave no trace of over a century of European presence, but the vast majority of their goods and houses were left intact and abandoned to Algerians. Scenes of thousands of panicked people camping for weeks on the docks of Algerian harbors waiting for a space on a boat to France were common from April to August 1962. About 100,000 ''pieds-noirs'' chose to remain, but most of those gradually left over the 1960s and 1970s, primarily due to residual hostility against them, including machine-gunning of public places in [[Oran]].<ref>[http://www.ina.fr/archivespourtous/index.php?vue=notice&from=fulltext&full=pied+noir&datedif_annee1=1962&num_notice=2&total_notices=36 ALGER PANSE SES PLAIES]</ref>

=== Harkis ===
[[File:Harki-j.jpg|thumb|130px|Young [[Harki]] in uniform, summer 1961.]]
The so-called ''[[Harki]]s'', from the Algerian-Arabic dialect word ''harki'' (soldier), were the indigenous Muslim Algerians (as opposed to European-descended Catholics or indigenous Algerian [[Mizrahi Jews|Mizrachi]] [[Sephardi]] [[Jews]]) who fought as auxiliaries on the side of the French army. Some of these were veterans of the [[Free French Forces]] who participated in the liberation of France during World War II or in the [[Indochina War]]. The term also came to include civilian indigenous Algerians who supported a French Algeria. According to French government figures, there were 236,000 Algerian Muslims serving in the French Army in 1962 (four times more than in the FLN), either in regular units ([[Spahis]] and [[Tirailleurs]]) or as irregulars (harkis and moghaznis). Some estimates suggest that, with their families, the indigenous Muslim loyalists may have numbered as many as 1 million<ref>Philippe Denoix, "Harkis" in Encyclopædia Universalis, 2010</ref><ref>General Maurice Faivre, ''Les combattants musulmans de la guerre d'Algérie: des soldats sacrifiés'', Editions L'Harmattan, 1995, p.124</ref>

In 1962, around 91,000 ''Harkis'' took refuge in France, despite French Government policy against this. Pierre Messmer, minister of the armies and Louis Joxe, minister for Algerian affairs gave orders to this effect. The ''Harkis'' were seen as traitors by many Algerians, and many of those who stayed behind suffered severe reprisals after independence. French historians estimate that somewhere between 50,000 and 150,000 ''Harkis'' and members of their families were killed by the FLN or by lynch mobs in Algeria, often in atrocious circumstances or after torture. The abandonment of the "Harkis" both in terms of non-recognition of those who died defending a French Algeria and the neglect of those who escaped to France, remains an issue that France has not fully resolved—although the government of [[Jacques Chirac]] made efforts to give recognition to the suffering of these former allies.

== Death toll ==
{{unreferenced section|date=October 2011}}
[[File:French North African Operations medal law of 11 January 1958.jpg|upright|thumb|French North African Operations medal, 11 January 1958.]]
While it is admitted that any attempt to estimate casualties in this war is nearly impossible, the FLN (National Liberation Front) estimated in 1964 that nearly eight years of revolution had cost 1.5 million dead from war-related causes. Some other French and Algerian sources later put the figure at approximately 960,000 dead, while French officials estimated it at 350,000. French military authorities listed their losses at nearly 25,600 dead (6,000 from non-combat-related causes) and 65,000 wounded. European-descended civilian casualties exceeded 10,000 (including 3,000 dead) in 42,000 recorded terrorist incidents. According to French official figures during the war, the Army, security forces and militias killed 141,000 presumed rebel combatants. But it is still unclear whether all the victims were actual fighters or merely civilians.

More than 12,000 Algerians died in internal FLN purges during the war. In France, an additional 5,000 died in the "café wars" between the FLN and rival Algerian groups. French sources also estimated that 70,000 Muslim civilians were killed or abducted and presumed killed, by the FLN.

Historians, like [[Alistair Horne]] and [[Raymond Aron]], consider the actual number of war dead was far greater than the original FLN and official French estimates but was fewer than the 1 million adopted by the Algerian government. Horne has estimated Algerian casualties during the span of eight years to be around 700,000. Uncounted thousands of Muslim civilians lost their lives in French
Army ratissages, bombing raids, or vigilante reprisals. The war uprooted more than 2 million Algerians, who were forced to relocate in French camps or to flee into the Algerian hinterland, where many thousands died of starvation, disease, and exposure. In addition, large numbers of pro-French Muslims were murdered when the FLN settled accounts after independence with 30-150,000 allegedly killed in Algeria by FLN in post-war reprisals.<ref name="Alistair Horne 1977"/>

== Lasting effects in Algerian politics ==
{{Main|History of Algeria since 1962}}
After Algeria's independence was recognised, [[Ahmed Ben Bella]] quickly became more popular and thereby more powerful. In June 1962, he challenged the leadership of Premier [[Benyoucef Ben Khedda]]; this led to several disputes among his rivals in the FLN, which were quickly suppressed by Ben Bella's rapidly growing support, most notably within the armed forces. By September, Bella was in control of Algeria by all but name, was elected as premier in a one-sided election on September 20, and was recognised by the U.S. on September 29. Algeria was admitted as the 109th member of the [[United Nations]] on October 8, 1962. Afterward, Ben Bella declared that Algeria would follow a neutral course in world politics; within a week he met with [[U.S. President]] [[John F. Kennedy]], requesting more aid for Algeria with [[Fidel Castro]] and expressed approval of Castro's demands for the abandonment of [[Guantánamo Bay, Cuba|Guantanamo Bay]]. Bella returned to Algeria with another request: that France withdraw from its bases there. In November, his government banned the party, providing that the FLN would be the only party allowed to function overtly. Shortly thereafter, in 1965, Bella was deposed and placed under house arrest (and later exiled) by [[Houari Boumédiènne]], who served as president until his death in 1978. Algeria remained stable, though in a [[one-party state]], until a violent [[Algerian Civil War|civil war]] broke out in the 1990s.

For Algerians of many political factions, the legacy of their War of Independence was a legitimization or even sanctification of the unrestricted use of force in achieving a goal deemed to be justified. Once invoked against foreign colonialists, the same principle could also be turned with relative ease against fellow Algerians. The determination of the FLN to overthrow the colonial rule and the ruthlessness exhibited by both sides in that struggle were to be mirrored 30 years later by the determination of the FLN government to hold onto power, by the Islamist opposition to overthrow that rule, and by the brutal struggle which ensued.

== Torture ==
{{Main|Torture during the Algerian War}}

=== French use ===
Torture was a frequent process in use from the beginning of the [[French Algeria|colonization of Algeria]], which started in 1830. [[Claude Bourdet]] had denounced these acts on December 6, 1951, in the magazine ''[[L'Observateur]]'', rhetorically asking: "Is there a [[Gestapo]] in Algeria?" Torture had also been used on both sides during the [[First Indochina War]] (1946–54)<ref>[[Mohamed Harbi]], ''La guerre d'Algérie''</ref><ref>[[Benjamin Stora]], ''La torture pendant la guerre d'Algérie''</ref><ref>[[Raphaëlle Branche]], ''La torture et l'armée pendant la guerre d'Algérie, 1954–1962'', Paris, Gallimard, 2001 See also [http://www.mfo.ac.uk/Publications/comptesrendus/branche.htm The French Army and Torture During the Algerian War (1954–1962)], Raphaëlle Branche, Université de [[Rennes]], 18 November 2004 {{in lang|en}}</ref>
D. Huf, in his seminal work on the subject, has argued that the use of torture was one of the major factors in developing French opposition to the war.<ref>[[David Huf]], ''Between a rock and a hard place: France and Algeria, 1954-1962''</ref> Huf argues that "Such tactics sat uncomfortably with France's revolutionary history, and brought unbearable comparisons with Nazi Germany. The French national psyche would not tolerate any parallels between their experiences of occupation and their colonial mastery of Algeria." General [[Paul Aussaresses]] admitted in 2000 that the use of systematic torture techniques during the war and justified it. He also recognized the assassination of lawyer [[Ali Boumendjel]] and the head of the FLN in Algiers, [[Larbi Ben M'Hidi]], which had been disguised as suicides.<ref>[http://www.lemonde.fr/cgi-bin/ACHATS/acheter.cgi?offre=ARCHIVES&type_item=ART_ARCH_30J&objet_id=702899 L'accablante confession du général Aussaresses sur la torture en Algérie], ''[[Le Monde]]'', May 3, 2001 {{in lang|fr}}</ref> Bigeard, who called FLN activists "savages", claimed torture was a "necessary evil."<ref>[http://www.lemonde.fr/web/recherche_breve/1,13-0,37-90746,0.html GUERRE D'ALGÉRIE: le général Bigeard et la pratique de la torture], ''[[Le Monde]]'', July 4, 2000 {{in lang|fr}}</ref><ref>[http://www.humanite.presse.fr/journal/2000-12-05/2000-12-05-235797 Torture Bigeard: " La presse en parle trop "], ''[[L'Humanité]]'', May 12, 2000 {{in lang|fr}}</ref> To the contrary, General [[Jacques Massu]] denounced it, following Aussaresses's revelations and, before his death, pronounced himself in favor of an official condemnation of the use of torture during the war.<ref>[http://www.aidh.org/faits_documents/algerie/verite.html La torture pendant la guerre d'Algérie / 1954 – 1962 40 ans après, l'exigence de vérité], AIDH</ref>

Bigeard's justification of torture has been criticized by various people, among whom [[Joseph Doré]], archbishop of Strasbourg, and [[Marc Lienhard]], president of the Lutheran Church of Augsbourg Confession in Alsace-Lorraine.<ref>[http://www.lemonde.fr/web/recherche_breve/1,13-0,37-92611,0.html GUERRE D'ALGÉRIE: Mgr Joseph Doré et Marc Lienhard réagissent aux déclarations du général Bigeard justifiant la pratique de la torture par l'armée française], ''[[Le Monde]]'', July 15, 2000 {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

In June 2000, Bigeard declared that he was based in [[Sidi Ferruch]], known as a torture center and where Algerians were murdered. Bigeard qualified [[Louisette Ighilahriz]]'s revelations, published in the ''Le Monde'' newspaper on June 20, 2000, as "lies." An ALN activist, Louisette Ighilahriz had been tortured by General Massu. She herself called Bigeard a "liar" and criticized his continuing denial of the use of torture 40 years later.<ref>[http://www.lemonde.fr/cgi-bin/ACHATS/acheter.cgi?offre=ARCHIVES&type_item=ART_ARCH_30J&objet_id=88827 "Le témoignage de cette femme est un tissu de mensonges. Tout est faux, c'est une manoeuvre"], ''[[Le Monde]]'', June 22, 2000 {{in lang|fr}}</ref><ref>[http://www.humanite.presse.fr/journal/2000-11-23/2000-11-23-235176 Louisette Ighilahriz: "Massu ne pouvait plus nier l'évidence"], ''[[L'Humanité]]'', November 23, 2000 {{in lang|fr}}</ref> However, since General Massu's revelations, Bigeard has now admitted the use of torture, although he denies having personally used it, and has declared: "You are striking the heart of an 84-year-old man." Bigeard also recognized that [[Larbi Ben M'Hidi]] had been assassinated and that his death had been disguised as a suicide. [[Paul Teitgen]], prefect of Algiers, also revealed that Bigeard's troops threw Algerians in the sea from helicopters, which resulted in brutalized corpses, found in open waters and nicknamed "crevettes Bigeard" ("Bigeard's shrimp"). This tactic was later theorized in Argentina by Admiral [[Luis María Mendía]], as "death flights."<ref>[http://www.humanite.presse.fr/journal/2000-06-24/2000-06-24-227522 Prise de tête Marcel Bigeard, un soldat propre ?], ''[[L'Humanité]]'', June 24, 2000 {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

=== Algerian use ===
[[File:20 Août 1955 EL HALIA.jpg|thumb|A French Arab mutilated by Algerian nationalists.]]
Specializing in ambushes and night raids to avoid direct contact with superior French firepower, the internal forces targeted Army patrols, military encampments, police posts, and colonial farms, mines, and factories, as well as transportation and communications facilities. Kidnapping was commonplace, as were the murder and mutilation of civilians.<ref name="globalsecurity.org"/> At first, the FLN targeted only Muslim officials of the colonial regime; later, they coerced, maimed, or killed village elders, government employees, and even simple peasants who refused to support them. Throat slitting and decapitation were commonly used by the F.L.N. as part of a deliberate policy of terror.<ref>Alistair Horne, pages 134-135 "A Savage War of Peace", {{ISBN|0-670061964}}-7</ref> During the first two and a half years of the conflict, the guerrillas killed an estimated 6,352 Muslim and 1,035 non-Muslim civilians.<ref>Alistair Horne, page135, "A Savage War of Peace", {{ISBN|0-670061964}}-7</ref>

== "French school" ==
[[Counter-insurgency]] tactics developed during the war were used afterward in other contexts, including the Argentine "[[Dirty War]]" in the 1970s. In a book, journalist [[Marie-Monique Robin]] alleges that [[French secret services|French secret agents]] had taught [[Argentine intelligence agents]] counter-insurgency tactics, including the systemic use of torture, block-warden system, and other techniques, all employed during the 1957 [[Battle of Algiers (1957)|Battle of Algiers]]. ''[[The Battle of Algiers (film)|The Battle of Algiers]]'' film includes the documentation. Robin found the document proving that a secret military agreement tied France to Argentina from 1959 until 1981; the later is the date of the election of President [[François Mitterrand]].

== Historiography ==
Although the opening of the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after a 30-year lock-up has enabled some new [[historiography|historical research]] on the war, including [[Jean-Charles Jauffret]]'s book, ''La Guerre d'Algérie par les documents'' ("The Algerian War According to the Documents"), many remain inaccessible.<ref name="DiploApril"/> This is contrary to the engagement of Prime Minister [[Lionel Jospin]]'s ([[French Socialist Party|Socialist Party]], PS) on July 27, 1997. The recognition in 1999 by the [[Deputies of the 11th National Assembly|National Assembly]], in which the PS had obtained a majority during the [[French legislative elections, 1997|1997 legislative elections]], permitted the Algerian War, at last, to enter the syllabi of French schools. The details of the [[Paris massacre of 1961]] has only begun to emerge in the nation's memory, although access to the archives remains strongly restricted. The French state, which finally recognized 40 deaths, is a far way from giving free access to the archives. (In France, there is no such law such as the U.S.'s [[Freedom of Information Act]].) However, it has been proved, including with David Assouline's limited access to the Paris archives, granted by Socialist [[Minister of Culture (France)|Minister of Culture]] [[Catherine Trautmann]], that at least 70 Algerians died during these events and 90 people by the second half of October 1961.<ref>Concerning David Assouline's access to part of Paris's archives and the ''La Monde'' quotation of the director, see {{Cite news| title= 17 octobre 1961: la longue liste de morts des archives de Paris|date=23 October 1997|publisher=[[L'Humanité]] | url=http://www.humanite.fr/journal/1997-10-23/1997-10-23-790094}} {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

The Algerian War remains a contentious event today. According to historian [[Benjamin Stora]] — who holds a Ph.D. degree in history and sociology, teaches at [[University of Paris VII: Denis Diderot|Paris VII]], and is one of the leading historians on the Algerian war — memories concerning the war remain fragmented, with no common ground to speak of, translated from French:

<blockquote>"There is no such thing as a history of the Algerian War; there is just a multitude of histories and personal paths through it. Everyone involved considers that they lived through it in their own way, and any attempt to understand the Algerian War globally is immediately rejected by protagonists."<ref name="MemoryStora">[http://www.ina.fr/voir_revoir/algerie/itv_stora.light.en.html Bringing down the barriers – people's memories of the Algerian War], interview with [[Benjamin Stora]] published on the [[Institut national de l'audiovisuel|INA]] archive Web site {{in lang|en}}</ref></blockquote>

Even though Stora has counted 3,000 publications in French on the Algerian war, there still is no work produced with a French person and an Algerian cooperating with one another. Even though, according to Stora there can "no longer be talk about a 'war without a name'....&nbsp, a number of problems remain, especially the absence of sites in France to commemorate" the war. Furthermore, conflicts have arisen on an exact commemoration date to end the war. Although many sources as well as the French state place it on March 19, 1962, the [[Evian agreements]], others point out that the massacres of harkis and the kidnapping of ''pied-noirs'' took place afterwards.

Stora further points out: "The phase of memorial reconciliation between the two sides of the sea is still a long way off."<ref name="MemoryStora"/> This was recently illustrated by the [[Union for a Popular Movement]]'s UMP vote of the February 23, 2005, the [[French law on colonialism|law on colonialism]], which asserted that colonialism had globally been "positive." Thus, a teacher in one of the elite high schools of Paris has declared:

<blockquote> "Yes, colonization has had positive effects. After all, we did give to Algeria modern infrastructures, a system of education, libraries, social centers.... There were only 10% Algerian students in 1962? This is not much, of course, but it is not nothing either!"<ref>French: "Oui, la colonisation a eu du positif ... On a quand même légué à l'Algérie des infrastructures modernes, un système éducatif, des bibliothèques, des centres sociaux ... Il n'y avait que 10% d'étudiants algériens en 1962 ? C'est peu, bien sûr, mais ce n'est pas rien!", quoted in [http://mondediplo.com/2001/04/04algeriatorture Colonialism Through the School Books – The hidden history of the Algerian war], ''[[Le Monde diplomatique]]'', April 2001 {{in lang|en|fr}}</ref></blockquote>

Along side a heated debate in France, the February 23, 2005, law had the effect of jeopardizing the treaty of friendship that President [[Jacques Chirac]] was supposed to sign with President [[Abdelaziz Bouteflika]] — a treaty no longer on the agenda. Following this controversial law, Bouteflika has talked about a "cultural [[genocide]]", particularly referring to the 1945 [[Sétif massacre]]. Chirac finally had the law repealed through a complex institutional mechanism.

Another matter concerns the teaching of the war, as well as of colonialism and decolonization, in particular in [[Education in France|French secondary schools]]<ref>[http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/cmcf/2004/00000012/00000001/art00007 Terminale history class: teaching about torture during the Algerian war], McCormack J. in ''[[Modern & Contemporary France]]'' review, Volume 12, Number 1, February 2004, pp. 75–86(12) {{in lang|en}}</ref> Hence, there is only one reference to [[racism]] in a French textbook, one published by [[Bréal]] publishers for ''terminales'' students (those passing their [[baccalauréat]]). Thus, many are not surprised that the first to speak about the October 17, 1961, massacre were music bands, including, but not only, hip-hop bands such as the famous [[Suprême NTM]] ("''les Arabes dans la Seine''") or politically engaged [[La Rumeur]]. Indeed, the Algerian War is not even the subject of a specific chapter in textbook for ''terminales''<ref name="DiploApril">[http://mondediplo.com/2001/04/04algeriatorture Colonialism Through the School Books – The hidden history of the Algerian war], ''[[Le Monde diplomatique]]'', April 2001 {{in lang|en|fr}}</ref> Henceforth, Benjamin Stora can state that:
<blockquote>"As Algerians do not appear in an "indigenous" condition, and their sub-citizens status, as the [[Nationalism and resistance in Algeria|history of nationalist movement]], is never evoked as their being one of great figures of the resistance, such as [[Messali Hadj]] and [[Ferhat Abbas]]. They neither emerge nor are being given attention. No one is explaining to students what colonization has been. We have prevented students from understanding why the decolonization took place."<ref name="DiploApril"/></blockquote>

The Algerian War and its consequences are thus fundamental to any understanding of the state of 21st-century France, as well as the [[social situation in the French suburbs]], the conditions of which were brought to world attention during the [[2005 civil unrest in France|civil unrest in autumn 2005]]. For the first time since the Algerian war, the head of state, President Chirac of the UMP party, proclaimed a [[state of emergency]], which was confirmed a few weeks later by the [[Deputies of the 12th French National Assembly|National Assembly]]. (The only party to vote against its extension were the Communist Party and the [[Greens (France)|Greens]].)

In [[metropolitan France]] in 1963, 43% of French Algerians lived in [[Poverty in France|bidonvilles]] (shanty towns).<ref>[http://www.cndp.fr/Tice/Teledoc/dossiers/dossier_gone.htm Le Gone du Chaâba] {{in lang|fr}}</ref> Thus, [[Azouz Begag]], the delegate minister for Equal Opportunities in the government of Prime Minister [[Dominique de Villepin]] of the UMP party, wrote an autobiographic novel, ''Le Gone du Chaâba'', about his experiences while living in a ''bidonville'' in the outskirts of Lyon. It is impossible to understand the third-generation of Algerian immigrants to France without recalling this [[biculturalism|bicultural experience]]. An official parliamentary report on the "prevention of criminality", commanded by then Interior Minister Villepin and made by member of parliament [[Jacques-Alain Bénisti]], claimed that "[[Multilingualism]] (''bilinguisme'') was a factor of criminality." (sic<ref>[http://ecolesdifferentes.free.fr/rapport_BENISTI_prevention.pdf Rapport préliminaire de la commission prévention du groupe d'études parlementaire sur la sécurité intérieure – Sur la prévention de la délinquance], presided by MP [[Jacques-Alain Bénisti]], October 2004 {{in lang|fr}}</ref>). Following outcries from many NGOs and left-wing sectors, the definitive version of the Bénisti report finally made multilingualism an asset rather than a fault.<ref>[http://www.ldh-toulon.net/spip.php?article1084 Analyse de la version finale du rapport Benisti], [[Ligue des droits de l'homme]] (LDH, Human Rights League), and [http://www.abri.org/antidelation/IMG/pdf/RAPPORT_BESNISTI.pdf Final version] of the Bénisti report given to Interior Minister [[Nicolas Sarkozy]] {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

Thus, the stakes of the contemporary debate on torture clearly appear in full light. After having denied its use during 40 years, the French state has finally recognized it; although, there was never an official proclamation about it. [[Paul Aussaresses]] was sentenced following his justification of the use of torture for "apology of war crimes." But, the same as during the events of the time, the French state has claimed torture was an isolated act, instead of admitting its responsibility in the institutionalization of torture as a standard counter-insurgency method, which was used to break the population's morale and not, as Aussaresses has claimed, to "save lives" by gaining short-term information which would stop "terrorists".<ref>[http://www.mfo.ac.uk/fr/node/246 The French Army and Torture during the Algerian War (1954–1962)], Raphaëlle Branche, Université de [[Rennes]], 18 November 2004 {{in lang|en}}</ref> The state now claims that it was a regrettable incident due to the context of the war. But various academic research has proved both theses false. "Torture in Algeria was engraved in the colonial act; it is a 'normal' illustration of an abnormal system", wrote Nicolas Bancel, Pascal Blanchard and Sandrine Lemaire, who discuss the phenomena of "[[human zoo]]s."<ref name="Bancel&al">[http://mondediplo.com/2001/06/10torture TORTURE IN ALGERIA: PAST ACTS THAT HAUNT FRANCE – False memory], ''[[Le Monde diplomatique]]'', June 2001 {{in lang|en|fr}}</ref> From the ''enfumades'' (smoking parlors) of the Darha caves in 1844 by [[Aimable Pélissier|Pélissier]] to the 1945 riots in Sétif, [[Guelma]], and [[Kherrata]], the repression in Algeria has used the same methods. Following the Sétif massacres, other riots against the European presence occurred in Guelma, Batna, Biskra, and Kherrata; they resulted in 103 deaths among the ''pied-noirs''. The suppression of these riots officially saw 1,500 other deaths, but N. Bancel, P. Blanchard and S. Lemaire estimate the number to be rather between 6,000 and 8,000.<ref name="Bancel&al">Bancel, Blanchard and Lemaire (op.cit.) quote **[[Boucif Mekhaled]], ''Chroniques d'un massacre. 8 mai 1945. Sétif, Guelma, Kherrata'', [[Syros]], Paris, 1995 **[[Yves Benot]], ''Massacres coloniaux'', [[La Découverte]], coll. "Textes à l'appui", Paris, 1994
** Annie Rey-Goldzeiguer, ''Aux origines de la guerre d'Algérie'', La Découverte, Paris, 2001.</ref>

=== INA archives ===
''Note: concerning the audio and film archives from the [[Institut national de l'audiovisuel]] (INA), <u>see Benjamin Stora's comments on their politically oriented creation</u>.<ref name="MemoryStora"/>''
* [http://www.ina.fr/archivespourtous/index.php?vue=notice&from=fulltext&full=pied+noir&num_notice=4&total_notices=113 Cinq Colonnes à la une, Rushes Interview Pied-Noir, ORTF, July 1, 1962]
* [http://www.ina.fr/archivespourtous/index.php?vue=notice&from=fulltext&full=alg%E9rie+r%E9trospective&num_notice=1&total_notices=28 Cinq Colonnes à la une, Rétrospective Algérie, ORTF, June 9, 1963] (concerning these [[Institut national de l'audiovisuel|INA]] archives, see also Benjamin Stora's warning about the conditions of creation of these images)

=== Contemporary publications ===
* [[Roger Trinquier|Trinquier, Roger]]. ''Modern Warfare: A French View of Counterinsurgency'' (1961)
* [[Pierre Leulliette|Leulliette, Pierre]], ''St. Michael and the Dragon: Memoirs of a Paratrooper'', Houghton Mifflin, 1964
* [[David Galula|Galula, David]], ''Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice'' (1964)
* [[Edmond Jouhaud|Jouhaud, Edmond]]. ''O Mon Pays Perdu: De Bou-Sfer a Tulle.'' Paris: Librarie Artheme Fayard, 1969.
* [[Etienne Maignen|Maignen, Etienne]] ''Treillis au djebel – Les Piliers de Tiahmaïne'' Yellow Concept, 2004.

=== Other publications ===
==== English language ====
* Aussaresses, General Paul. ''The Battle of the Casbah'', New York: Enigma Books, 2010, {{ISBN|978-1-929631-30-8}}.
* {{Cite book| author=[[Alistair Horne|Horne, Alistair]] | title=A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954–1962 | publisher=Viking | year=1978 | isbn=0-670-61964-7 }}
* [[Rita Maran|Maran, Rita]] (1989). ''[[Torture]]. The role of [[ideology]] in the French-Algerian war'', New York: Prager Publishers.
* [[Martin Windrow|Windrow, Martin]]. ''The Algerian War 1954–62.'' London: Osprey Publishing, 1997. {{ISBN|1-85532-658-2}}
* [[Arslan Humbaraci]]. ''Algeria: a revolution that failed. '' London: Pall mall Press Ltd, 1966.

==== French language ====
''Translations may be available for some of these works. See specific cases.''
* Benot, Yves (1994). ''Massacres coloniaux'', La Découverte, coll. "Textes à l'appui", Paris.
* [[Jean-Charles Jauffret|Jauffret, Jean-Charles]]. ''La Guerre d'Algérie par les documents'' (first tome, 1990; second tome, 1998; [http://remmm.revues.org/document2375.html account here])
* Rey-Goldzeiguer, Annie (2001). ''Aux origines de la guerre d'Algérie'', La Découverte, Paris.
* [[Marie-Monique Robin|Robin, Marie-Monique]]. ''Escadrons de la mort, l'école française'',453 pages. La Découverte (15 September 2004). Collection: Cahiers libres. ({{ISBN|2-7071-4163-1}}) (Spanish transl.: ''Los Escuadrones De La Muerte/ the Death Squadron''), 539 pages. Sudamericana; Édition: Translatio (October 2005). ({{ISBN|950-07-2684-X}})
* Mekhaled, Boucif (1995). ''Chroniques d'un massacre. 8 mai 1945. Sétif, Guelma, Kherrata'', [[Syros]], Paris, 1995.
* Slama, Alain-Gérard (1996). ''La Guerre d'Algérie. Histoire d'une déchirure'', Gallimard, coll. "Découvertes", Paris.
* [[Pierre Vidal-Naquet|Vidal-Naquet, Pierre]]. ''La Torture sous la République'' (1970) and many others, more recent (see entry).
* [[Jules Roy|Roy, Jules]] (1960). "La guerre d'Algérie" ("The War in Algeria", 1961, Grove Press)
* [[Etienne Maignen]]. '' Treillis au djebel- Les Piliers de Tiahmaïne '' Yellow Concept 2004.
* [[Gilbert Meynier]]. '' Histoire intérieure du FLN 1954–1962 '' Fayard 2004.

== Movies ==
{{History of Algeria}}
* ''[[Le Petit Soldat]]'' by [[Jean-Luc Godard]] (1960 – [[Censorship in France|banned until 1963]] because of the presence of scenes of [[torture during the Algerian War|torture]])
* ''Octobre à Paris'' by Jacques Panijel (1961)
* ''[[Muriel (film)]]'' by [[Alain Resnais]] (1962)
* ''[[Lost Command]]'' aka ''Les Centurions'' (1966)
* ''[[The Battle of Algiers (film)|The Battle of Algiers]]'' by [[Gillo Pontecorvo]] (1966)
* ''Elise ou la vraie vie'' by Michel Drach (1970)
* ''Avoir 20 ans dans les Aurès'' by René Vautier (1972)
* ''La Guerre d'Algérie, a documentary film by Yves Courriére (1972)
* ''[[R.A.S.]]'' by [[Yves Boisset]] (1973)
* ''[[Wild Reeds]]'' by [[André Téchiné]] (1994)
* "Deserter" by Martin Huberty (2002)
* ''[[La Trahison]]'' by [[Philippe Faucon]] (2005, adapted from a novel by [[Claude Sales]] – on the presence of Muslim soldiers in the French Army)
* ''[[Nuit noire]]'' by [[Alain Tasma]] (2005, on the [[Paris massacre of 1961]])
* ''[[Harkis (film)|Harkis]]'' by Alain Tasma (2006)
* ''[[Mon colonel]]'' by [[Laurent Herbier]] (2007)
* ''[[L'Ennemi Intime]]'' by [[Florent Emilio Siri]] (scenario by [[Patrick Rotman]], 2007)
* ''[[Cartouches Gauloises]]'' by Mehdi Charef (2007)
* ''[[Balcon sur la mer]]'' by Nicole Garcia (2010)the adult lives of two children who survive the siege of Oran.
* ''[[Outside the Law (2010 film)|Outside the Law (Hors la loi)]]'' by [[Rachid Bouchareb]]

== See also ==
{{Portal|Algeria|France|War|1950s|1960s}}
* [[Algiers putsch of 1961]]
* [[Armée de l'Air (Part III: End of empire in Indochina and Algeria, 1939-1962)]]
* [[Ahmed Ben Bella]]
* [[Frantz Fanon]]
* [[Adolfo Kaminsky]] (1925–), famous [[Identity document forgery|forger]] who worked for FLN, draft dodgers, etc., to make false ID
* [[Nationalism and resistance in Algeria]]
* [[Nuclear weapons and France]]
* [[Paris massacre of 1961]]
* [[Oran massacre of 1962]]
* ''[[Manifesto of the 121]]''
* [[Torture during the Algerian War]]
* [[Guerrilla warfare]] and [[Counter-insurgency]]
* [[History of Algeria since 1962]]
* [[French Algeria]]
* [[Ethnic cleansing]]
* [[Evian Agreements]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}
* Original text: ''[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/dztoc.html Library of Congress Country Study] of Algeria''

== External links ==
{{Commonscat|Algerian War}}
{{refbegin}}
* "[http://www.time.com/time/archive/collections/0,21428,c_algerian_war,00.shtml TIME Collection French-Algerian War]." ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''.
* [http://www.usfca.edu/fac-staff/webberm/algeria.htm Algerian War Reading]
* [http://www.marxists.org/history/algeria/index.htm Algerian Independence Archive at marxists.org]
* {{in lang|fr}} [http://www.ecpad.fr/tag/fonds-guerre-dalgerie Photos of the Algerian War of Independence] (ECPAD)
* [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/algeria.htm Algerian National Liberation]
* [http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG478-1/ ''Pacification in Algeria: 1956–1958'' by David Galula]
* [http://www.ina.fr/archivespourtous/index.php?full=guerre%20d'algérie&action=ft&x=0&y=0 Audiovisual National Institute's declassified Algeria War archives] (hundreds of free video: news rushes, interviews, official speeches, retrospectives, etc.)
* [http://www.ina.fr/archivespourtous/index.php?vue=notice&from=fulltext&full=guerre+d%27alg%E9rie&num_notice=7&total_notices=763 Algerian War Retrospective]
* The [http://africanactivist.msu.edu/ African Activist Archive Project] website has material related to Algeria including a 1960 photograph of [http://africanactivist.msu.edu/image.php?objectid=802 Mary-Louise Hooper with the FLN underground.] Go to Browse and under Africa Coverage choose Algeria.
* {{Internet Archive short film|id=gov.archives.arc.649319|name=French President Charles De Gaulle and the Six-Year War (1960)}}
* [http://www.english.rfi.fr/africa/20120705-algeria-celebrates-50-years-independence-france-keeps-mum Algeria celebrates 50 years of independence - France keeps mum RFI English]

{{refend}}
{{Algeria topics}}
{{French colonial campaigns}}

[[:Category:Algerian War| ]]
[[:Category:20th-century conflicts]]
[[:Category:Wars of independence]]
[[:Category:Rebellions in Africa]]
[[:Category:Secession in Algeria]]
[[:Category:Secession in France]]
[[:Category:20th century in France]]
[[:Category:Wars involving the states and peoples of Africa]]