ALGERIAN WAR
OUTLINE
• 1 Beginning of Hostilities
• 2 FLN
• 3 Philippeville
• 4 Conduct of the War
• 5 Committee of Public Safety
• 6 De Gaulle
• 7 The Evian Accords
• 8 The pieds-noirs' and harkis' exodus
• 8.1 Pieds-noirs
• 8.2 Harkis
• 9 War dead
• 10 Lasting effects in Algerian politics
Nov 1 1954 FLN attack military and police bases
Mitterand replies ‘war’
12 November Pierre-mendes says Algeria must remain French.
During this first year, FLN win over the other movements
(Ferhat Abbas's UDMA, the ulama, and the PCA maintained a friendly neutrality toward the FLN. The 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.
MNA gained the support of a majority of Algerian workers in France through the Union Syndicale des Travailleurs Algériens (Union of Algerian Workers ). The FLN also established a strong organization in France to oppose the MNA. Merciless "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.
MNA v FLN in France (café wars)
Tried to win the people over to its cause
Found an intellectual in Frantz Fanton – to justify violence
Ben Bella started to attack muslims sympathetic to French
Farmers, pied-noirs, (who were of European descent and were so called after their black (French) shoes) sold up and moved to Algiers calling for stronger counter-measures against the separatists.
Colon vigilantes (unauthorised, but with help of police) carried out rat-hunts against FLN members.
By 1955 they had convinced Jacques Soustelle, the governor general since January, to resolve the situation.
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....
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August 1955 massacre of civilians by FLN at Philippeville
After this Soustelle took a hard line, thousands killed in retribution and all out war began.
In 1956 demonstrations of French colonists forced the French government to abolish an idea of reform.
Governor General Robert Lacoste, a socialist, replaced Soustelle.
He abolished the Algerian Assembly (dominated by pied-noirs) and ruled by decree.
Granted (illegally?) military exceptional powers.— to deal with the mounting political violence.
Proposed some sort of Federal administrative structure – by which Algerian would remain a part of France.
IN Augst/September the FLN tried to set up a co-ordinating committee. The 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. Bella was an external
October 1956 Lacoste arrests FLN leaders and imprisons them for duration of war. Other become more hard line
President Nassaer was helping the FLN. This upset the Frence. Some thought this was what enabled ther FLN to carry on.
Hence France was persuaded to participate in 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.
1957 FLN support weakend. Breach between internal s and externals.
Therefore exec committee expanded to include Abba and Bella. They got communist and Arab members of UN to bring pressure on the French.
By 1957, the bandit like 1954 FLN group was an army of 40,000. 30,000 in external units in Tunisia and Morocco.
Internal s 6,000-25,000.
Guerilla tactics
During the first two years of the conflict, the guerrillas killed about 6,000 muslims and 1,000 non-muslims.
ALN/FLN gained a hold in mountain regions.
The FLN decided to bring it into the cities, in order to make people take notice.
The Battle of Algiers began on September 30, 1956, when three women placed bombs at three sites including the downtown office of Air France.
The ALN carried out an average of 800 shootings and bombings per month through the spring of 1957, resulting in many civilian casualties and inviting a crushing response from the authorities.
In 1957 a general strike, timed to coincide with the UN debate on Algeria, was imposed on Muslim workers and businesses.
General Jacques Massu, was called in with his paratroopers to do whatever it took to break the strike, the infrastructure of the FLN and restore order.
Massu also attacked the villages and put 2 million people in concentration camps. ‘Tent cities’. The torture was publicised. Pacification had become colonial war.
By 1956 France had over 400,000 troops in Algeria. (17,000 of them were Muslim Algerians)