Algerian War

Lore & Background

The brutality of French methods failed to win hearts and minds in Algeria, alienated support in metropolitan France, and discredited French prestige abroad. As the war dragged on, the French public slowly turned against it, and many key allies, including the United States, generally supported France until late in the war.

Reader's Guide

The Algerian War was a pivotal decolonization conflict that ended 132 years of French rule in Algeria. War crimes included massacres of civilians, rape, torture, destruction of over 8,000 villages, use of chemical weapons, and relocation of over 2 million Algerians to concentration camps. The war led to the fall of the Fourth Republic and the rise of the Fifth Republic under Charles de Gaulle, who negotiated the Évian Accords. The conflict's legacy includes ongoing debates about memory, war crimes, and the integration of Algerian diaspora communities in France.

Did You Know?

• French forces destroyed over 8,000 villages during the conflict.
• The Évian Accords of March 1962 ended the war; a French referendum approved them with 91% in favor.

Origins and Character of the Conflict

Guerrilla tactics defined much of the fighting, yet the war also fractured communities along ethnic and political lines, turning it into a civil war both between and within Algerian society. The violence was concentrated on the territory of French Algeria but sent shockwaves all the way back to metropolitan France. As a landmark decolonization war, it was marked by atrocities on multiple sides, and its legacy would reshape not only the political map of North Africa but the very structure of the French state itself.

The Political Earthquake in France

As the conflict dragged on, French public opinion gradually shifted against the war, and even key allies like the United States moved from backing France to abstaining during United Nations debates on Algeria. Charles de Gaulle, the first president under the new Fifth Republic, responded by launching negotiations with the FLN. Those talks produced the Évian Accords in March 1962. A French referendum on 8 April saw 91 percent of voters ratify the agreement, and on 1 July a parallel vote in Algeria returned an overwhelming 99.72 percent in favor of independence.

A Staggering Human Toll

The human cost of the Algerian War defies easy comprehension. The methods employed by French forces included the destruction of more than 8,000 villages, the use of chemical weapons against both combatants and non-combatants, and the forced relocation of over two million Algerians into concentration camps. Massacres of civilians, rape, and systematic torture were documented on multiple fronts, and the brutality failed to win popular support in Algeria while alienating opinion back in France and discrediting French prestige internationally. The war thus represented the latest and most devastating chapter in a long history of colonial violence.

Exodus, Betrayal, and the OAS Crisis

Independence triggered a cascade of human and political crises that would echo for decades. The French government, wholly unprepared for such a massive refugee influx, was thrown into turmoil. Meanwhile, the Harkis, Algerian Muslims who had served as auxiliaries in the French army, faced a far darker fate. Despite a formal agreement guaranteeing their safety, they were branded traitors by the new Algerian authorities and lynch mobs; many were abducted, tortured, and killed. Back in France, the Organisation armée secrète, an underground network of French military personnel determined to preserve a French Algeria, carried out bombings, murders, and assassination attempts on de Gaulle, along with several military coup plots, plunging the nation into a state crisis.