Algerian War of Independence

The Algerian War (also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence) was a major armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria winning its independence from France. An important decolonization war, it was a complex conflict characterized by guerrilla warfare and war crimes. The conflict also became a civil war between the different communities and within the communities. The war took place mainly on the territory of Algeria, with repercussions in metropolitan France.

Effectively started by members of the FLN on 1 November 1954, during the Toussaint Rouge ("Red All Saints' Day"), the conflict led to serious political crises in France, causing the fall of the Fourth Republic (1946–58), to be replaced by the Fifth Republic with a strengthened presidency. The brutality of the methods employed by the French forces 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 of France's key allies, including the United States, switched from supporting France to abstaining in the UN debate on Algeria. After major demonstrations in Algiers and several other cities in favor of independence (1960) and a United Nations resolution recognizing the right to independence, Charles de Gaulle, the first president of the Fifth Republic, decided to open a series of negotiations with the FLN. These concluded with the signing of the Évian Accords in March 1962. A referendum took place on 8 April 1962 and the French electorate approved the Évian Accords. The final result was 91% in favor of the ratification of this agreement and on 1 July, the Accords were subject to a second referendum in Algeria, where 99.72% voted for independence and just 0.28% against.

The planned French withdrawal led to a state crisis. This included various assassination attempts on de Gaulle as well as some attempts at military coups. Most of the former were carried out by the Organisation armée secrète (OAS), an underground organization formed mainly from French military personnel supporting a French Algeria, which committed a large number of bombings and murders both in Algeria and in the homeland to stop the planned independence.

The war caused the deaths of between 400,000 and 1.5 million Algerians, 25,600 French soldiers,  and 6,000 Europeans. War crimes committed during the war included massacres of civilians, rape, and torture; the French destroyed over 8,000 villages and relocated over 2 million Algerians to concentration camps. Upon independence in 1962, 900,000 European-Algerians (Pieds-noirs) fled to France within a few months for fear of the FLN's revenge. The French government was unprepared to receive such a vast number of refugees, which caused turmoil in France. The majority of Algerian Muslims who had worked for the French were disarmed and left behind, as the agreement between French and Algerian authorities declared that no actions could be taken against them. However, the Harkis in particular, having served as auxiliaries with the French army, were regarded as traitors and many were murdered by the FLN or by lynch mobs, often after being abducted and tortured.  About 20,000 Harki families (around 90,000 people) managed to flee to France, some with help from their French officers acting against orders, and today they and their descendants form a significant part of the population of Algerians in France.

Death toll

Death toll estimates vary. Algerian historians and the FLN estimated that nearly eight years of revolution caused 1.5 million Algerian deaths. Some other French and Algerian sources later put the figure at approximately 960,000 dead, while French officials and historians estimated it at around 350,000, but this was regarded by many as an underestimate. French military authorities listed their losses at nearly 17,456 dead (5,966 from accidents) and 65,000 wounded. European-descended civilian casualties exceeded 10,000 (including 3,000 dead) in 42,000 recorded violent 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 this includes some 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. 

Martin Evans citing Gilert Meyinier implies at least 55,000 to up to 60,000 non-Harki Algerian civilians were killed during the conflict without specifying which side killed them. Rudolph Rummel attributes at least 100,000 deaths in what he calls democide to French repression; and estimates an additional to 50,000 to 150,000 democides committed by Algerian independence fighters. 6,000 to 20,000 Algerians were killed] in the 1945 Sétif and Guelma massacre which is considered by some historians to have been a cause of the war.

Horne estimated Algerian casualties during the span of eight years to be around 1 million. Uncounted thousands of Muslim civilians died 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. One source estimates 300,000 Algerians civilians perished of starvation, depredation, and disease inside and outside the camps.

In addition, large numbers of Harkis were murdered when the FLN settled accounts after independence,  with 30,000 to 150,000 killed in Algeria in post-war reprisals.

Commanders and leaders

•  Mourad Didouche †
•  Mohamed Boudiaf
•  Abdelhafid Boussouf
•  Mustapha Benboulaïd †
•  Krim Belkacem
•  Larbi Ben M'Hidi 
•  Ali La Pointe †
•  Saïd Mohammedi
•  Ahmed Zabana 
•  Si Azzedine [fr]
•  Youcef Zighoud †
•  Rabah Bitat
•  Benali Boudghène †
•  Bachir Chihani [ar; fr]
•  Ali Mallah [ar] †
•  Hocine Aït Ahmed
•  Colonel Amirouche †
•  Saadi Yacef
•  Houari Boumédiène
•  Amar Ouamrane

Politicians:

•  Alphonse Djamate
  (1955–62)
•  Paul Cherrière
  (1954–55)
•  Henri Lorillot
  (1955–56)
•  Mohammed Bellounis †
  (1955–58)
•  Jacques Soustelle
  (1955–56)
•  Raoul Salan
  (1956–58)
•  Hervé Artur †
  (1956)
•  Robert Lacoste
  (1956–58)
•  Jacques Massu
  (1956–60)
•  René Sentenac †
  (1957)
•  Pierre Jeanpierre †
  (1957–58)
•  Paul Aussaresses
•  Maurice Challe
  (1958–60)
•  Jean Crepin
  (1960–61)
•  Fernand Gambiez
  (1961)

Politicians:

•  Saïd Boualam
•  Pierre Lagaillarde
•  Raoul Salan
•  Edmond Jouhaud
•  Jean-Jacques Susini

Strength300,000 identified
40,000 civilian support

• 470,000 troops (maximum reached and maintained by the French military from 1956 to 1962) or 700,000 men (it is unclear whether the latter estimate includes the Harkis or not)90,000 to 180,000 Harkis (pro-French Algerian auxiliaries)1.5 million men mobilized

3,000 (OAS)Casualties and losses

• 140,000 to 152,863 FLN soldiers killed (including 12,000 internal purges and 4,300 Algerians from the FLN and MNA killed in metropolitan France)
• Unknown wounded
• 198 executed

• 17,456  to 30,000 French soldiers killed
• 65,000 wounded
• 50,000 Harkis killed or missing
• 6,000 European civilian deaths

• 100 dead
• 2,000 jailed
• 4 executed

• 250,000–300,000 (including 55,000 to 250,000 civilians) Algerian casualties (French estimate)

~1,500,000 total Algerian deaths (Algerian historians' estimate)
~1,000,000 total Algerian deaths (Horne's estimate)
~400,000 total deaths (French historians' estimate)

• 1 million Europeans fled
• 200,000 Jews fled
• 8,000 villages destroyed
• Over 2 million Algerians resettled or displaced

Atrocities and war crimes

French atrocities and use of torture

Massacres and torture were frequent from the beginning of the colonization of Algeria, which started in 1830. Atrocities committed against Algerians by the French army during the war included indiscriminate shootings into civilian crowds (such as during the Paris massacre of 1961), execution of civilians when rebel attacks occurred, bombings of villages suspected of helping the FLN, rape, disembowelment of pregnant women, imprisonment without food in small cells (some of which were small enough to impede lying down), throwing detainees from helicopters and into the sea with concrete on their feet, and burying people alive. Torture methods included beatings, mutilations, burning, hanging by the feet or hands, torture by electroshock, waterboarding, sleep deprivation and sexual assaults.

During the war, the French military relocated entire villages to centres de regroupements (regrouping centres), which were built for forcibly displaced civilian populations, in order to separate them from FLN guerrilla combatants. Over 8,000 villages were destroyed. Over 2 million Algerians were resettled in regrouping internment camps, with some being forced into labour.

A notable instance of rape was that of Djamila Boupacha, a 23-years old Algerian woman who was arrested in 1960, accused of attempting to bomb a cafe in Algiers. Her confession was obtained through torture and rape. Her subsequent trial affected French public opinion about the French army's methods in Algeria after publicity of the case by Simone de Beauvoir and Gisèle Halimi.

Torture was also used by both sides during the First Indochina War (1946–54). Claude Bourdet denounced acts of torture in Algeria on 6 December 1951, in the magazine L'Observateur, rhetorically asking, "Is there a Gestapo in Algeria?". D. Huf, in his seminal work on the subject, argued that the use of torture was one of the major factors in developing French opposition to the war. Huf argued, "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 systematic torture techniques were used during the war and justified them. 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. Marcel Bigeard, who called FLN activists "savages", claimed torture was a "necessary evil". 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.

Bigeard's justification of torture has been criticized by Joseph Doré, archbishop of Strasbourg, Marc Lienhard, president of the Lutheran Church of Augsbourg Confession in Alsace-Lorraine, and others. In June 2000, Bigeard declared that he was based in Sidi Ferruch, a torture center 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. However, since General Massu's revelations, Bigeard has 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 was assassinated and that his death was disguised as a suicide.

In 2018 France officially admitted that torture was systematic and routine.

Algerian use of terror

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. 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 FLN as mechanisms of terror. Some other atrocities were committed by the more militant sections of the FLN as collective reprisals against the pieds-noirs population in response to French repression. The more extreme cases occurred in places like the town of Al-Halia, where some European residents were raped and disemboweled, while children had been murdered by slitting their throats or banging their heads against walls.

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.

INA archives

Note: concerning the audio and film archives from the Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA), see Benjamin Stora's comments on their politically-oriented creation.

• Cinq Colonnes à la une, Rushes Interview Pied-Noir, ORTF, July 1, 1962.
• Cinq Colonnes à la une, Rétrospective Algérie, ORTF, June 9, 1963 (concerning these INA archives, see also Benjamin Stora's warning about the conditions of creation of these images).

Contemporary publications

• Trinquier, Roger. Modern Warfare: A French View of Counterinsurgency, 1961.
• Leulliette, Pierre, St. Michael and the Dragon: Memoirs of a Paratrooper, Houghton Mifflin, 1964.
• Galula, David, Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice, 1964.
• Jouhaud, Edmond. O Mon Pays Perdu: De Bou-Sfer a Tulle. Paris: Librarie Artheme Fayard, 1969.
• Maignen, Etienne Treillis au djebel – Les Piliers de Tiahmaïne Yellow Concept, 2004.
• Derradji, Abder-Rahmane, The Algerian Guerrilla Campaign Strategy & Tactics, The Edwin Mellen Press, New York, 1997.
• Feraoun, Mouloud, Journal 1955–1962, University of Nebraska Press, 2000.
• Pečar, Zdravko, Alžir do nezavisnosti. Beograd: Prosveta; Beograd: Institut za izučavanje radničkog pokreta, 1967.

Other publications English-language

• Aussaresses, General Paul. The Battle of the Casbah, New York: Enigma Books, 2010, ISBN 978-1-929631-30-8.
• Horne, Alistair (1978). A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954–1962. Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-61964-1.
• Maran, Rita (1989). Torture: The Role of Ideology in the French-Algerian War, New York: Prager Publishers.
• 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.
• Samia Henni: Architecture of Counterrevolution. The French Army in Northern Algeria, gta Verlag, Zürich 2017. ISBN 978-3-85676-376-3.
• Pečar, Zdravko, Algeria to Independence. Currently being translated into English by Dubravka Juraga at: Zdravko Pečar: Alžir do nezavisnosti.

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.
• Jauffret, Jean-Charles. La Guerre d'Algérie par les documents (first tome, 1990; second tome, 1998; account here).
• Rey-Goldzeiguer, Annie (2001). Aux origines de la guerre d'Algérie, La Découverte, Paris.
• 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 Gallimard" (n° 301), Paris.
• Vidal-Naquet, Pierre. La Torture sous la République (1970) and many others, more recent (see entry).
• 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.

Films

Former FLN member Saadi Yacef starred and co-produced The Battle of Algiers (1966) by Italian filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo, which was critically acclaimed for its sense of historical authenticity and cast who had lived through the real war.

• Jamila, the Algerian (1958). Egyptian film by Youssef Chahine; about Djamila Bouhired.
• Le Petit Soldat by Jean-Luc Godard (1960). Banned until 1963 because some scenes contained torture. The title translates to "The Little Soldier".
• Octobre à Paris by Jacques Panijel (1961). The title translates to "October in Paris".
• Muriel (film) by Alain Resnais (1962). "Muriel" is a character's name.
• Commando (1962 film)
• Lost Command by Mark Robson (film director) (1966). The French title, Les Centurions, translates to "The Centurions".
• The Battle of Algiers by Gillo Pontecorvo (1966). It was banned in France for five years.
• 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 Courrière (1972). The title translates to "The Algerian War".
• 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. The title translates to, "The Treason".
• Nuit noire by Alain Tasma (2005). On the Paris massacre of 1961. The title translates to "Black Night".
• Caché by Michael Haneke (2005) On the Paris massacre of 1961. The movie is often known in English by its French name's translation, "Hidden".
• Harkis by Alain Tasma (2006). The title refers to ethnically Algerian French military auxiliaries.
• Mon colonel by Laurent Herbier (2007). The title translates to "My Colonel".
• L'Ennemi Intime by Florent Emilio Siri (2007). Scenario by Patrick Rotman which depicts the use of Napalm.
• Cartouches Gauloises by Mehdi Charef (2007)
• Balcon sur la mer by Nicole Garcia (2010). About the adult lives of two children who survive the siege of Oran. The title translates to, "Balcony on the Ocean".
• Outside the Law by Rachid Bouchareb (2010)
• La Valise ou le Cercueil (2011). French documentary film.
• Ce que le jour doit à la nuit by Alexandre Arcady (2012)
• Far from Men by David Oelhoffen (2014). Based on the short story The Guest, by Albert Camus.