The Road to Independence - Algeria

Algeria's Road to Independence

Task Overview

• TASK ONE: Learn about Algeria
• TASK TWO: Take notes on the factors or methods used to achieve Algeria’s independence.
• TASK THREE: Discuss: Can you have legitimacy if you need to use force to affect change?

Main Timeline

• 1830: French conquest of Algeria begins.
• 1848: Algeria becomes a department of France.
• 1939-1945: 200,000 Algerians fought on behalf of France in WWII.
• Rise of Nationalist groups in Algeria.
• A number of peaceful attempts are made to bring change.
• 1954: War for independence begins.
• 1962: Évian Accords, a ceasefire agreement with the FLN signed by the French Government.
• New Govt becomes authoritarian and leads as a one-party state.
• 1991: First democratic election is held.
• 1992 - 2002: Civil war.
• 1999- 2019: Abdelaziz Bouteflika rules the country for 20 years but is unable to turn it around and steps down.

Background

• North Africa (Maghreb).
• 10th Largest country in the world.
• Mediterranean Sea to the North (15%) and the Sahara Desert to the South (85%).
• One of the largest oil and natural gas reserves in the world.
• History of colonization: Part of the Roman empire and later of the Ottoman empire.
• Predominantly Muslim.
• French Colony 1830-1962.

French Conquest (1830-1875)

• Triggered by a slight insult to the French Consul in Algeria, Pierre Deval.
• King Louis-Philippe needed a colony to accrue his prestige (He was not very popular).
• The slave trade and piracy stopped under the French conquest in Algeria.
• Algerian population decreases of about ⅓ due to war violence and epidemics.

French Colonisation (1875-1964)

• Administered as an overseas département of France (they had political representation in the French Assembly in Paris).
• Majority of Algerians forced into arid south.
• Requisition of land from Algerians.
• French immigration encouraged (pied-noirs).
• Land redistributed to the pied-noirs who increased productivity thanks to agricultural technology.
• During the late 19th and early 20th century pied-noirs made up ⅕ of population.
• Economy changed to cash crop farming (esp. wine), mineral mining, and oil.
• French administration offered new modern accommodation in the suburbs.
• Substantial educational investments which primarily the Pied Noirs benefitted from.

Triggers for Independence

Unfair treatment

• Muslim majority became French citizens but are not given the same rights as the European immigrants.
• Couldn’t become citizens unless they renounced Islam.
• Are unable to vote.
• Little investments made to industrialise Algeria.
• Algerians are resettled.
• Schools that teach Arabic are not funded.
• Mosques are destroyed.
• Majority of Algerians can only attend primary school.

WWII and the rise of Nationalism

• France (and its colonies) was occupied or allied with Nazi Germany.
• 200-000 Algerians fight on behalf of the French.
• Hopes of liberation:
  • 1940 British bombed and sunk the French Fleet in near Oran to prevent it from falling into German hands.
  • 1942 Operation Torch - Allied landing in Algiers to to liberate North Africa and Europe
• Pre-occupied and depleted French forces allowed the rise of nationalistic groups
• 1942: Algerian Manifesto is released with the request that Algerians become fully fledged French citizens.

Attempts to bring about change using peaceful methods:

• Dissatisfaction among the Muslim population, which lacked political and economic status in the colonial system, gave rise to demands for greater political autonomy and many attempts were made to do it peacefully:
  • Petitions: Algerians submitted petitions to French authorities, requesting equal rights and an end to discriminatory policies.
  • Boycotts: Algerians boycott French goods and services to protest against French rule.
  • Demonstrations: Algerians organized peaceful demonstrations to demand equal rights and an end to French colonial rule.
  • Political activism: Algerians formed political parties and organizations to advocate for their rights and to challenge French rule.
  • Request for full citizenship: In 1936 the French allowed a very small number of Algerians to obtain full French citizenship without forcing them to relinquish their right to be judged by Muslim law on matters of personal status (e.g., marriage, inheritance, divorce, and child custody). The proposal was, therefore, a potential breakthrough.
  • It could have lead to a peaceful resolution. This would impact a small number of Algerians who would have received full French citizenship—the educated, veterans of French military service, and other groups could then have been gradually increased in later years.
  • However, the opposition from the Pied Noirs was so fierce, however, that the project was never even brought to a vote in the French Chamber of Deputies.

Response of the French

• In May 1945, after the war almost 5000 Algerians took to the streets to celebrate it’s end and begin to protest for independence.
• It led to clashes between police and protests where people on both sides were killed. News of the death of the protesters resulted in violent attacks on the Pied Noirs.
• The result was violent suppression by the French in what is now known as the Sétif and Guelma massacre.

Sétif and Guelma massacre

• Date: 8 May to 26 June 1945
• Attack type: Massacre, Communal violence
• Deaths: 6,000 to 30,000
• Victims: Algerians
• Perpetrators: French authorities and vigilantes
• Motive: Repression of demonstrations that demand Algerian independence.
• 102 French settlers were killed by rioters.

Rise of Nationalistic Groups

Main Groups who wanted change

1. Assimilation:
   • There were those who wanted to join with France.
   • They consisted of Algerians who had gained access to French education and earned their living in the French sector.
   • They wanted gradual change through peaceful methods, they shunned illegal actions.
   • They were prepared to consider permanent union with France if the rights of Frenchmen could be extended to native Algerians.
2. AUMA:
   • There were those who wanted to create an Islamic Nation:
   • The Association of Algerian Muslim ʿUlamāʾ (AUMA) was organized in 1931 under the leadership of Sheikh ʿAbd al-Hamid Ben Badis.
   • This group was not a political party, but it fostered a strong sense of Muslim Algerian nationality among the Algerian masses.
3. Front de Libération Nationale (FLN)
   • The third group was more proletarian- supported by working class- and radical.
   • It was organized among Algerian workers in France in the 1920s under the leadership of Ahmed Messali Hadj and later gained wide support in Algeria.
   • Preaching a nationalism without nuance, Messali Hadj was bound to appeal to Algerians, who fully recognized their deprivation.
   • Messali Hadj’s was able to motivate for the war as the more moderate Algerians had been unable to show that step-by-step decolonization was possible.
   • The National Liberation Front (FLN) was established on 10 October 1954
   • The main group who did not want change would be the French Government and the Pied Noirs.

THE ALGERIAN WAR (1945 - 1962)

• November the 1st 1954 the FLN used hit and run attacks in Algeria. The French then conducted severe reprisals.
• The FLN grouped all nationalist movements (by 1956)
• Methods they used:
  • Guerilla Warfare
  • FLN forces employed hit and run tactics
  • Lynch mobs attacked European settlers
  • French forces retaliated with violence
  • Battle of Algiers took the battle to the cities. Planted bombs in the settler areas.
  • Created fear
• French Soldiers:
  • The French brought over 1.5 million young French conscripts were sent to Algeria to battle the Algerian guerrilla fighters during the Algerian War.
  • The Harki 170,000 Muslim Algerians served in the regular French army during the Algerian War, most of them volunteers.
• Algerian civilians were caught in the middle.
• The French destroyed over 8,000 villages and relocated over 2 million Algerians to concentration camps.
• Some collaborated with the French and would be killed by the FLN.
• The war ( which was not recognised or a called a war by the French Government) was a vicious insurgency and counterinsurgency, with the FLN escalating a terrorism campaign and the French military resorting to the systematic use of torture to thwart the insurgency.

End of the Algerian War

• Widespread brutality tarnished the French international image.
• Pressures at home to withdraw troops.
• March 1962, Évian Accords, a ceasefire agreement with the FLN signed.
• April 1962, Second referendum on the independence of Algeria (91 percent of the French the Evian Accords).
• July 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 abstaining.
• FLN became its only legal and ruling party proclaimed Algeria Independent on 5th July.
• Ahmed Ben Bella – First President of Algeria

Impact of violence during and after the war:

• The FLN is considered responsible for over 16,000 Algerian civilians killed and over 13,000 disappeared between 1954 and 1962.
• After the ceasefire of 19 March 1962, the FLN is thought to have massacred between 60,000 and 70,000 harkis: Muslim Algerians who had served in the French army and whom the French, contrary to promises given, had denied a "repatriation" to France.
• Examples of FLN massacres include the Philippeville massacre. An estimated 4,300 people were also killed in France in FLN-related violence.

Impact of violence during and after the war continued:

• The Algerian War of independence was one of the most brutal conflicts in the history of decolonization. The war was characterized by guerrilla warfare and war crimes:
  • FLN Soldiers: An estimated 140,000 to 152,863 FLN soldiers died.
  • Algerians: 2,000,000 Algerians resettled or were displaced. The war caused the deaths of between 400,000 and 1,500,000 Algerians,
  • The war left deep scars on the population, and distrust of those who collaborated with the French, A number tried to move to France. 500,000 Algerians would move initially—the numbers would double by the 1980s. Many Algerian immigrants were often subjected to discrimination and racism in France, and their rights were often still limited.
  • Harkis: 150,000 harkis (Algerians who had fought alongside the French) and their families fled to France. Those that remained were deemed to be traitors and were killed by the FLN. The French government initially refused to recognize their right to stay and kept them in squalid camps. The conditions were deplorable and many died as a result. They were only compensated in 2021.
  • Pied Noirs: 6,000 Europeans. France was compelled to receive over a million refugees.
  • French Soldiers: 25,600 French soldiers would die during the war. By the end of 1962, France was home to 2 million French war veterans. Returned home without honour. Having fought in a war without a name. Some felt the war was justified. Others questioned that.

To what extent was Positive Peace achieved?

• Independence is granted.
• Widespread brutality tarnished the French international image
• FLN became its only legal and ruling party.
• It would remain a one- party state until 1988 when further protests facilitated the move to a multi-party state.

Algeria Post-Independence (VERY SIMPLIFIED VERSION)

• 1962 - 1988
  • One Party System FLN left to rebuild a war-torn country
  • Millions of jobs left vacant by European settlers
  • 70% unemployment
  • Land left to waste
  • Govt confiscated land and became authoritarian
• 1988 - 1992
  • Riots for more political freedom
  • Multiple party allowed
  • FIS (Islamic Salvation Front) won
  • Disbanded and outlawed by FLN
• 1992 - 2002
  • Civil war
• 2012…
  • French president François Hollande acknowledges his country’s “unjust and brutal” occupation of Algeria but stops short of making an official apology.
• On 2 April 2019, Bouteflika resigned from the presidency after mass protests against his candidacy for a fifth term in office.

Detailed Timeline

• 1830: French conquest of Algeria begins
• 1848: Algeria becomes a department of France.
  • Hundred of thousands of French citizens chose to settle in Algeria- become known as Pied Noirs. Making up 10% of the Algerian Population
  • A large % of Algerians have land taken and are resettled.
  • Algerians are considered French citizens but without full rights. Notably religious and political.
• 1939-1945: 200- 000 Algerians fought on behalf of France in WWII
  • Rise of Nationalist groups in Algeria
  • A number of peaceful attempts are made requesting either independence from France or full integration with full citizenship rights.
• 1942: Algerian Manifesto. Official request for autonomy.
• 1945: Massacre in Setif by the French Govt.
• 1954: War for independence begins
• 1962: A referendum is held and majority vote for independence.
  • Évian Accords, a ceasefire agreement with the FLN signed by French Government.
  • FLN lead the provisional government that is tasked with setting up constitution and first democratic elections.
  • As the only legal party they win the elections. Left to rebuild a war-torn country. In-fighting within party leadership. Millions of jobs left vacant by European settlers. 70% unemployment. Land left to waste Govt becomes authoritarian and lead as a one- party state.
• 1991: First democratic election is held since independence but fears of the election results leading to the creation of an Islamic state led to another civil war.
• 1992 - 2002: Civil war
• 1999- 2019: Abdelaziz Bouteflika becomes president and tried to reduce conflict, restore nation’s international relationships. Steps down after 20 years unable to turn the country’s economic situation around.
• 1999: French Govt start to call it an actual war. French president François Hollande acknowledges his country’s “unjust and brutal” occupation of Algeria but stops short of making an official apology.
• 2021: French government offer reparations to the Harqi