Algerian War of Independence

Algerian War of Independence (1954–62) On 1 November 1954, hostilities broke out between the Christian colonists of French descent and Algerian Muslim nationalists who were organized into the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) under Ben Bella. Despite its initial inferiority, the brutality of the well-armed French and colonists' troops soon brought the FLN agrarian mass support. The FLN continued to rely on guerrilla attacks, which spread to Algiers in late 1956. In turn, the war radicalized the settlers' and the military's hardline policies in Algeria, so much so that the governments of the Fourth Republic lost control over them. The fact that the French considered Algeria to be an integral part of the French state only intensified the fundamental sense of crisis in France. It triggered the collapse of the Fourth Republic and the return of de Gaulle to end the Algerian war and create a new, more stable Republic. De Gaulle lost little time in doing both. His personal authority was sufficient to re-establish the army's allegiance in Algeria, despite the resistance of Salan's Organisation de l'Armée Secrète. He ordered negotiations with Ben Bella, which led to the Evian Agreements. Independence was declared on 3 July 1962.