The Battle of Algiers, depicted with great realism in the film of Gillo Pontecorvo, deals with the final phase of that long painful event embarked upon by the Algerian people at the beginning of the
XXth century. By the day of independence on July 3rd I962, there were over a million dead, after years of French colonialism. This colonialism differed from that in other countries, for the country was not governed as a protectorate but directly by the occupying power, and in its interests, which made separation more difficult. Here we shall trace the most salient steps of this episode .
The Algerian question
The events of the second world war, with the defeat of France in 1940 and the involvement of the
French Committee of national liberation of Algerian forces, led Ferhat Abbas, on February 1940 to distribute the Manifesto of the Algerian people, invigorating the independence movement of the country. He proclaimed a constitution which guaranteed the actual participation of Algerians in the governing of their country.
"UDMA" was born (democratic union of the Algerian manifesto), with the idea of integration between Algerians and French, within the ramework of the French Union: but this desired co-habitation gained no support. Ferhat Abbas afterwards adhered to the FLN and became, after independence, the first president of the Algerian popular assembly.
In 1947, pressed by insurrections that from May 1945 on caused bloodshed in the country, (officially 103 Europeans died, and 1500 Algerians, but army sources estimate 8000 Algerians while Algerian sources arrive at the figure of 45000), the French government decided to make some concessions on an administrative level, but not a political one. More radical organisations sprang up aimed at obtaining complete independence. There followed nine years of agitation and, repression, with the attempt by Paris to keep Algeria as a colony within the French departmental system (one recalls that in 1945 the French boasted a presence in Algeria of about a million farmers).
Algerian nationalists were divided on the tactics to adopt in the struggle; the supporters of the need for an armed struggle organised secretly in 1952, and on November 1st 1954 a series of terrorist acts and revolutionary acts signalled the start of the Algerian insurrection.
The struggle was directed by a Commitee of National Liberation (FLN) led by Ben Bella , which soon became the provisional government of the Algerian republic (GPRA), with headquarters near Tunis. Paris re-acted by refusing to negotiate on political terms, and started a tough campaign of repression employing about half a million men. This led to the capture in October
1956 of five Algerian leaders including Ben Bella. The results, however, were not as expected,
but provoked the further growth of insurrectionary movements. The French government was forced to revise its ideas of policing and to open negotiations with the insurgents.
This unleashed a re-action by the French in Algeria supported by the military which, in turn, provoked the revolt of the ULTRAS(extremist element) and then a political and institutional crisis of the Fourth Republic (May 1st 1958). There was the risk a right wing dictatorship.
Then General De Gaulle become president of the Republic and guarenteed a "French Algeria", but very soon realised that political concessions and Algerian independence were inevitable.
He outlined a project for Algeria; the country would in the first phase be conceded ample autonomy, and than independence. Yet there would be economic ties to France, aimed at the maintenance of a mortguage on the rich layers of petrolium discovered in the Algerian part of the Sahara Desert.
On this basis, negotiations began between the French government and the GPRA of
Algeria, which were often broken off, as in 1960/61, to be resumed with great difficuty, till a conclusion was reached on March 18th 1962 in Evian.
The political future of Algeria was to be decided in a popular referendum held on July 1st 1962; with the victory of "Yes", an independent Algeria was to emerge linked to France by a whole series of economic and financial co-operations established at Evian.
The package envisaged concessions favouring the maintenance of double nationality and only later the possibility to choose one of the two.
Petrolium from the Sahara would be exploited in common. Algeria would remain in the area of the franc.
This agreement lasted till the spring of 1962 when the military and civilians wings of ULTRAS declared that the agreement of Evian was a betrayal by De Gaulle. There was open revolt. This provoked anti-arab counter-terrorism by farmers, organised and directed by a powerful and warlike secret association, the "Organbisation of secret arms" (OAS).
They aimed to wage a"scorched earth" campaign in Algeria and did not stop even after the capture and condemnation of their leaders, the generals E.Jouhaud and R.A. Salan and the abandoning of Algeria by the foreign legion. Terrorist atrocities, bloodshed and destruction continued. But the agreements of March 18th. began to be applied, all the same.
On July 1st a referendum was held and an overwhelming majority voted for independence, officially declared on July 3rd 1962.
So ended the war in Algeria and the domination of the French which had lasted 132 years. Now there opened a new phase in the life of the country, marked by bitter clashes for the conquest of power, between the main political and military factions who had fought for freedom.
