The Organisation armée secrète was a far-right dissident French paramilitary and terrorist organisation during the Algerian War, founded in 1961 by Raoul Salan, Pierre Lagaillarde and Jean-Jacques Susini. The OAS carried out several terrorist attacks, including tortures, bombings and assassinations, all resulting in over 2,000 deaths in an attempt to prevent Algeria's independence from French colonial rule. Its motto was L’Algérie est française et le restera.
The Algerian War 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.
The History of Algeria from 1962 to 1999 includes the period starting with preparations for independence and the aftermath of the independence war with France in the 1960s to the Civil War and the 1999 presidential election.
Algerian nationalism is pride in the Algerian identity and culture. It has been historically influenced by the conflicts between the Deylik of Algiers and European countries, the French conquest of Algeria and the subsequent French colonial rule in Algeria, the Algerian War, and since independence by Arab socialism, Islamism and Arab nationalism.
Mohamed Boudiaf, also called Si Tayeb el Watani, was an Algerian political leader and one of the founders of the revolutionary National Liberation Front (FLN) that led the Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962). Boudiaf was exiled soon after Algerian independence, and did not go back to Algeria for 27 years. He returned in 1992 to accept a position of Chairman of the High Council of State, but was assassinated four months later.
The Islamic Salvation Front was an Islamist political party in Algeria. The party had two major leaders representing its two bases of its support; Abbassi Madani appealed to pious small businessmen, and Ali Belhadj appealed to the angry, often unemployed youth of Algeria.
The National Liberation Front, commonly known by its French acronym FLN, is a nationalist political party in Algeria. It was the principal nationalist movement during the Algerian War and the sole legal and ruling political party of the Algerian state until other parties were legalised in 1989.
Houari Boumédiène was an Algerian military officer and politician who was the second head of state of independent Algeria from 1965 until his death in 1978. He served as Chairman of the Revolutionary Council of Algeria from 19 June 1965 until 12 December 1976 and thereafter as president of Algeria until his death.
Ahmed Ben Messali Hadj was an Algerian nationalist politician dedicated to the independence of his homeland from French colonial rule. He is often called the "father" of Algerian nationalism.
The Algerian Civil War, known in Algeria as the Black Decade, was a civil war fought between the Algerian government and various Islamist rebel groups from 11 January 1992 to 8 February 2002. The war began slowly, as it initially appeared the government had successfully crushed the Islamist movement, but armed groups emerged to declare jihad and by 1994, violence had reached such a level that it appeared the government might not be able to withstand it. By 1996–97, it had become clear that the Islamist resistance had lost its popular support, although fighting continued for several years after.
The Algerian Communist Party was a communist party in Algeria. The PCA emerged in 1920 as an extension of the French Communist Party (PCF) and eventually became a separate entity in 1936. Despite this, it was recognized by the Comintern in 1935. Its first congress was in Algiers in July 1936, also the site of the PCA's headquarters.
The Sand War was a border conflict between Algeria and Morocco fought from September 25 to October 30, 1963, although a formal peace treaty was not signed until February 20, 1964. It resulted largely from the Moroccan government's claim to portions of Algeria's Tindouf and Béchar provinces. The Sand War led to heightened tensions between the two countries for several decades.
The Algerian National Movement was a political party and movement founded by Messali Hadj in November 1, 1954 to counteract the efforts of the National Liberation Front (FLN) during the Algerian War.
The Oran massacre of 1962 was the mass killing of Pied-Noir and European expatriates living in Algeria. It took place in Oran beginning on the date of Algerian independence, and ended on 7 July 1962. Estimates of the casualties vary from a low of 95 to 365 deaths in a report by a group of historians sent to the French government in 2006, and have been utilised by right-wing parties.
Zohra Drif Bitat is a retired Algerian lawyer, moudjahid, and the vice-president of the Council of the Nation, the upper house of the Algerian Parliament. Drif was born in Tissemselt, Algeria, part of the province of Tiaret, where her grandfather was an imam and her father served as a lawyer and judge in Tiaret. She is best known for her activities on behalf of the National Liberation Front (FLN) during the Algerian War of Independence.
The Algerian People's Party, was a successor organization of the North African Star, led by veteran Algerian nationalist Messali Hadj. It was formed on March 11, 1937. In 1936, the Etoile Nord Africaine (ENA), its predecessor, had joined the French Front Populaire, a coalition of French leftist political parties in power at the time. The relationship lasted a bit over six months. The government formed by the Front Populaire dissolved the ENA in January 1937, hence the creation of the PPA two months later. Despite using peaceful methods of protest, the group's members were constantly pursued by the police in France and banned by French colonial authorities in Algeria. From 1938 until 1946, it operated as a clandestine organization. However, it had only moderate activities during World War II. There was also great hope that Algeria would be rewarded for its help in liberating France from the Germans, but in May 1945, the events of the Sétif and Guelma massacre ended all hopes.
The Battle of Algiers is a 1966 Italian-Algerian war film co-written and directed by Gillo Pontecorvo. It is based on action undertaken by rebels during the Algerian War (1954–1962) against the French government in North Africa, the most prominent being the eponymous Battle of Algiers, the capital of Algeria. It was shot on location in a Roberto Rossellini-inspired newsreel style: in black and white with documentary-type editing to add to its sense of historical authenticity, with mostly non-professional actors who had lived through the real battle. The film's score was composed by Pontecorvo and Ennio Morricone. It is often associated with Italian neorealist cinema.
The Battle of Algiers was a campaign fought during the Algerian War. It consisted of urban guerrilla warfare and terrorist attacks carried out by the National Liberation Front (FLN) against the French authorities in Algiers, and by the French authorities, army, and French terrorist organizations against the FLN. Both sides targeted civilians throughout the battle. The conflict began with attacks by the FLN against the French forces and Pieds-Noirs followed by a terrorist attack on Algerian civilians in Algiers by a group of settlers, part of the terrorist group "La Main Rouge", aided by the police. Reprisals followed and the violence escalated, leading the French Governor-General to deploy the French Army in Algiers to suppress the FLN. Civilian authorities gave full powers to General Jacques Massu who, operating outside legal frameworks between January and September 1957, eliminated the FLN from Algiers. The use of torture, forced disappearances and illegal executions by the French later caused controversy in France.
The Battle of Philippeville, also known as the Philippeville massacre or the August Offensive, was a series of raids launched on 20 August 1955 on various cities and towns of the Constantine region by FLN insurgents and armed mobs during the Algerian War between France and the Algerian rebels. The raids, which mostly took the form of ethnic riots, resulted in the massacre of several dozens of European settlers, known as pieds-Noirs. The massacres were then followed by reprisals by the French army and pied-noir vigilantes, which resulted in the death of several thousand Muslim Algerians. The events of late August 1955 in the Constantinois region are considered to be a major turning point of the Algerian War.
The Algerian Red Crescent is an Algerian humanitarian volunteer organization founded in 1957. It has been recognized by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement only since 1963.
