French Actions Leading to and During the War

When the Algerian Revolt first began it caught many of the French off guard, after all, no one expected an integral part of France to suddenly turn volatile.

The Beginings of Conflict
The beginings of the Algerian Revolt can be traced back to an early war between the French and Algiers. In 1830 a French representative felt insulted. Responding to his call for aid it wasn't long before the French Navy was on the scene, followed quickly after by the army.

On July 15th 1830 the war was already over with France having between back Algiers. This instilled feelings of hostility on the part of the Algerians and over the course of seven years led to a rapid expansion by the French into Algiers.

French Control and Conflict
The French divided Algiers into territories as their own people settled in. In addition to diving up the Algerian land they also took land from native Algerians and handed into their own French settlers. The remaining land was then partioned off to the tribes who resisted the least.

As expected this angered many of the Algerians leading to a revolt in 1871. This revolt only lasted for a year and ended with Algerians being beaten back even more.

The Algerian War
In 1954 the long buit up resentment finally exploded into full scale war. The FLN had begun its strike, prompting the French to react once more. In two years they had already deployed 400,000 troops into Algeria and the still the war was ongoing.

After the Phillpeville massacre the French responded with devastating bombings. While the French only count deaths of 1,200 guerilla fighters, the FLN states that over 12,000 Muslims, including non combantants, perished in the war.

Eventually the new French counsel Guy Mollet rested full power in the military which led to the widespread use of torture. Atrocities were being comitted on both side of the war and things were becoming bloody for both sides.