The French had invaded and conquered Algeria in 1830, although the efforts to complete the occupation of that North African country ultimately resulted in the longest colonial campaign in French history. Algeria was a metropolitan colony of France. This meant that it was judged to be suitable for settlement by Frenchmen in relatively large numbers. By 1954, there were about 1,200,000 French residents out of an Algerian population estimated at 9,500,000.

Because these Frenchmen were given advantages over the Algerians by the colonial administration, and because the French settlers had been allowed to stake out their land claims in Algeria to the exclusion of the Algerian 'tribes,' the Frenchmen came to dominate the social and political structures of Algeria although they constituted only 11.5% of its population.

These facts were well-known to the Algerian Moslems. In an effort to escape from their circumstances there had been Algerian migrations to Tunisia and Morocco as early as the 1800's. After 1900, and particularly after World War I, many Algerians chose instead to move to France.

By 1954 some 600,000 Moslems were living in France. In addition to economic factors, the political consequences of French control were apparent to the Algerians. Frenchmen evidently wielded more power in the country than the Moslems, something which ranked with Algerians. In the 1920's Algerian nationalist movements began to emerge in response to this. But the French reacted violently to any sign of discontent on the part of Algerians.

When the nationalists organized a victory celebration for the end of the Second World War, at Setif in 1945, a French heavy cruiser shelled the city and killed thousands of people. By 1947 the Algerians had developed a small paramilitary organization, the MTLD, dedicated to working against French hegemony. This organization, after several metamorphoses, became the CRUA group that launched an anti-French revolutionary war in November 1954.

Colonial Twilight The French War in Algeria

Introduction
Origins of the Algerian War
War Comes to Algiers
The Year of Mobilization
The New War Strategy
Battle of Algiers
Challe's Campaign of 1959
Jaws of Victory