Mourad Didouche is killed in combat

The French Constituent Assembly voted an amnesty law concerning prosecutions connected with the May 1945 events. Amnesty followed executions, mass arrests, and an uneven process of judicial...

The organic statute presented Algeria as having a degree of internal autonomy, but retained French sovereignty and a two-college electoral system that gave European settlers representation...

Nationalist activists formed the Comité révolutionnaire d’unité et d’action (CRUA) to overcome divisions and prepare an organised struggle for sovereignty. The committee drew on veterans of the MTLD...

A meeting of nationalist organisers resolved to transform the CRUA into the Front de libération nationale (FLN) and to begin an armed uprising on 1 November. The decision followed years of political...

Coordinated attacks and the FLN’s declaration marked the beginning of the war for independence. The uprising challenged French claims that Algeria was an integral part of France and demanded...

The FLN and allied villagers attacked police, military, and settler targets in North Constantine in an effort to break the image of a contained rebellion and draw attention to Algeria internationally....

French prime minister Guy Mollet was confronted by a hostile settler crowd in Algiers while seeking to install General Catroux as minister-resident. The confrontation and his retreat under pressure...

The National Assembly voted special powers for the Mollet government to act in Algeria. The measure enabled emergency policies and facilitated the transfer of broad policing authority to the military....

A decree set out exceptional measures for restoring order, protecting persons and property, and safeguarding Algerian territory. Its neutral administrative language concealed an expansion of...

French authorities executed Ahmed Zabana and Abdelkader Ferradj in Algiers. Their executions became a defining moment for the liberation movement and intensified Algerian opposition to colonial...