Settler demonstrators force a political retreat during Guy Mollet’s visit

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...

Mourad Didouche, one of the FLN’s historic organisers and a commander in the northeast, was killed during a French military operation. His death demonstrated the risks faced by the movement’s early...

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....

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...

Delegates met in the Soummam Valley and adopted a platform that strengthened the revolution’s political and military organisation, established national bodies, and divided the country into wilayas....

Bombs placed by FLN militants in the Milk Bar and Cafétéria in Algiers killed and injured civilians, including European settlers. These attacks targeted public places and must be named as violence...