On the night of 31 October 1954, a series of attacks across colonial Algeria marked the start of the Algerian War – a bloody conflict that would last eight years. Claimed by the newly formed National Liberation Front (FLN), the attacks signalled the beginning of Algeria’s push for independence from France, which would ultimately reshape the lives of millions and alter France’s colonial future.
Between midnight and 3am, French-ruled Algeria was shaken by around 70 coordinated attacks, leaving 10 settlers dead. French authorities were caught off guard and initially dismissed the assaults as a “tribal uprising”, possibly “fomented in Cairo” by Pan-Arabist movements.
The next day, the FLN issued a manifesto, the “Proclamation of 1 November”, urging local Muslim Algerians to join an armed resistance.
The events, later known in France as the Toussaint Rouge (Red All Saints Day), revealed an organised and determined movement among Algeria’s indigenous population to end colonial rule.
At first, French political leaders and media downplayed the seriousness of the FLN threat.
Roots of anger
The conflict, now recognised as the Algerian War – a term only formally adopted in 1999 – stemmed from decades of growing grievances among Algerians.
French settlers, or pieds-noirs, held the exclusive label “Algerians” for themselves, while indigenous Algerians were sidelined.
Many Muslim Algerians had fought for France in both world wars, expecting equality in return, but their calls went unanswered.
Historians have shown that the roots of Algerian anger date back to France’s conquest of the country in 1830, which met immediate resistance from leaders like Emir Abdelkader.
By the 1930s a rising Muslim population faced extreme poverty, low wages and limited political power, according to French historian Bernard Droz. One European’s vote counted for as many as 10 Muslim votes under the 1947 status.
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Initially, Algerian leaders sought assimilation.
Figures like Ferhat Abbas, a moderate nationalist, called for autonomy under French oversight. But efforts to grant citizenship to some Muslims, like the 1937 Blum-Violette bill, were blocked.
The defeat of France in 1940 and the impotence of the Vichy state in the face of Nazi Germany encouraged Algerians to demand stronger nationalism, historian Charles-Robert Ageron wrote.
In May 1945, expectations for equal treatment boiled over. During a celebration of the Allied victory, a peaceful protest in Sétif escalated into deadly riots after police intervention.
As protests spread to the countryside, European militias joined in a brutal crackdown. Some historians estimate up to 45,000 indigenous Algerians were killed.
By 1946, widespread electoral fraud convinced Muslim activists that the ballot box was a dead end.
Leaders like Messali Hadj gained popularity with the Algerian People’s Party, which promoted the slogan: “Neither assimilation nor separation, but emancipation.”
National liberation day
While 1 November 1954 became known in France as “Red All Saints Day”, for indigenous Algerians it symbolised the start of their liberation war.
The FLN demanded “the restoration of the Algerian state, sovereign, democratic and social, within the principles of Islam”.
Yet France saw Algeria as an integral part of its territory – “Algeria is France!” said then interior minister François Mitterrand, who chose to increase repression.
Among the first casualties on 1 November were two French Algerians, four soldiers, a police officer, a forest ranger, a pro-colonisation Algerian and a young teacher killed by mistake.
The war that followed was brutal, with massacres on both sides.
The French army, supported by Muslim Algerian Harkis who sided with the colonisers, employed extreme measures, including torture under the guise of government authority.
The conflict would drag on until 1962, resulting in more than a million deaths among both the colonisers and the colonised.
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The Evian Accords on 18 March 1962 established a ceasefire, bringing an end to 132 years of French rule over Algeria.
However, the trauma of the war has continuously strained ties between the two countries with disputes around archives, immigration policies and political disagreements.
In July, Algeria recalled its ambassador from Paris after French President Emmanuel Macron openly supported Morocco in a dispute over the territory of Western Sahara.
Seventy years after the Toussaint Rouge, the legacy of the Algerian War endures, with debates around access to archives and historical accountability.
Historians are still working to unravel the complexities of a conflict that cast a long shadow over both nations.
