The origins of the war

In the beginning, Algeria exported olive oil to France, but there were problems between both territories and the Barbary pirates who attacked European vessels on the coasts and in 1830, the French used the Barbary pirates as an excuse to invade Algeria.

The French army conquered the coastal plain– destroying crops, livestock and villages in a scorched earth policy, and moving the farmers living there to remote, less fertile areas.

After the conquest of Algeria, France extended its control over the rest of the Maghreb. Tunisia became a French protectorate in 1881 and Morocco in 1912.

In 1880 many of the small farmers did not stay on the land, but moved to towns and cities, their farms were worked by dispossessed Algerian peasants, who were poorly paid and heavily taxed. The colonists were known as pieds noirs "black feet".

The Rise of the Nationalist Movements 

During the 1920s and 1930s, three strands of Algerian nationalism were developed.

Party of the Algerian People

Messali Hadj -1937

They wanted better working conditions, freedom of press, arabic schools,

democratic Parliament

and independence of

Algeria.

Democratic Union of the Algerian Manifesto

Ferhat Abbas - 1946

They looked for agricultural reforms, abolition

of privileges of Pieds Noirs, equality for

Muslim Algerians & French citizens, Algerian

Constitution,Arabic as official language,

liberaton of political prisoners.

National Liberation  Front

Ahmed Ben Bella - 1954

Their principal objectives are Anticolonism

ideology, Algeria for Algerians,

Revolution against

colonizers.