| Date | 1 November 1954 – 19 March 1962 (7 years, 4 months, 2 weeks and 4 days) |
|---|---|
| Territorial changes | Independence of Algeria from France |
North Africa campaigns. Written By: North Africa campaigns, (1940–43), in World War II, series of battles for control of North Africa. At stake was control of the Suez Canal, a vital lifeline for Britain’s colonial empire, and of the valuable oil reserves of the Middle East.
Although the elite colonial infantry airborne units and the Foreign Legion bore the brunt of offensive counterinsurgency combat operations, approximately 170,000 Muslim Algerians also served in the regular French army, most of them volunteers. France also sent air force and naval units to the Algerian theater, including helicopters.
With World War I raging in Europe, African soldiers were forced to fight for their colonial masters between 1914 and 1918. France recruited more Africans than any other colonial power, sending 450,000 troops from West and North Africa to fight against the Germans on the front lines.
In the asymmetric conflict between France and the FLN at this time, victory seemed extremely difficult. The Algerian revolution began with the insurrection of November 1, when the FLN organized a series of attacks against the French army and military infrastructure, and published a statement calling on Algerians to get involved in the revolution.
Algerian War. Not to be confused with Algerian Civil War. The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence, and sometimes in Algeria as the War of 1 November, was fought between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front ( French: Front de Libération Nationale – FLN) from 1954 to 1962, ...
An important decolonization war, it was a complex conflict characterized by guerrilla warfare and the use of torture. The conflict also became a civil war between the different communities and within the communities. The war took place mainly on the territory of Algeria, with repercussions in metropolitan France .
In France, an additional 5,000 died in the "café wars" between the FLN and rival Algerian groups. French sources also estimated that 70,000 Muslim civilians were killed, or abducted and presumed killed, by the FLN.
Amid growing discontent from the Algerian population, the Third Republic (1871–1940) acknowledged some demands, and the Popular Front initiated the Blum-Viollette proposal in 1936, which was supposed to enlighten the Indigenous Code by giving French citizenship to a small number of Muslims.
On 1 July 1962, some 6 million of a total Algerian electorate of 6.5 million cast their ballots. The vote was nearly unanimous, with 5,992,115 votes for independence, 16,534 against, with most pieds-noirs and Harkis either having fled or abstaining. De Gaulle pronounced Algeria an independent country on 3 July.
By 1956, there were more than 400,000 French troops in Algeria.
At the beginning of the war, on the Algerian side, it was necessary to compensate the military weakness with political and diplomatic struggle, in order to win the war. Indeed, the balance of power was asymmetric between France and the FLN so at this time, victory seemed difficult to achieve.
The 7th Armoured Division, whose accomplishments in North Africa would earn its men the nickname “the Desert Rats,” drove west and reached the coast road, thus blocking the Italian line of retreat. On December 10 the 4th Indian Division moved north against the cluster of Italian camps around Sīdī Barrānī.
When Benito Mussolini took Italy into the war, the Italian forces in North and East Africa were overwhelmingly superior in numbers to the scanty British forces opposing them. Commanding the British was Gen. Archibald Wavell, who had been appointed to the newly created post of commander in chief for the Middle East in July 1939, when the first steps were taken to strengthen the forces guarding the Suez Canal. Barely 50,000 British troops faced a total of 500,000 Italian and Italian colonial troops. On the southerly fronts, the Italian forces in Eritrea and Ethiopia mustered more than 200,000 men. On the North African front a still larger force in Cyrenaica under Marshal Rodolfo Graziani faced the 36,000 British, New Zealand, and Indian troops guarding Egypt. The Western Desert, inside the Egyptian frontier, separated the two sides on that front. The foremost British position was at Mersa Matruh ( Marsā Maṭrūḥ ), roughly 120 miles (190 km) inside the frontier and about 200 miles (320 km) west of the Nile River delta. Instead of remaining passive, Wavell used part of his one incomplete armoured division as an offensive covering force, keeping up a continual series of raids over the frontier to harass the Italian posts.
Battles of El-Alamein. ... (Show more) Full Article. North Africa campaigns, (1940–43), in World War II, series of battles for control of North Africa. At stake was control of the Suez Canal, a vital lifeline for Britain’s colonial empire, and of the valuable oil reserves of the Middle East. Erwin Rommel during a North Africa campaign.
On the southerly fronts, the Italian forces in Eritrea and Ethiopia mustered more than 200,000 men. On the North African front a still larger force in Cyrenaica under Marshal Rodolfo Graziani faced the 36,000 British, New Zealand, and Indian troops guarding Egypt.
The Hoare-Laval Pact was crafted in the hopes of preserving the Stresa Front, an April 1935 alliance that had pledged Britain, France, and Italy to jointly oppose German rearmament and expansion.
The Western Desert, inside the Egyptian frontier, separated the two sides on that front. The foremost British position was at Mersa Matruh ( Marsā Maṭrūḥ ), roughly 120 miles (190 km) inside the frontier and about 200 miles (320 km) west of the Nile River delta.
O’Connor’s force moved out on December 7, 1940, passing through a gap in the enemy’s chain of camps the following night. On December 9 the Italian garrisons at Nibeiwa, Tummar West, and Tummar East were taken, and thousands of prisoners were captured, whereas the attackers suffered very light casualties.
Africans served as scouts, porters and cooks. Germany also exploited Africa, forcing thousands of Africans into military service in Tanzania — the former German East Africa. That meant labor shortages in the fields, which led to widespread starvation.
The war and its aftermath wrought seismic changes in Africa that remain at the root of conflicts in many countries. Nigerian soldiers fought on the side of Britain in World War I. With World War I raging in Europe, African soldiers were forced to fight for their colonial masters between 1914 and 1918. France recruited more Africans ...
France recruited more Africans than any other colonial power, sending 450,000 troops from West and North Africa to fight against the Germans on the front lines. As part of its events to mark the centenary of WWI on Sunday, the presidents of France and Mali inaugurated a new monument in the city of Reims, northeast of Paris, ...
As France and Mali remembered those African troops on Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute on Twitter to the "200,000 African soldiers from the colonies" who were among "the youth of the whole world who fell 100 years ago in villages whose names they did not know.".
Namibia, once German South West Africa, was not divided but placed under the control of the League of Nations, the forerunner to the United Nations. An independent country was supposed to emerge with the help of South Africa.
It's true that France colonized them, but it wasn't their choice. You could almost say they died for nothing, at least not for their countries," she said. The original monument to the "Black Army," set up in Reims in the 1920s, was removed by the Nazis during World War II and never resurfaced.