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“The Algerians were revolutionists, they wanted land. France offered to let them be integrated into France.
― Malcolm X
Following the end of World War II, cries for freedom against the French escalated into a long and drawn-out war of violence and terror before the French would grant Algeria their independence. But even after French departure, the violence re-emerged when various groups within Algeria violently expressed their hatred for the repressive regime leading the newly established country. Seemingly endless violence and hostility between French colonizers and Algerian insurgents throughout the fifties and sixties, followed by violent uprisings against an oppressive Algerian government in the nineties, led to a lifetime of uncertainty, deception, and violence for both Algerian Muslims and French colons.
The conflict happening inside of Algeria would come in two different stages. First, the Algerian War for Independence, which lasted from 1956 to 1962, would lead to Algeria’s liberation from French rule. Roughly thirty years later, the Algerian Civil War took place from 1990 to 1999, playing out many of the tensions that still remained in the country. While both stages of conflict in Algeria could be summarized by the sheer violence and terror they brought, each stage had its own unique characteristics that contributed to a roughly sixty-year timeline of brutal guerilla war. For example, in the war for Algeria’s independence, the insurgent group known as the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN), used brutal – but strategic – forms of guerilla warfare to effectively combat the French colonial power and gain political autonomy. But in the case of the Algerian Civil War, strong dissent against the by-then oppressive FLN grew amongst fragmented groups, creating an ultimately unsuccessful variety of insurgency efforts to overthrow the regime.
Many comparisons exist between the two main Algerian conflicts in Algeria. Most notably, all groups involved in either conflict resorted to shocking and indiscriminate violence as a primary tactic for achieving their political goals. While this shaped the blueprint for what would be a cathedral of never-ending violence, some of the violence was effective against the standing regime, while in other instances, it was not. In Algeria’s insurgency against the French, the FLN adopted Carlos Marighella’s theory of militarization, which proved to be an invaluable philosophy in their fight against the French. It is also important to understand John Nagl’s theories, which help explain why the two stages of conflict were similar, but ended with different outcomes.
This chapter seeks to detail an overview of each stage of the Algerian revolution, in addition to relating the events that took place to specific revolutionary theorists. After analyzing both stages of the Algerian revolution, it is clear that each insurgency saw the use of violence as the most effective way to get their ideologies recognized. In the fir