The Algerian War Begins

On 1 November 1954 the newly formed National Liberation Front (FLN) launched coordinated attacks across Algeria, an event remembered as the 'Toussaint Rouge' (Red All Saints' Day). The French government responded that Algeria was part of France and could not be negotiated away; Interior Minister François Mitterrand declared that 'Algeria is France'.

In August 1955 FLN-led attacks around Philippeville killed European and Muslim civilians, and French reprisals killed far more, deepening the divide between communities. France expanded its forces dramatically, eventually deploying around 400,000 troops, many of them young conscripts, and built fortified barriers along the borders with Tunisia and Morocco.

The FLN also fought rival Algerian nationalists, especially the MNA, and used violence against Algerians it considered collaborators. The war became a conflict on several levels at once: between the FLN and France, between communities, and among Algerians themselves. Death toll estimates vary widely: many historians give figures of roughly 250,000 to 400,000 Algerian dead, while the Algerian state has long cited 1. 5 million.