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The French Of Algeria – Can The Colonisers Be Colonised?, Aoife Connolly

Books/Book Chapters

The Algerian War, 1954– 1962, was arguably the most traumatic war of decolonisation fought by Western colonial powers. The French had occupied Algeria since 1830 and the territory had formed three administrative départements of France since 1848. Thus, when conflict arose in 1954, the French administration could not conceive of a situation in which France was at war with itself and this ‘war without a name’ was referred to as ‘the events’ or ‘operations to maintain order’. Indeed, the war was only officially recognised in France in 1999. The war was particularly violent as Algeria was a settler colony in …