The Battle of Algiers is based on real-life events that took place during the Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence.
A country in the Maghreb region of North Africa, Algeria was known as Numidia in ancient times. The country was under Roman rule between 106 and 430 AD, at which point Roman civilization in Algeria was weakened by the incursions of Numidians and invading Vandals. Muslim Arabs came to the region in the seventh century, bringing a new language and religion to which many locals converted.
The French invaded Algeria in 1830, first capturing the important port city of Algiers. By 1834, Algeria was a French colony, but not without resistance from the people of the country. A major turning point in the colonial history of Algeria came in May 1945, when the French killed more than 20,000 Algerians who demonstrated on the street carrying nationalist flags and calling for independence.
Taking place over seven years and four months, the Algerian War officially began on November 1, 1954 with Toussaint Rouge, when the National Liberation Front carried out a series of coordinated attacks against police, military, and civilians across French Algeria. The event resulted in seventy attacks and ten deaths. In response, the French sent paratroopers to Algeria, increasing the French military presence to quell the revolt.
While the FLN used terrorist tactics against French settler civilians (pieds-noirs) and assassinations of police in their effort, the French massacred, raped, and tortured civilians, destroying villages and moving over two million Algerians into concentration camps. These violent and brutal war crimes led to waning support from people in Algeria and metropolitan France. As public opinion turned against France, allies such as the United States gave up their support for the country's continued colonial presence in Algeria. Large-scale demonstrations in favor of independence in 1960 led French President Charles de Gaulle to negotiate with the FLN and eventually sign peace accords. By 1962, referenda were put to voters in France and Algeria, resulting in near-total support for Algerian independence.
Despite the formal winning of independence, the unrest didn't end. To prevent the planned pullout from Algeria, an underground organization of far-right French military personnel known as the OAS carried out coup attempts, bombings, murders, and assassination attempts of de Gaulle. Nearly one million French settlers and their descendants within Algeria were relocated to France, which was unprepared to receive so many new residents. Meanwhile, Algerian Muslims who had worked with the French were targeted by the FLN or mobs as traitors.
Estimates for total deaths during the Algerian War range between 300,000 and 1.5 million Algerians, 25,600 French soldiers, and 6,000 European civilians.
