Timeline of the Algerian War of Independence
Part 2: End of the 'Battle of Algiers to Independence
By Alistair Boddy-Evans, About.com
| 24 September 1957 | Battle of Algiers effectively won by Jacques Émile Massu and his paratroopers with the capture of Armée de Libération Nationale (ALN, National Liberation Army) operative Yacef Saadi. |
| 8 October 1957 | Ali la Pointe, aka Ali Ammar, an Algerian guerrilla and Front de Libération Nationale (FLN, National Liberation Front) leader, along with three companions, refuses to surrender to French paratroopers. The four, and at least sixteen others, are killed when the paratroopers bomb the building in which they are hiding. |
| 6 November 1957 | Félix Gaillard for the Parti Radical (Radical Party) is new chairman of the Council of Ministers in France. |
| December 1957 | General Raoul Albin Louis Salan appointed commander in chief of French forces in Algeria. |
| 26 December 1957 | Abane Ramdane killed by Front de Libération Nationale (FLN, National Liberation Front) assassins much to the consternation of many FLN members, such as Houari Boumediene. The FLN claimed that Abane Ramdane was vying for leadership against the existing collective authority of the movement. |
| 7 January 1958 | Oil being piped from the Sahara for the first time. |
| January 1958 | FLN Wilaya 3 leader Colonel Amirouche caries out an ideological purge of his region. |
| 8 February 1958 | Sakiet Sidi Youssef (Saqiyat Sidi Yusuf), Tunisia, bombed by the French. (The French claimed the right to pursue Algerian rebels across the border into Tunisia.) Beginning of the 'Battle of the Frontiers' during which French forces attempt to stop the FLN and ALN crossing from Tunisia. |
| 15 April 1958 | Félix Gaillard, for the Parti Radical (Radical Party), and his government fail. France is left without an effective administration for 37 days. |
| May 1958 | Pierre Pflimlin for the Mouvement Républicain Populaire (MRP, Popular Republican Movement) is temporary chairman of the Council of Ministers in France. |
| 13 May 1958 | Demonstrators in Algiers seize government buildings and issue demands for De Gaulle to be premier of France. This is seen as an attempted coup by Pflimlin's government. |
| 1 Jun 1958 | Charles de Gaulle for the Union pour la Nouvelle République (UNR, Union for the New Republic) is new chairman of the Council of Ministers in France. |
| 4 June 1958 | Charles de Gaulle visits Algeria. |
| June 1958 | Jacques Émile Massu promoted to Général de Division and head of the army corps of Algiers, as well as delegate-general of Algeria. |
| 19 September 1958 | 'Free Algerian' government is established in Cairo with Ferhat Abbas as Head of the Gouvernement Provisoire de la République Algérienne (GPRA, Provisional Government of the Algerian Revolution) in rebellion. The existence of the GPRA was supposed to stop Charles de Gaulle holding a referendum on Algeria gaining autonomous status within La Communauté (the French community). The GPRA is promised aid from the Arab League and Russia. |
| 3 October 1958 | Charles de Gaulle makes his paix des braves speech, offering a peace and amnesty agreement to the FLN, who decline. A plan to modernize Algeria (agricultural and industrial development, house building, etc.) is also proposed -- the Constantine Plan. |
| 12 December 1958 | Charles de Gaulle replaces Raoul-Albin-Louis Salan, the delegate-general of Algeria, with Paul-Albert-Louis Delouvrier. Salan is made inspector-general of the army, effectively a desk job in France. Command of the army is given to General Maurice Challe. |
| 8 Jan 1959 | Charles de Gaulle for the Union pour la Nouvelle République (UNR, Union for the New Republic) now President of France. |
| February 1958 | General Challe begins the 'Challe Offensive' against Front de Libération Nationale (FLN, National Liberation Front) forces in Wilaya 5 (Orans). |
| April 1958 | General Challe begins the Operation Courrois ('Straps') against FLN forces in Wilaya 4 (Algiers). |
| July 1958 | General Challe begins Operation Etincelles ('Sparks') against FLN forces in Wilaya 3 (Kabylie). |
| 22 July 1959 | General Maurice Challe's offensive against the Armée de Libération Nationale (ALN, Army of National Liberation, the armed wing of the FLN) reaches a effective climax with Operation Jumelles ('Binoculars'). |
| September 1958 | General Challe begins Operation Pierres Precieuses.Armée de Libération Nationale (ALN, National Liberation Army) disperses into small units to evade capture. |
| 16 September 1959 | Charles de Gaulle offers Algeria self-determination with a referendum. The offer angers the Pied-Noirs and the FLN considers it a sign of French weakness. |
| 19 January 1960 | General Jacques Émile Massu sacked for his opposition to De Gaulle's policies. |
| 24 January 1960 | Start of the Semaine des Barricades ('Week of the Barricades') -- insurrection by student leaders Pierre Lagaillarde and Jean-Jacques Susini, and lawyer Jean-Baptiste Biagg. Ultras (European hard-liners who want to remain part of France) tke the opportunity to kill Algerian gendarmes. Massu's paratroopers are brought in to quell the protests and killings, but they refuse to fire upon Pied-Noirs protestors. |
| 29 January 1960 | In response to a speech given by President De Gaulle, the insurrection collapses. |
| April 1960 | General Challe begins the final part of the 'Challe Offensive', Operation Trident. |
| 23 April 1960 | General Maurice Challe promoted by De Gaulle, away from Algeria. |
| 10 June 1960 | Si Salah, one of the leaders of the Armée de Libération Nationale (ALN, National Liberation Army), offers peace tales with De Gaulle. |
| 25-29 June 1960 | Peace talks between French government and Front de Libération Nationale (FLN, National Liberation Front) at Melun fail. |
| 6 September 1960 | Manifesto of the 121. The Déclaration sur le droit à l’insoumission dans la guerre d’Algérie (Declaration on the right of insubordination in the Algerian War) is signed by 121 French intellectuals and published in the French magazine Vérité-Liberté. It calls for the French government to recognize the war in Algeria as a war of independence, for conscientious objectors to desert the army, and to denounce the use of torture by the French army. Signatories included Simone de Beauvoir, Pierre Boulez, and Jean-Paul Sartre. |
| 28-29 September 1960 | Ferhat Abbas travels to Moscow and Peking. |
| November 1960 | European hard-liners in Algeria, the 'Ultras', begin planning for a coup. |
| 23 November 1960 | Jean Morin replaces Paul-Albert-Louis Delouvrier as delegate-general of Algeria. |
| 9-13 December 1960 | President Charles de Gaulle visits Algeria. Algerian nationalists hold several demonstrations during his visit. |
| 20 December 1960 | Algeria's right to self-determination is recognized by the United Nations. |
| 25 January 1961 | Organisation de l'Armée Secrète (OAS, Secret Army Organization) founded in Madrid by Pied-Noir 'Ultras' and army deserters with the aim of retaining a French Algeria. |
| Pierre Popie, a French liberal lawyer who had defended FLN members in court, is first person assassinated by OAS agents. | |
| 20 April 1961 | Second Algerian Putsch, aka the Generals Putsch. An attempted coup d'état against President Charles de Gaulle led by Generals Raoul Salan (former army commander-in-chief in Algeria, Maurice Challe (former army commander-in-chief in Algeria), André Zeller (former army chief-of-staff)and Edmond Jouhaud (former air force inspector general). They were later called the Quarteron de Généraux en Retraite -- quartet of retired generals -- by De Gaulle. The leaders were opposed to secret negotiations that the French prime minister, Michel Debré, was holding with leaders of the FLN. On the night of the 22 April, they took command of Algiers with the aid of the 1er Régiment Étranger de Parachutistes (REP, Foreign Parachute Regiment). |
| 25 April 1961 | Atomic bomb Gerboise Verte ('Green Jerboa') exploded at Raggane, in the Sahara. This was an emergency decision in order to keep it out of the hands of the Generals Putsch. |
| 26 April 1961 | Last of the troops that followed the Generals Putsch surrender. Challe surrendered, Zeller was captured. Both were sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment (they were pardoned and reintegrated into the army in July 1968). Salan and Jouhaud escaped to lead the OAS. |
| 19 May 1961 | Organisation de l'Armée Secrète (OAS, Secret Army Organization) bomb Algiers. |
| 20 May 1961 | Start of the first peace talks at Évian, continue until 28 July, but are ultimately a failure. De Gaulle had ordered French troops to cease offensive operations, but this was ignored by the FLN, leading to increased French casualties. |
| 19-23 July 1961 | France and Tunisia clash over Bizerta when Tunisia imposes a blockade on the French naval base with the intention of forcing the French evacuate. (Tunisia had gained independence from France in 1956 but the French retained control of Bizerte, and it played a significant role in the Algerian War of Independence as a secure base for French troops and aircraft.) Bizerte was finally abandoned by the French on 15 October 1963. |
| 8 September 1961 | Assassination attempt by Organisation de l'Armée Secrète (OAS, Secret Army Organization) on President Charles de Gaulle at Pont-sur-Seine. |
| 7 February 1962 | Assassination attempt on André Malraux, the French Minister of Culture, in Paris by the OAS results in injury to a 4 year old girl. On the same day the apartment of Jean-Paul Satre is also bombed. |
| February 1962 | The Organisation de l'Armée Secrète (OAS, Secret Army Organization) have killed more than 500 people to date. French support for their cause is significantly weakened. |
| 7-18 March 1962 | Évian peace talks held. An agreement is signed between representatives of the FLN and French government. |
| 19 March 1962 | Cease fire between France and FLN comes into operation. |
| 20 April 1962 | Raoul Albin Louis Salan, leader of the OAS captured in Algiers. He was previously tried in absentia and condemned to death. The death sentence is commuted to life imprisonment. (In July 1968 he was pardoned and reintegrated into the French army.) |
| 17 June 1962 | Cease fire between OAS and FLN is agreed. |
| Pieds Noirs begin to flee Algeria. | |
| 1 July 1962 | Referendum on independence held -- 6 million votes for independence and only 16 thousand against. |
| 3 July 1962 | Independence is declared.Ahmed Ben Bella is elected Prime Minister and Abderrahmane Farès as President of the Provisional Executive. |
| French settlers, the Piet-Noirs are encouraged to leave -- the choice of la valise ou le cercueil ('the suitcase or coffin') -- one and a half Europeans flee the country. | |
| The status of the Harkis is more problematic, and only 15,000 are allowed to settle in France. Around 100,000 Hakis and their family members are butchered in Algeria. | |
| 27 September 1962 | Ahmed Ben Bella becomes president of the Republic of Algeria. |
More of the Algeria War of Independence Timeline
• Part 1: From French Colonization to the End of the 'Battle of Algiers'
Algeria War of Independence Events
• Évian Accords
Algerian War of Independence Terms
• Pied-Noir
• Fellegha
• Harkis
• Wilaya
Algeria Timeline
• Part 1: Prehistory to Colonization
• Part 2: Colonization to Independence
• Part 3: Independence to State of Emergency
• Part 4: State of Emergency to Present Day
Algerian Leaders
• Ferhat Abbas
• Ahmed Messali Hadj
• Ahmed Ben Bella
