France conquered Algeria in a hard-fought campaign that began in 1830. Turkish rule there had long degenerated and the ports were strongholds of Barbary pirates, whose crimes served to justify the conquest. But the French soon found the temperate and hilly coastal belt suitable for commercial agriculture, and nearly a million French and other Europeans settled in Algeria (the 140,000 Jews are also classed as Europeans; probably half are of Berber origin). Four- fifths of the Europeans live in towns, 300,000 in Algiers alone, and 200,000 in Oran. But the 45,000 Europeans on farms owned a third of all the arable land. The Moslem population of 10 million is fast growing, over half of them being under the age of 20.
The French long sought to integrate Algeria with metropolitan France. When Napoleon III tried to conciliate the Arabs, the French of Algiers revolted against him in 1870, establishing a tradition of settler revolt. Settler opposition defeated later moves to grant more rights to the Moslems, and this embittered many Moslem leaders who had supported assimilation. In 1954 the rebel FLN (Front de Libération Nationale) launched a guerrilla revolt; it was soon pinning down a French army of 450,000. As well as the war in Algeria, there was violent conflict among the 300,000 Algerians working in France, especially between adherents of the FLN and those of an older nationalist movement, the MNA, led by Messali Haj. The FLN was supported by the Arab states as a whole; the war embittered French relations with them, and French resentment at Egyptian actions contributed to the 1956 Suez conflict (7).
In 1958 frustration over failure to suppress the rebellion produced the overthrow of the French government by a revolt among the settlers, backed by the army in Algeria and by French supporters of the claim that Algeria was part of France. General de Gaulle, France's wartime hero and first post-war president, came back to power on a wave of enthusiasm, and a new constitution gave him increased powers. He found no quick solution for Algeria, and later declared a policy of achieving an 'Algerian Algeria' through self- determination. This alienated the extremist settlers (ultras) and their friends, including a group of officers who staged a short-lived mutiny in Algeria in 1961. Meanwhile de Gaulle made only slow progress towards coming to terms with the FLN, and partition was discussed.
French reluctance to part with Algeria, and Arab suspicions that France would not give it up, were both increased by developments in its desert 'Southern Territories'. France staged nuclear test explo-