3 lugl 1962 anni - Algeria Independence

Descrizione:

The fight for independence in Algeria reveals many of the difficulties that can arise when decolonizing a settler colony. First, France saw Algeria as part of France, so its relationship to Algeria was notably different from its other colonies. Second, there were French people living in the country whose families had been there for five or six generations (since the 1800s); these people were called the "pieds noirs." Because of this, the French government ultimately had to settle the interest of three parties: France itself, the pieds noirs, and Algerian natives.

Initially, however, France resisted any calls for independence from the Algerian people. A violent conflict became the determinant of Algeria's fate, and after an eight-year-long war, France granted Algeria its independence. Following independence, there was a mass exodus of the "pieds noirs" and in 1962 approximately 800,000 of the 1 million pieds noirs in Algeria flocked to the French mainland. By the end of the 1960s, only about 50,000 remained in the country. This mass flight begs the question of whether this group of people was connected to Algeria, as they claimed, or whether they were really connected to the power and privilege they once had there.