Essay: The Algerian War of Independence was impactful

By challenging our basic definition of the war the we can see the outcomes that have prevailed and have been loss throughout time. Unfortunately, this war has caused a ripple effect and still affects us today.  From the collapse of the French Fourth Republic to the disruption of Algeria’s society and economy. the Algerian War of Independence was impactful. Algeria is still rebuilding itself and will continue to do so in the future due to their conditions (Metz, Helen).
During the Algerian war women played a crucial role. To keep Algeria French, the government and army made specific appeals to Muslim woman with promises to “emancipate” them. By this meaning that they will not have to live up to the traditional oppression women go through. During the war the pressure was on. Woman were a part of the guerilla tactics of the Front de Libération Nationale, National Liberation Front. Women were used to plant bombs and this ranged all the way to nursing, feeding, and hiding the soldiers. As part of the campaign women were known to “win hearts and minds” (Vince, Natalya).
Throughout the war women ended up receiving voting rights, power in government offices, and even marriage was under civil rather than religious jurisdiction. Although this did little to win over the Muslim population, this initiated the idea that women could achieve equality. Due to this, gender relations begin to unravel throughout time and is still a mindset that people are globally trying to change today.  This rapidly evolved women in the nationalist movement (Vince, Natalya).
This war is sometimes overlooked in the sense that this is what became the archetype of wars of national liberation. This brought the new conditions of struggle on the revolutionary warfare to a conclusive climax. Ranging from terrorist attacks to repression. Humanitarian action had to be addressed and even the Red Cross (ICRC) was facing challenges offering their services due to the context of such an insurrectionary war. (Perret, Françoise)
During the war so much insurgency continued to grow and even spread to the cities. Repression deepened and populations were confined to ‘regroupment centers’. This war was extremely emotional. Each country was provoking one another and each act that one country would commit the other would then retaliate. From bombing one another to the inability to restore order in Algeria (Perret, Françoise).
The Algerian independence brought severe changes in the French citizenship that are still affecting us today. With the Fifth Republic, the current constitution of France which replaced the current parliamentary government with a similar presidential system in 1958. Algeria could not possibly ever be “French” again due to the historical ties it once had with the government (Burke, III, Edmund).
French Europeans were portrayed as innocent in the end of colonial Algeria. Instead the ones that were blamed were the Muslims and pied noirs. Pied noirs were French descent born in Algeria. These two were seen at fault because of the collisions they faced with their foreign cultures. The Algerian Jews faced many challenges as well. Ultimately, one million people left Algeria and most of them fled to France. Muslim Algerian citizens were no longer French citizens with rights, but rather were refused entry.  The French identity struggled to classify them, eventually they were classed as Europeans meanwhile the Muslims were not. There was a great deal of instability with France and Algeria because people did not know where they would be better off (Burke, III, Edmund).
The French army and air force added new dimensions to the conduct of military operations during the Algerian War of Independence. Because of this it created advances in the helicopter design and performance. During this time the country wanted to do what the opponent least expected (Miller, Stephen W.).
Approaching the eighth year of the Algerian War, right before the Evian Accords was signed, President Charles de Gaulle broke his silence and announced that he would see the end of the French Algeria one way or another. Shortly after, those who wanted the French to maintain control over their homeland began to protest, go on strikes and the most extreme were those who joined the Secret Army Organization (OAS), led by officers who had deserted from the French Army, accelerated their terrorist attacks against suspected FLN sympathizers; random Muslim civilians; and even, occasionally, French soldiers (Shepard, Todd).
Unfortunately, this led to a bombing campaign that specifically targeted left wingers. The terrorist attacks were a success; from sanctioned torture, and obscene numbers of civilian deaths. This ended up leading to a march in 1962 that thousands participated in, to protest the government’s violent response to an anti-OAS rally. This was when the Evian Accords was finally announced, the document that was signed giving Algeria immediate independence and French aid to help restore the country. (Shepard, Todd).
The creation of the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria was formally announced at the opening session of the National Assembly on September 25, 1962. Ferhat Abbas, a moderate unconnected with the Political Bureau, was elected president of the assembly by the delegates. This would eventually link the leadership of the three basic power bases, the army, the party, and the government (Metz, Helen).
Immediately after Algeria’s independence European Colonist left, and the former citizens would now claim the lands, houses, businesses, automobiles, bank accounts, and jobs that were left behind. The war left the country devastated. There was no infrastructure such as managers, doctors, teachers, engineers and other people to run the country. Most of the people that were now living in Algeria were not capable of pursing these kinds of jobs, they were underqualified and lower class workers (Metz, Helen).
Algeria’s population was now undereducated and they were not capable of educating their people after they gained independence. This took away any chance that they had from a fresh start. Unfortunately, reconstructing the Algerian government from the ground up was not an easy task. The country suffered corrupt leaders, mismanagement of the government and socialism for a brief period. All these issues eventually led to the Algerian civil war in 1991 (Metz, Helen).