When the French army attacked a terrorist stronghold in Tunisia there was massive media attention and the UN had to get involved. The attack had been carried out without the permission or the knowledge of the Government. The events unfolding in Algeria were also catching the eye of other nations, the USA was opposed to empires, and wanted all countries to decolonise providing there was not a threat of communism taking over. However it is argued that the USA would not interfere as they didn’t want to risk the relationships with France, a major European power and a member of NATO. The USSR also did not interfere for the similar reasons, it would have been a bonus for them had the French turned against the USA, and so they didn’t want to break relations. Although international opinion was ignored there was public uproar in France. Mothers didn’t see the purpose of their sons dying for an unworthy cause, and public opinion was vastly turning against the fighting to keep hold of Algeria. Before the Battle of Algiers the French people had not know that the Algerians were unhappy with the system as they had no reason to believe there was any trouble. However as events unfolded awareness grew, and so did the discontent.
The war was costing France a vast amount of money, which was already sparse after the destruction caused by the two world wars and it was becoming increasingly obvious that the Prime Minister Pierre Pflimin couldn’t cope with the situation or find a solution.
By 1958 the situation in Algeria had reached a stalemate, neither the French Army or the FLN were willing to surrender, and it became clear that no side would win the war. Although the Army had managed to reduce the FLN by arresting its leaders and killing its men, it was not defeated, it was always present and could and would rise up at any time. It could be argued that the terror tactics of the FLN failed, however it is obvious that they were successful, but it terror alone would not win them their independence; it needed another factor to help them along. That factor came in the form of Charles de Gaulle.
De Gaulle was a well respected was hero who had been in retirement since 1946, the army were confident in him, and he had the support of the public and the government in France. On the 1st June 1958 de Gaulle became instated as leader of France, he was given the power to rule by decree for 6months and the authority to introduce a new republic, ending years of political instability in France.
A political solution to the problem had never been considered in the past, as both the army and the Government had believed that the solution lay with the French Army. However, de Gaulle realised that this wasn’t so and so attempted another method. At first de Gaulle wished to make a peace between the Algerians. On the 4th June 1959 he flew to Algeria to try and change public opinion there, he greeted the Algerian people saying “Je vous ai compris!” meaning ‘I understand you’. However as time passed it was evident that de Gaulle had no idea of what the people wanted. He tried to enforce a policy of integration before changing his tactics. He made an agreement that 2/3 of the Algerian government would be Muslims and redistributed land that was once theirs. The referendum deciding whether or not the 5th republic should be accepted was boycotted by the FLN. This was to maintain momentum and keep pressure on the French and not to appear to be backing down. However many did vote and 96.6% voted in favour.
De Gaulle was rapidly loosing popularity amongst the Army and the colons, which were adamant to hold on to Algeria. Plans were made to assassinate the Prime Minister, but they all failed. De Gaulle was slowly working his way towards independence, not rushing in to things to avoid a revolution within the Army. By November 1960 de Gaulle was committed to self-determination. His decisions were influenced by his visions, he wished for a stronger France in Europe and less US input. To gain this he needed to make Algeria independent to save all the trouble which was weakening his country.
The date for the referendum was set for January 8th 1961, again the FLN boycotted the vote, as a date had not been set for their independence and they wanted to maintain pressure. Only 60% of the Algerians turned out to vote, but of them 75% voted in favour of self-rule.
By this time independence was inevitable, there was no way to reverse the process. FLN support was diminishing as people saw that the French were slowly giving in, and terror tactics were no longer necessary.
The Evian agreement was made on the 20th May 1961 after many negotiations, De Gaulle had stalled the process by trying to keep possession of the Sahara, however after reaching a stalemate he gave in to the FLN, abandoning French demand.
On March the 18th 1962 the Algerians had finally gained their independence. General de Gaulle had acted as a catalyst in the process. It is almost definite that without the stalemate of 1958 between the Army and the FLN, he would not have been involved in the crisis. However as things turned out he was the main factor in the granting of independence, he handed the Algerians their freedom after a long fight.
