Rayan™

Tomorrow is November 1st, the day of the outbreak of the Algerian revolution against the colonized France

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Algerian Revolution>
1954 The beginning of an 8 year war
Planning November 1st

By the summer of 1954, the F.L.N was composed of twenty two young men. The F.L.N’s first full meeting took place that year after the defeat of the French army in Indo-China. With this defeat France lost their image of indestructibility. In an attempt to catch the French government at the moment when it was most weak, the F.L.N decided to speed up the day of the revolt, scheduling it for November 1st on All Saints ’Day. During the summer and fall of 1954 the F.L.N created a revolutionary structure that divided Algeria into five, and later six military districts, known as wilaya. The leaders of these regions became known as the “internals” whose job was meant to marshal Arab support for the revolution. Ben Bella, Khider, and Ait Ahmed formed the “external” delegation in Cairo. Their role was to gain foreign support to receive arms and supplies for the wilaya commanders. Orders given to operation groups were to “Arm, train and prepare!” For the outbreak. From the very beginning of the revolution, the F.L.N was at a military disadvantage. According to Ben Bella, they began the revolt with around 350 to 400 firearms, most of which were homemade or stolen from the French. In addition to a lack of weapons, the FLN received no foreign aid until 1956. Estimates of the number of guerrillas committed to the revolt ranged from 900 to 3,000 by November 1st, a minuscule amount when compared to French forces which approximated 50,000 men in 1954 In his book Modern Algeria, John Ruedy states: “because of poor planning, faulty synchronization, and superior French intelligence and communications, the beginning of Algeria's armed struggle war was far from auspicious”. On November 1st no one, in particular the French, could have imagined that the revolt would escalate into war that would last for the next eight years.

Revolutionary Goals

The attacks on November did not manage to worry the French. After all, only seven people were assassinated, and a quarter of the activists in Algiers had been immediately captured. The French Army’s Commander-in-chief, not convinced that the attacks posed any long term threat, called it “another‘ tribal uprising ’” that could be taken care of with proper “police action” (savage war of peace, 96). Despite the disbelief the French had of Algeria becoming Independent, the F.L.N’s aims were clear. Independence was to be obtained through the restoration of the Algerian state through Islamic principles and basic rights “without distinction of race or creed”. Their internal aims consisted of reorganizing the masses for the revolutionary movement by eliminating reform and corruption. Their external aims were to “internationalize” the “Algerian problem” and to obtain support for their independence movement from other nations through the United Nations. Internationalizing their struggle became a very important objective.