Algerian independence: a timeline

France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) signed a treaty fifty years ago in the French Alpine town of Evian, putting an end to the Algerian war which had lasted for almost eight years and resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.

Here is a timeline of developments related to the Evian Accords in the north African country:

– 1830: France invades Algeria. Complete conquest of the country, which had been part of the Ottoman Empire, will take around 40 years. From 1848 administrative regions are created on the French model, in line with France’s policy of considering Algeria as part and parcel of its territory. However the native population, except for the Jews, is not given the same rights as the many European settlers who have flocked to the country.

– May 8, 1945: On the day that World War II formally ends in Europe, major unrest breaks out in the Algerian town of Setif and in the neighbouring Constantine region. French forces massacre several thousand people.

– October 1954: The FLN launches a war for independence.

– 1957: French troops engage in the “Battle of Algiers”. Reports emerge of widespread torture by the military.

– 1958: Charles de Gaulle, France’s World War II hero, is returned to power largely as a response to the impasse of the Algerian war. His refusal to pursue a hard-line policy of keeping Algeria French leads to a military revolt among some European settlers and parts of the armed forces.

– March 18, 1962: Signature of a peace agreement in Evian. A ceasefire comes into force the next day at midday, but is not widely respected. The French far-right nationalist Organisation Armee Secrete (OAS) opposes the accord through a series of bombings.

– April 8, 1962: In a referendum, the French electorate approves the accords with 90% in favour. In Algeria, on July 1, 99.72% vote in favour. De Gaulle pronounces Algeria an independent country on July 3.

– July 5, 1962: Algeria formally becomes independent after 132 years of French presence after a conflict which left some 400,000, mainly Algerians, dead, according to French historians, 1.5 million according to the Algerian authorities.

In the same period, some one million European descendants of settlers, known as “pieds noirs” leave, most of them to settle in France. Algerians who fought on the French side during the war are massacred.