Algerian War in the context of "Arab Cold War"

Albert Camus (/kæˈmuː/ ka-MOO; French: [albɛʁ kamy] ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, novelist, author, dramatist, journalist, world federalist, and political activist. He was the recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His works include The Stranger, The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Fall and The Rebel.

Camus was born in French Algeria to pied-noir parents. He spent his childhood in a poor neighbourhood and later studied philosophy at the University of Algiers. He was in Paris when the Germans invaded France during World War II in 1940. Camus tried to flee but finally joined the French Resistance where he served as editor-in-chief at Combat, an outlawed newspaper. After the war, he was a celebrity figure and gave many lectures around the world. He married twice but had many extramarital affairs. Camus was politically active; he was part of the left that opposed Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union because of their totalitarianism. Camus was a moralist and leaned towards anarcho-syndicalism. He was part of many organisations seeking European integration. During the Algerian War (1954–1962), he kept a neutral stance, advocating a multicultural and pluralistic Algeria, a position that was rejected by most parties.

Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to the northeast by Tunisia; to the east by Libya; to the southeast by Niger; to the southwest by Mali, Mauritania, and Western Sahara; to the west by Morocco; and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea. The capital and largest city is Algiers, located in the far north on the Mediterranean coast.

Algeria has been at the crossroads of numerous cultures and civilisations for millennia, including the Phoenicians, Numidians, Romans, Vandals, and Byzantine Greeks. Its modern identity is rooted in centuries of Arab Muslim migration since the seventh century and the subsequent Arabisation of indigenous Berber populations. Following a succession of Islamic Arab and Berber dynasties between the eighth and 15th centuries, the Regency of Algiers was established in 1516 as a largely independent tributary state of the Ottoman Empire. After nearly three centuries as a major power in the Mediterranean, the country was invaded by France in 1830 and formally annexed in 1848, though it was not fully conquered and pacified until 1903. French rule brought mass European settlement that displaced the local population, which was reduced by up to one-third due to warfare, disease, and starvation. The Sétif and Guelma massacre in 1945 catalysed local resistance that culminated in the outbreak of the Algerian War in 1954. Algeria gained independence in 1962. It descended into a bloody civil war from 1992 to 2002, remaining in an official state of emergency until the 2010–2012 Algerian protests during the Arab Spring.

French Algeria, also known as Colonial Algeria, was the period of Algerian history when the country was a colony and later an integral part of France. French rule lasted from the beginning of the French conquest in 1830 until the end of the Algerian War which resulted in Algeria gaining independence on 5 July 1962.

The French conquest of Algeria began in 1830 with the invasion of Algiers which toppled the Regency of Algiers, though Algeria was not fully conquered and pacified until 1903. It is estimated that by 1875, approximately 825,000 Algerians were killed. Various scholars describe the French conquest as genocide. Algeria was ruled as a colony from 1830 to 1848, and then as multiple departments—an integral part of France—with the implementing of the 1848 French Constitution, until Algerian independence in 1962. After a trip to Algiers in 1860, the then-French emperor Napoleon III became keen on establishing a client kingdom which he would in turn rule in a personal union, expanding freedoms for the indigenous population and limiting colonisation. This project was futile, however, and the newly-established Third Republic scrapped any plans for Algerian regional autonomy, even seeking to strengthen its hold by granting citizenship to Algeria's native Jewish population and propagating the Kabyle myth in what have been described as examples of divide and rule.

The pieds-noirs (French: [pje nwaʁ]; lit. 'black feet'; sg.: pied-noir) are an ethno-cultural group of people of French and other European descent who were born in Algeria during the period of French colonial rule from 1830 to 1962. Many of them departed for mainland France during and after the war by which Algeria gained its independence in 1962.

From the French invasion on 18 June 1830 to its independence, Algeria was administratively part of France; its ethnic European population were simply called Algerians or colons (colonists). The Muslim people of Algeria were called Arabs, Muslims or indigènes. The term pied-noir came into common use shortly before the end of the Algerian War in 1962.

Algiers is the capital city of Algeria, located on the Mediterranean Sea in the north-central portion of the country. In 2025, an estimated 4.325 million people resided within the urban area. Algiers is the largest city in Algeria, the third-largest city on the Mediterranean, the sixth-largest city in the Arab world, and the 29th-largest city in Africa by population. Algiers is the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many communes without having its own separate governing body. It extends along the Bay of Algiers surrounded by the Mitidja Plain and major mountain ranges. Its favorable location made it the center of Ottoman and French influences for the region, shaping it to be a diverse metropolis.

Algiers was formally founded in 972 AD by Buluggin ibn Ziri, though its history goes back to between 1200 and 250 BC as a Phoenician trading settlement. Over time, it came under the control of several powers, including Numidia, the Roman Empire, and various Islamic caliphates. In 1516, it became the capital of the Ottoman Regency of Algiers, a status it held until the French invasion in 1830, after which it served as the capital of French Algeria. During World War II, it briefly functioned as the administrative center of Free France from 1942 to 1944 before returning to French colonial rule. It has remained the capital of the modern Algerian state since the Algerian Revolution in 1962.

The Sétif and Guelma massacre (also called the Sétif, Guelma and Kherrata massacres or the massacres of 8 May 1945) was a series of massacres by French colonial authorities and pied-noir European settler militias on Algerian civilians in May and June 1945 around the towns of Sétif and Guelma in French Algeria.

In response to French police firing on demonstrators during a protest in Sétif on 8 May 1945, native Algerians rioted in the town and attacked French settlers (colons) in the surrounding countryside, killing 102 people. The French colonial authorities and European settlers retaliated by killing thousands of Algerian Muslims in the region with estimates varying widely. The initial estimate given by French authorities was 1,020 killed, while the current Algerian government cites an estimate of 45,000 killed. Estimates by historians range from 3,000 to 30,000 Algerian Muslims killed. The massacre marked a turning point in Franco-Algerian relations, ultimately leading to the Algerian War of independence from 1954 to 1962.