Independence Day (Algeria)

In the early morning hours (12:00 am) of 1 November 1954, the National Liberation Army (L'armée de Libération Nationale—FLN) launched attacks throughout Algeria in the opening salvo of a war of independence.

The government claimed it killed 1,273 guerrillas in retaliation; according to the FLN, 12,000 Muslims perished in an orgy of bloodletting by the armed forces and police, as well as colon gangs.

The Evian accords also provided for continuing economic, financial, technical, and cultural relations, along with interim administrative arrangements until a referendum on self-determination could be held.

The Evian accords guaranteed the religious and property rights of French settlers, but the perception that they would not be respected led to the exodus of one million pieds-noirs and harkis.

Nearly one million people of mostly French, Spanish and Italian[1] descent were forced to flee Algeria at independence due to the unbridgeable rifts opened by the civil war and threats from units of the victorious FLN.