From A Dictionary of Contemporary World History
On 1 November 1954, hostilities broke out between the Christian colonists of French descent and Algerian Muslim nationalists who were organized into the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) under Ben Bella. Despite its initial inferiority, the brutality of the well-armed French and colonists' troops soon brought the FLN agrarian mass support. The FLN continued to rely on guerrilla attacks, which spread to Algiers in late 1956. . . Read more
From AP Images
French Foreign Legion in Algeria, 1960
1954 Photograph
Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) revolt, November 1, 1954
Background Information
- A Chronology of the Algerian War of IndependenceFrom The Atlantic Magazine. Basic facts in chronological order.
Primary Source Databases
- The African Online Digital LibraryPortal to multimedia collections about Africa. Created by MATRIX in partnership with Michigan State University and African universities and cultural heritage organizations.
- Foreign Broadcast Information Service
FBIS was an intelligence component of the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology that provided translations of radio broadcasts in selected foreign countries from 1974 to 1996. Search these daily reports by location, publication type, or keyword.
- Academic Video Online
A multidisciplinary streaming video collection containing documentaries, films, interviews, music, news programs, and performances.
- PAIS Index
Covers public affairs, public and social policies, and international relations, and includes journal articles, books, government documents, reports, and more.
- Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982
Indexes the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States from 1890-1982.
Online Access - 2 simultaneous users - Humanities & Social Sciences Index RetrospectiveIndexes a wide range of important journals in the humanities and social sciences from 1907 to 1984.
- Associated Press Images Collection
Contemporary and historical images from the Associated Press.
- Proquest Historical NewspapersFull-text of several U. S. newspapers. Good for a U. S. perspective on world events. You can select newspapers to search by clicking on the boxes next to the newspaper titles in the second part of the screen. Click continue at the bottom of the screen after you have made your selection.
- The Times Digital Archive, 1785-2014
The Times (London) is considered the "world's newspaper of record." Full-text to over 200 years of the publication.
Additional Primary Sources for the Algerian Revolution
- HathiTrust Digital LibraryHathiTrust is a partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world. To login, click on the bright yellowish/orange LOG IN button. Select University of Tennessee, Knoxville from the drop-down list and log in with your NetID/password.
- French Resistance and the Algerian WarArticle in History Today by Martin Evans.
- Incredible Photos Of The Brutal Franco-Algerian War, 50 Years LaterImages from the journal Business Insider.
- African Achivist ArchiveThis collection from Michigan State University preserves and makes available online the records of activism in the United States to support the struggles of African peoples against colonialism, apartheid, and social injustice from the 1950s through the 1990s.
- Google BooksFull and partial images of thousands of books and periodicals digitized by Google. To limit results to full-text, use the advanced book search and click on "full-view only." Particularly good resource for finding the complete text of older books and periodicals.
- History of Algerian IndependenceDocumentary history of the revolution created as part of a Marxist site. There will a "Marxist" bent to all content on this site.
