Algeria Gained Independence From France
On this day · 3 July 1962
After a brutal eight-year war, France let go of a colony it had ruled as a part of itself for 132 years.
On 3 July 1962, France formally recognised Algeria as an independent state, ending 132 years of colonial rule that began with the French invasion of 1830. The decision followed a referendum on 1 July 1962 in which Algerians voted overwhelmingly to break away.
Independence was the prize of a savage struggle. The Algerian War, launched by the National Liberation Front (FLN) in 1954, killed hundreds of thousands and tore French politics apart, bringing Charles de Gaulle back to power in 1958. The fighting ended with the Évian Accords of March 1962, which set the terms for a ceasefire and self-determination.
Unlike most colonies, Algeria had been governed as an integral part of France itself.
That legal fiction made separation especially wrenching, triggering the flight of roughly a million European settlers, the pieds-noirs. Algeria marks its national holiday on 5 July, the anniversary of France’s 1830 arrival, turning the date of conquest into the date of liberation.
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