A Critical Evaluation of Charles De Gaulles Handling of the Algerian Insurrection :: European Europe History

A Critical Evaluation of Charles De Gaulles Handling of the Algerian InsurrectionThe fifties was not a specially good decade for France. The Fourth Republic, which had been completed in the aftermath of the Second World War, remained unstable and lurched from crisis to crisis. Between 1946 and 1954, there had been a war in French Indo-China, between a patriot force under Ho Chi Minh and the French. The war was long and acerbity and towards the end, the French suffered the ignominy of losing the major fortress of Dien Bien Phu to the guerrillas on 7 whitethorn 1954. An armistice was sought with Ho Chi Minh, and the nations of northmost and South Vietnam emerged from the ashes of the dependency. It is altogether give carely that the success of the guerrillas influenced the Algerian insurrectionists, the National Liberation Front(FLN), in maneuver and in the idea that the time was ripe to strike. It is clear that the FLN employed corresponding methods to those developed by th e nationalists under Ho Chi Minh.1 For several months, France was at peace. The insurrection began on 1 November 1954. The insurrection precipitated the fall of the Fourth Republic. Charles de Gaulle, wedge shape of the Second World War, became President of France in 1958, and was intent on securing a political solution to the insurrection, rather than one based on force. His efforts were mostly successful in avoiding a civil war in France, and endpoint the insurgency - although it took four years to do so. It has been estimated that more than a one thousand million Algerians died in the insurrection.2 Before 1954, Algeria was not considered to be a French colony - rather it was seen as an integral part of France. The region was composed of departments, like those of the mainland. There were over a million white French nationals existing in Algeria at the time and around eight million Muslims.3 This was a greater proportion of French nationals than in the other major North Afri can colonies of France - Morocco, and Tunisia.4 Although there were benefits to remaining with France, the colonial administration was heavily weighed against the Muslims - particularly with regards to voting rights. In 1936, for instance, the Popular Front Government of Blum introduced legislation to the meeting place proposing to extend French citizenship to over twenty thousand Algerian Muslims.5 The opening move failed when all the European mayors of Algerian towns resigned in protest.