This post was originally published on France24
On November 1, 1954, when Algeria was still under French colonial rule, members of the pro-independence FLN carried out a series of attacks across the country. This date has come to be known as the beginning of the Algerian War. In France at the time, there was no talk of war; only attacks attributed to agitators and bandits. But in reality, it was the start of a long conflict that would lead to Algeria’s independence in 1962. On the coattails of losing colonial Indochina, France never imagined that Algeria, home to nearly a million Europeans, had begun its march towards independence. FRANCE 24’s Karim Yahiaoui, Nessrine Benzebbouchi and Lauren Bain take a look back at this pivotal date in Algerian and colonial history.