The Algerian War (1 November 1954-19 March 1962) was a war between France and the Algerian "National Liberation Front" (FLN) from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria gaining its independence from France. The socialist FLN national liberation movement began the conflict with a series of attacks against French settlers on All Saints' Day (1 November 1954), killing 5 French settlers. The 20 August 1955 massacre by the FLN of 71 French civilians and 52 Muslim "collaborators" at Philippeville lead to a breakdown in inter-communal relations, and the FLN began a guerrilla campaign in the countryside and a terrorist campaign in the cities, especially Algiers.
Led by Saadi Yacef and Ali La Pointe, the FLN carried out numerous attacks on French policemen in Algiers in 1956, so the French Army was sent in to put down the unrest. From September 1956 to September 1957, 8,000 French troops and 1,500 policemen under General Jacques Massu shattered the FLN in Algiers through the use of torture, kidnapping, and extrajudicial executions, but the French lost the hearts and minds of the Algerian people and many people back in the homeland. The French campaigns weakened the FLN militarily, killed or arrested most of the FLN leaders, and effectively stopped the terrorist attacks, but international opinion turned against France in response to its use of brutal tactics. In 1958, the election of the pacifistPierre Pfimlin as Prime Minister led to a failed putsch by right-wing elements in the military in Algiers in May 1958, leading to the fall of the French Fourth Republic and the rise of the French Fifth Republic under World War II hero Charles de Gaulle. After the December 1960 Algiers riots and major demonstrations in several other large cities, De Gaulle decided to open negotiations with the FLN leadership. De Gaulle made plans for a French withdrawal, leading to the rise of the far-right OAS underground organization, whose members (consisting of right-wing French veterans) opposed the withdrawal from Algeria. The OAS carried out a large number of bombings and assassinations both in France and in Algeria, and it came close to killing De Gaulle in Operation Charlotte Corday on 22 August 1962.
In March 1962, the FLN and the French government made peace under the Evian Accords, and an independence referendum was held on 1 July 1962. 99.72% of Algerians voted for independence, leading to the creation of an independent republic of Algeria, the exodus of 900,000 European settlers from Algeria, and the murder of between 50,000 and 150,000 Algerian "collaborationist" auxiliaries and their family members by the FLN. Many of the Algerian harki collaborators and their families fled to mainland France alongside the pied-noir settlers, forming a large portion of the French Algerian community.