IMPACT OF IDEAS ON THE ALGERIAN INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT

This research paper deals with the influence of ideas and ideology on the development of the Algerian independence movement. In the first phase of that movement beginning in the late 19th century and leading up to the Algerian War (1954-1961), a combination of Algerian nationalism and Western political thought (primarily French) played an important role in fueling Algerian demands for greater autonomy or independence from France. During the War, nationalism of a bitter and savage variety helped weld unity among the Algerian population and nationalist ideology in the form of propaganda helped the Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN) to end the war and grant Algerian independence despite the fact that the French army at all times had military superiority over the nationalists. A distinctive Algerian brand of Marxist socialism appealed to many nationalist intellectuals and workers, but was largely suppressed by the Algerian military junta which controlled the nationalist movement during the later phases of the war. Pan-Arabism was employed by the FLN to obtain arms and diplomatic support from abroad but played only a minor role in the outcome. Pan-Islamic ideas only became prominent in the form of Muslim fundamentalism long after Algeria achieved its independence.

Berger defines Pan-Arabism as "chiefly a political movement among Arabic-speaking peoples to achieve independence of foreign influence an

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litical democracy along French lines. The first nationalist party, the Federation of Elected Muslims in Algeria. Its first leader, the moderate Ferhat Abbas, who in 1958 became the figurehead President of the FLN's Provisional Government, said in the 1940s "I would not die for an Algerian fatherland because such a fatherland does not exist" (Behr 48). After the violent suppression of anti-French riots at Setif in 1945, two more radical nationalist groups came to the fore, the left-leaning but noncommunist Party of the Algerian People and the more theocratic (Islamic) AURA. According to Horne, the nationalist movement was sharply divided during the 1940s and early 1950s between assimilationists and populists (27). O'Ballance says that "the lack of French response to moderate demands tended to drive nationalists together" (35). After many more violent incidents, the various Algerian nationalist parties, including the communists, joined together in 1951 to form the Algerian Front for the Defence and Respect of Liberty (later called the FLN). The Algerian revolution was led by a combination of revolutionary intellectuals and politicians based mostly in Cairo and an in-country military leadership with roots in the peasantry and the
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1815
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)