1830 -- French invasion of Algeria
1834 -- Algeria becomes a French military colony
1848 -- New Constitution in France declares Algeria to be an integral part of France
1865 Jul 14 -- Establishment of the Code de l'indigénat (Indigenous Code) in Algeria. It allowed Muslims to apply for full French citizenship, a measure that few took, since it involved renouncing the right to be governed by sharia law in personal matters and was considered a kind of apostasy.
1870 Oct 24 -- The Crémieux Decrees allow Jews in French Algeria to become full French citizens.
1881 -- The Code de l'indigénat is modified to officially allow creating specific penalties for indigènes (Muslims) and organizing the seizure or appropriation of their lands.
1944 May 7 -- Equality of rights in Algeria is proclaimed by a new French ordinance
1945 May 8 -- The Sétif Massacre. French colonial police fire on demonstrators at a market town west of Constantine in French Algeria. Riots in the town were followed by attackers on French settlers in the surrounding countryside resulting in 102 deaths. Subsequent reprisals by French authorities and colonial militias result in the deaths of at least 6,000 Muslims. Despite the massacre, most Algerians are in favor of the status quo with France.
1946 Jun -- Founding of the Democratic Union of the Algerian Manifesto (UDMA), a political party led by Ferhat Abbas with the goal of establishing an independent Algerian state within the French framework. It wins 11 of 13 seats established for local representation in Algeria.
1947 Sept 20 -- New French law grants French citizenship to all Algerian subjects, who are not required to renounce their Muslim personal status.
1954 Nov 1 -- Le Toussaint Rouge (Red All Saint's Day). Beginning of the Algerian War of Independence. Members of the FLN (National Liberation Front) operating out of Cairo broadcast a proclamation calling on Muslims in Algeria to join a national struggle for "restoration of the Algerian state...within the framework of Islam". At the time the movement consisted of about 500 guerrillas, known as fellaghas. At first most other political factions, including the UDMA, keep their distance from FLN.
1956 Apr --- Ferhat Abba flies to Cairo and joins forces with the FLN. War enters an accelerated phase.
1955 -- Algerian War enters new phase as guerrillas move into urban centers,
1955 Apr -- Massacre of French colonial settlers by FLN prompts brutal backlash by French authorities, leading to widespread condemnation.
By 1956, there were more than 400,000 French troops in Algeria. Although the elite colonial infantry airborne units and the Foreign Legion bore the brunt of offensive counterinsurgency combat operations, approximately 170,000 Muslim Algerians also served in the regular French army, most of them volunteers.
1956 Sept 30 -- Start of the Battle of Algiers. Old quarter of the city (Kasbah) becomes locus of urban guerrilla activity.
The Battle of Algiers began when three women, including Djamila Bouhired and Zohra Drif, simultaneously placed bombs at three sites including the downtown office of Air France. The FLN carried out shootings and bombings in the spring of 1957, resulting in civilian casualties and a crushing response from the authorities.1957 Sept 24 -- End of the Battle of Algiers.
The publicity given to the brutal methods used by the French army to win the Battle of Algiers, including the use of torture, strong movement control and curfew called quadrillage (surveillance using a grid pattern) and where all authority was under the military, created doubt in France about its role in Algeria. What was originally "pacification" or a "public order operation" had turned into a colonial war accompanied by torture.
1958 May -- The Algeirs Putsch. French Fourth Republic collapses, by impetus from disgruntled generals in Algeria. It is replaced by the Fifth Republic with General De Gaulle as President.
1960 -- Widespread pro-independence demonstrations in Algiers. United Nations passes resolution in favor of Algerian Independence.
1962 Mar -- End of the Algerian War. Charles De Gaulle signs the Evian Accords establishing peace with FLN and Algerian independence subject to referendums. Referendums in France and Algeria ratify the accords overwhelmingly.
Upon independence in 1962, 900,000 European-Algerians (Pieds-noirs) fled to France within a few months in fear of the FLN's revenge. The French government was unprepared to receive such a vast number of refugees, which caused turmoil in France.
Guy is drafted to serve in the Algerian War. The night before he leaves, he and Geneviève pledge their undying love and have sex, perhaps for the first time..
Geneviève learns she is pregnant and writes to Guy, but his replies are sporadic. Her mother tells her to give up on Guy – he has forgotten her. Geneviève is courted by Roland Cassard, a kind, young, very wealthy Parisian jeweler; he wants to marry her despite her pregnancy.
1966 Aug 31 -- Release of La battaglia di Algerii (The Battle of Algiers) at the Venice International Film Festival. It is released in Algiers on Sept. 8.
The Battle of Algiers is an Italian-Algerian historical war film co-written and directed by Gillo Pontecorvo and starring Jean Martin and Saadi Yacef. It is based on events by rebels during the Algerian War (1954–1962) against the French government in North Africa; the most prominent being the titular Battle of Algiers, the capital of Algeria. It was shot on location and the film's score was composed by Ennio Morricone. The film was shot in a Roberto Rossellini-inspired newsreel style: in black and white with documentary-type editing to add to its sense of historical authenticity, with mostly non-professional actors who had lived through the real battle. It is often associated with Italian neorealist cinema.
The film reconstructs the events that occurred in the capital city of French Algeria between November 1954 and December 1957, during the Algerian War of Independence. The narrative begins with the organization of revolutionary cells in the Casbah.
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