Algeria Tries a Rhodesia

According to "A History of the Middle East" by Saul Friedman (a rather idiosyncratic, poorly-edited book I'm reading for research purposes), the anti-independence Secret Army during the Algerian War of Independence wanted, as a last resort, to declare independence from France and maintain colon rule on their own.

Could such a thing be pulled off? And how long could it last?

I posted a similar scenario on the old board, but I don't remember what anyone said about it.
 

Thande

Donor
This idea has crossed my mind as well...

(sorry, can't think of anything more constructive)
 
Then the rather more nationally aware Arabs rebel, and slaughter/expel every colon for good measure.

Weren't the Arabs in rebellion anyway? And the colons were armed, angry, and were the richest and most skilled part of the population, so it would be difficult to simply kill them out of hand.
 

Susano

Banned
Two problems:

1)Rhodesia was rather far away from the UK, and being landlocked cut off from it, too. Algeria is on the other side of the Med from France. I dont think France woulld look kidndly on any UDI, so they could well intervene against colonialist seperationists as well.
2) Even if France does nothing, I do think that without continual supply from France, the colonial cause is lost in Algeria.

So, certainly it could have been done, but independant French Algeria would IMO not have lasted very long.
 
This was sort of tried. There was a (second and this time unsuccessful) coup attempt in '61 or '62 by the paratroopers and some of the top leadership of the French Army in Algeria. The French Army in Algeria had already performed a successful "soft" coup, that put Du Gaulle into power, and once it was clear that Du Gaulle was going to make peace and abandon Algeria, the French Army hoped that it would be able to overthrow Du Gaulle and fight the was in Algeria to a successful conclusion.

Unfortunately, they didn't get the kind of support they needed from the rest of the Army, and didn't kill Du Gaulle outright, so the coup attempt failed.

There was a plan that France threatened the FLN with at one point to relocate all the French to one part of the country, making that area totally French and keep that as French territory, but it wasn't really serious and the FLN were willing to agree to any deal that got the French Army out of Algeria. Once they left the FLN carried out a really brutal (though no more brutal than French counter-insurgency campaigns) campaign to drive the remaining French colonists out of the country.

The French in Algeria didn't have the numbers to pull a Rhodesia, and it would go against the whole idea of what they were fighting for. They were fighting for the idea that Algeria WAS an intregal part of France, and should remain that way, no matter how many dead Arabs that mission required.
 
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