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preface
In October, the newly crowned King of Morocco met with the leader of the National Liberation Front, angering the French right. Fearing the political consequences of the war, Moller ordered the kidnapping of an Algerian leader, Ahmed Ben Bella (1919-2012), and launched a domestic crackdown on critics of France's Algerian policy. In November 1956, France joined Britain in the ill-fated Suez Expedition, more or less because of French anger at Egypt's support for the Algerian uprising.
The French army fought a brutal campaign that included torture of militants and civilians alike, culminating in the "Battle of Algiers" in Arab camps in the Algerian capital. In France, the left was increasingly demanding an end to the war, and intellectuals such as the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and the novelist Camus condemned the torture of Algerians by the French army. At the same time, French casualties increased.
French casualties were also increasing
In Algeria's war of independence, FNL successfully exploited Cold War rivalry by using the mass media to gain support among Algerian communities abroad, as well as the support of the international community. They succeeded in isolating France internationally. In 1960, during Algeria's war of independence, French riot police responded to demonstrators in Algiers, throwing stones and tear gas.
After France's humiliating defeat at German forces in 1940 and the Vietnamese at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, some French officers regarded the battle for Algeria as the last battle to protect their honor. At the beginning of 1958, the number of French troops in Algeria was 500,000, and French aircraft attacked the FNL camp on the other side of the border with Tunisia. Rumor has it that the new prime minister is willing to negotiate with the insurgents. On May 13, 1958, French colonists in Algiers demonstrated against any compromise, which turned into an army-led uprising against the French government.
The rightist "Public Safety Committee" led by General Jacques Ma Su (1908-2002) seized power. On 24 May, another right-wing group seized power in Corsica. A military coup seems likely in mainland France. In self-imposed exile, de Gaulle, who had been waiting for such a thing to happen, announced that he was ready to fulfill his duties for France again. Many politicians believed that de Gaulle alone could have prevented chaos. On 29 May 1958, President René Coty appointed Charles de Gaulle as Prime Minister, a motion approved by the National Assembly in early June.
General de Gaulle accepted the condition that he could administer for six months by means of an emergency decree, and then he could ask the state to approve a new constitution. The right, including many officers, was pleased to see de Gaulle back in power, arguing that the general would never allow Algeria to become independent. The new constitution greatly increased the powers of the President, whose term of office was set at seven years. The President of the French Fifth Republic would conduct foreign policy, appoint a prime minister, and have the power to dissolve the French Parliament. In September 1958, 80% of the French electorate adopted a new constitution.
But what will happen to Algeria? De Gaulle traveled to Algiers in June 1958 and told the colonists in a very vague speech: "I already know you, I know what you are trying to do here." But he has decided that the cost of continuing the war in Algeria is too great and too easy to lead to division. He removed the generals responsible for the coup in Algeria. For this man who backed his political philosophy with French nationalism, it seemed like a startling shift.
In 1963, Kenyan Mao warriors were training
To some officials, de Gaulle's actions seemed like an incredible betrayal, a wounding arrow from a military companion. As confirmed by the Dreyfus incident in the nineteen-nineties and the Vichy years, the right-wing anti-democratic tradition was retained among the officers. Many officers today feel betrayed not only by de Gaulle, but by many in France. They have some support in right-wing parties. In January 1960, when de Gaulle recalled General Ma Xu to Paris, right-wing riots broke out in Paris.
In Algeria, Blackfoot began a general strike and barricades were erected. De Gaulle gathered public opinion in France, apparently forming a policy that allowed Algerians to decide their own future. Negotiations between Algerian leaders and de Gaulle's government began in the spring of 1961. During this period, a secret group, the Organization of Secret Armies (OAs), was formed within the army in January 1961, and they decided to keep Algeria as a French colony at all costs.
In April, OAs staged a coup d'état and took control of Algiers and Oran for three days, but it did not win the support of the entire army. Parties on the left and the centre gave support to de Gaulle. The general was given emergency powers for a year this time. OAs attempted to assassinate de Gaulle twice, once by strafing his car into holes with a machine gun, and this assassination was almost successful. OAs members planted bombs in Algerian cities and Paris to terrorize civilians.
Having been given the opportunity to vote for their future, Algerians opted for independence; In France, Algerian independence was voted in July 1961, with a result of 15 million to 5 million. On March 19, 1962, the Algerian War officially ended, and the French people overwhelmingly adopted the peace clause. In July 1962, Algeria gained independence. However, France continues to maintain considerable prestige in the Third World.
At the end of World War II, only Liberia, Ethiopia and Egypt achieved independence in Africa. Nationalist groups in Africa are less organized than in India and Southeast Asia. But in the decades that followed, British rule ended in one African colony after another. After Ghana's independence in 1957, other countries followed, including Nigeria in 1960, Sierra Leone and Tanganyika in 1961, Uganda in 1962, and Kenya in 1963.
In 1960, 16 African countries became independent states, including Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal and Cameroon, all former French colonies. The British were determined to hold the East African colony of Kenya under the guise of "civilizing" their perceived inferiors, a cruel determination. In the late 19th century, British colonists acquired a large amount of property in the so-called "White Highlands" of fertile central Kenya. Later, other, less wealthy white colonists also arrived.
Animal husbandry, coffee cultivation and grain production made many people rich, while Kenya was known for being suitable for privileged British gentry, a "gentleman's colony". In 1914, there were nearly 5,500 European colonists in Kenya, and after World War II, a government campaign to encourage immigration there, and in 1948, about 30,000 whites lived there. By the early 50s of the 20th century, there were at least 40,000 Europeans there.
Decolonization of sub-Saharan Africa
Many benefited from quality land that could be purchased or leased at very low prices, government subsidies, and cheap African labor, for whom the colonial government set minimum wages. The Kikuyu took a lot of their land from the colonizers, who were forced to work for the British and pay heavy taxes to the British, who did not profit from the economic boom generated by World War II. The Kikuyu launched a campaign for national self-determination.
Jomo Kenyatta (1889-1978), who studied in London, became an efficient and charismatic leader of the Kenyan African Union, which in the early 50s covered almost all Kikuyu. The "Maomao" movement, as it became known to the British, began in 1952, in which violence against British colonists occurred and 32 British people were killed in the movement. Despite the lack of evidence, Kenyatta was arrested, tried, convicted and imprisoned for his role in the Mao movement, making him an international symbol of Kenya's resistance.
The British government declared a national emergency, detaining up to 1.5 million people and putting them in internment camps, almost the entire Jikkuyu population. At the same time, the Mao Party carried out bloody revenge against Kenyans loyal to the British through guerrilla attacks. The British portrayed the war as a struggle between civilization and barbarism. British forces, including a British local army made up of white colonists identified as belonging to the security forces in 1953, and indigenous people loyal to Britain, killed tens of thousands of Kenyans, not counting the thousands who died in the camps or were shot while trying to escape.
The British government unscrupulously suppressed the uprising, and they carried out a reign of terror, committed heinous atrocities, and inflicted extensive torture, most of which they successfully concealed and were not known at the time. About 1,000 Jikuyu were sentenced to death by hanging after conviction by British courts. British authorities also punished villagers who refused to cooperate, looted livestock and shut markets down for months.
This bloody struggle lasted until 1957, when the British army successfully broke up the Mao army. However, as news spread about the camps and their conditions, the situation of the British Government appeared to be deteriorating. During this period, Britain embraced decolonization as inevitable. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan made a "balance sheet of the empire" with shocking red lettering. He decided to end British colonial rule in Africa.
Resources
Nineteenth-Century Religion, Literature and Society[B]. Naomi Hetherington,Rebecca Styler,Angharad Eyre,Richa Dwor,Clare Stainthorp. 2021
Rediscovering the Religious Factor in American Politics[B]. Leege David C.,Kellstedt Lyman A.. 2016
Faith, Fallibility, and the Virtue of Anxiety[B]. Derek Malone France.