Algeria's land has seen many regimes, all of which wanted to remain eternal. Many attempts at assimilation have been made throughout the centuries. Each time, Algeria has risen up to fight the invaders. set up by iron and fire, the colonial occupation was only established after many long years of war, and this was followed by a constant fight against it.
The resistance covered various form, local revolts or revolutions covering a whole region, or the constitution of political movements, more or less homogeneous and coherent, all manifestations came from the force and will to live in Algerian people and its desire to establish its own personality and assume its own destiny in complete sovereignty.
Algerian history has been marked by combat and sacrifice and demonstrates this will. Each generation of Algerian people has paid a high price in the cause of liberty and independance.
The earliest known inhabitants were the Berbers, who became established acros North Africa from about 3000 BC.
About the 3rd century BC, Numidia, as the Berber kingdom was called, came under attack from the Carthaginians and later the Romans. Roman rule ended when Vandals from Spain swept acros the country in AD431. In the following century, the area was partly conquered by the Byzantines. Successive waves of Arabs wept over the country in the 7th century and introduced the Islamic religion and the Arabic language. Islam soon became dominant but the Berber language survived mainly in the mountains in the east of the country. From 1519, the Ottman Turks held the coastlands, but their control was, at best, weak.
In 1830, on the pretext that the coastline was a haven for pirates - it was - French troops invaded the in 1831, country, and in 1831, the French Foreign Legion was formed. Decades of fighting against the Arabs and Berber tribesmen followed.
Most of the country was subdued by the early 1870s, through it was not until 1902 that France achieved control of the whole territory. In the period that followed, the French treated northern Algeria as an extension of France rather than a colony, and settlers (colons) flocked to the country.
After the Second World War, a nationalist movement which had emerged during the 1920's and 1930's began to grow in strength. One major group, FLN (the National Liberation Front), became dominant and in 1954 launched a bitter struggle for independence. By 1956 it controlled most of the countryside and was making terrorist attacks on the towns. The Frensh fought back ruthlessly with 500.000 troops to protect the settlers.
In 1958, the French army in Algeria, dissatisfied with the conduct of the war, rebelled and helped General Charles de Gaulle to return to power. Both the army and the colons believed that de Gaulle would keep Algeria French. However, despite last-ditch stands, including counter-terrorism by OAS (a secret organization of army officiers and colons), de Gaulle realised that Algeria could not be controlled by force indifinetely, and in 1962 independence was granted. The antagonism felt for French by the Algerians resulted in more than a million settlers, most of them French, fleeing to France.
The first president of the new republic was Ahmed Ben Bella, an erratic left-wing radical. In 1965 he was deposed by his defence minister, the auster Houari Boumedienne. Foreign petrolium companies were nationalised in February, 24 1971, and in 1976 Algeria, already a one-party socialist state, adopted a national charter which reaffimed the goal of building a socialist society. President Houmedienne died in 1978 and was succeeded by Colonel Bendjedid Chadli, who relaxed Algeria's rigid socialist polocies. His government established a multiparty system in September 1989, and as of 31 December 1990, more than 50 legal parties existed.
In December 1991 the first free parliamentary election in Algeria brought a 55 per cent victory to the Fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). The second round of election was cancelled in January 1992, nullified the first, and banned the FIS.
President Chadli resigned and the military stepped in. Thousand of Islamic fundamentalists were arrested by the newly formed security council and detained in makeshift desert prisons.
Meanwhile, the National Assembly had been suspended and a High Council of States headed by Mohamed Boudiaf ruled the country. Boudiaf was assassinated in June 1992 and succeeded by Ali Kafi.
This marked the beginning of a period of bloody confrontation mainly between the Armed Islamic Movement (AIM) and the military. By late 1993, a political stalemate had been reached. Meanwhile, the public had lost all confidence in the government's ability to keep the peace. General Lamine Zeroual was elected president in November 1996, following the dissolution of the High Council.
Zeroual, at first willing to negotiate with the fundamentalist, dropped his dialogue policies with the rapid escalation of violence. In early 1994 the fundamentalist also began targeting foreign residents, who fled the country in their thousands notably to France.
The situation was further compouned by two newly formed anti-Islamic organisations which joined in the fighting and claimed responsibility for numerous acts of terrorism. The country soon reached a political stalement, with the exiled FIS demanding that all political prisoners be freed, and the Armed Islamic Movement calling for the punishment of all those who oppose Islam, 'especially journalists and foregners'. Meanwhile, antifundamentalist threatened retaliation by counter-killing.