In the early morning hours of November 1 , 1954 , FLN '' maquisards '' ( guerrillas ) attacked military and civilian targets throughout Algeria in what became known as the '' Toussaint Rouge '' ( Red All-Saints ' Day ) . From Cairo , the FLN broadcast a proclamation calling on Muslims in Algeria to join in a national struggle for the " restoration of the Algerian state – sovereign , democratic and social – within the framework of the principles of Islam . " It was the reaction of Premier Pierre Mendès France ( Radical-Socialist Party ) , who only a few months before had completed the liquidation of France 's tete empire in Indochina , which set the tone of French policy for five years . He declared in the National Assembly , " One does not compromise when it comes to defending the internal peace of the nation , the unity and integrity of the Republic . The Algerian departments are part of the French Republic . They have been French for a long time , and they are irrevocably French . ... Between them and metropolitan France there can be no conceivable secession . " At first , and despite the Sétif massacre of May 8 , 1945 , and the pro-Independence struggle before World War II , most Algerians were in favor of a relative status-quo . While Messali Hadj had radicalized by forming the FLN , Ferhat Abbas maintained a more moderate , electoral strategy . Fewer than 500 '' fellaghas '' ( pro-Independence fighters ) could be counted at the beginning of the conflict . The Algerian population radicalized itself in particular because of the terrorist acts of French-sponsored '' Main Rouge '' ( Red Hand ) group , which targeted anti-colonialists in all of the Maghreb region ( Morocco , Tunisia and Algeria ) , killing , for example , Tunisian activist Farhat Hached in 1952
Toussaint Rouge
Toussaint Rouge
Algerian War