The deafening silence towards the Algerian war of independence

Abstract EN

The Algerian war of independence remains a pivotal point in French history even after 59 years.

despite the fact that it was fought from 1954 to 1962, France denied it for more than 35 years.

it was a bloody conflict, with two million French soldiers fighting in Algeria and millions of people in modern-day France living through it.

however, the French government refused to consider it a war and instead saw it as a series of minor events carried out to maintain order.

this bloody disaster triggered a political crisis that led to the overthrow of the fourth republic, and it was a sensitive subject for the French state, as well as a stigma in its historical records that had to be hidden.

this paper, then, aims to break the silence around the Algerian war of independence and investigate the reasons behind the erasure of the war from the French historiography.