379. Algerian Revolution: Birth of Independence (Ep 4)

Summary

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Empire: World History

Episode 379 – Algerian Revolution: Birth of Independence (Ep 4)

Hosts: William Dalrymple & Anita Anand
Release Date: July 15, 2026

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Main Theme & Purpose

This episode delves into the most intense and morally complex phase of the Algerian War of Independence. Through vivid storytelling and critical analysis, William Dalrymple and Anita Anand unravel the brutal strategies utilized by the French military in the Battle of Algiers, explore the FLN’s resilience, unravel the political chaos in Paris, and follow the road to Algerian independence—laying the groundwork for understanding the enduring repercussions in France and Algeria today.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Background to the Battle of Algiers

• [01:41] Recap: The FLN’s terror campaign against the French settlers, the brutal French response, and the FLN’s move into the Casbah.
• The Casbah as a fortified urban labyrinth, transformed by Saadi Youssef into a clandestine base central to the FLN’s strategy.
• FLN’s innovative tactics: Algerian women disguised in French fashions smuggling bombs through checkpoints.

  “His most devastating tactical innovation was to use Algerian women dressed in French fashions to carry bombs past French checkpoints.” – Anita Anand [02:45]

2. The French Response: General Massu’s Reign

• [03:08] General Jacques Massu takes control in January 1957, heading the 10th Paratroop Division.

  “He was a veteran…who believed the FLN's urban campaign could be broken by the application of sheer force. And if that didn't work, then more force.” – William Dalrymple [03:10]

• [04:03] Massu's crackdown: Paratroopers violently break a citywide strike to assert absolute French authority—armored cars, forced labor, and a clear message of dominance.

3. Systematic Torture and Repression

• [04:54] The French military systematically uses torture: electric shocks (“jejen”), waterboarding (“benoit”), beatings, sleep deprivation, and sexual violence.

  “They systematically torture thousands of Algerians who they pick up in the Casbah.” – William Dalrymple [04:54]

• Disappearances: 3,000 people in Algiers alone “simply disappear”; some are drowned at sea—“big ears prawns”—to sow terror.

  “They bind their arms and legs and they drop them out of helicopters into the sea off Algiers where they drown.” – Anita Anand [06:28]

4. Building an Informer Network

• [06:53] Colonel Roger Trinquier establishes a citywide informer system—“one informer per block”—to map the FLN’s clandestine hierarchy.

5. Capturing the FLN’s Leadership and Aftermath

• [07:59] FLN leaders, including Labi Ben Mehidi (executed in secret), Saadi Youssef, and Zohra Drif are captured or killed; Ali La Pointe is killed with civilians, decimating the bombing network.
• France declares military victory in Algiers, but the atrocities are still unknown to the world.

  “France declares that it has won the Battle of Algiers. But the world does not yet know about the atrocities that the French have committed.” – William Dalrymple [08:45]

6. Blowback in France: Moral Crisis and Political Chaos

• [09:45] Exposés and testimonies leak out; Henri Alleg’s La Question becomes a banned bestseller, galvanizing French intellectuals and international opinion.

  “Jean-Paul Sartre wrote that every Frenchman who didn't oppose the war was complicit in this torture.” – William Dalrymple [10:14] “How could France condemn Nazi methods while behaving exactly the same way?” – Quoting Francois Mauriac [10:14]

• The French army loses faith in civilian leaders—six prime ministers in four years, leading toward political collapse.
• The Pieds-Noirs (French settlers) revolt, culminating in the storming of government buildings (May 1958).

7. The Return of De Gaulle and End of the Fourth Republic

• [11:53] The French government turns to Charles de Gaulle amid fear of military coup.
• [12:20] De Gaulle addresses settlers in Algiers:

  “Je vous ai compris—I have understood you.” [12:36]

• His ambiguous promise leads to misplaced hope among settlers; over four more years, De Gaulle pivots toward self-determination for Algeria.

8. The Maurice Line and France’s Military ‘Success’

• [16:52] The Maurice Line—a 400 km electrified, mined, and patrolled border fence—cuts FLN reinforcement from Tunisia and Morocco.
• By 1960, most FLN fighters inside Algeria are killed or captured, but:

  “While France might have been winning the military war…the FLN…is winning something arguably much more important…international recognition.” – William Dalrymple [17:48]

9. De Gaulle’s Pivotal Policy Shift

• [18:50] In 1959, De Gaulle announces Algerian right to self-determination; settlers and army officers view it as betrayal.
• Civil unrest and an attempted generals’ coup (April 1961) are swiftly quashed by De Gaulle’s televised appeal to soldiers.

10. The True Costs of the War

• [21:27] At peak, 500,000 French troops deployed—annual cost nearly 925 billion francs; war-induced budgetary crisis and mounting public distrust.

  “Almost a nervous breakdown in identity. What are we, what are we for and how much is that…combined into a crisis?” – Anita Anand [22:50]

• France’s reputation is heavily tarnished by revelations of torture; international support erodes.

11. The OAS (Organisation de l’Armée Secrète) and the Day of the Jackal

• [23:50] In response to De Gaulle’s “betrayal,” the OAS launches a terror campaign targeting pro-independence groups, French officials, and infrastructure.

  “Their motto: the suitcase or the coffin.” – William Dalrymple [24:28]

• Real-life basis for Frederick Forsyth’s The Day of the Jackal: OAS’s failed plot to assassinate De Gaulle.

12. Independence & Its Aftermath

• [25:33] The Évian Accords (March 18, 1962): France recognizes Algerian sovereignty—including the crucial oil-rich Sahara.
• “Line is drawn, but it’s not a line, it’s a jagged, dotted line.” – William Dalrymple [25:54]
• [27:15] The legacy: Future far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen is among returning paratroopers, bringing with him bitterness that will shape modern French politics.

13. Referendum & Birth of Algeria

• [27:22] Algeria votes overwhelmingly for independence (July 1, 1962: nearly 6 million to 16,000).
• [28:05] Algeria gains independence on July 5, 1962—coinciding with the anniversary of the original 1830 French invasion.
• Immediate aftermath: FLN begins its own internal power struggle, foreshadowing future turmoil.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Tactics of terror:

  “None of that was present in the response from him [Massu].” – Anita Anand [03:08]

• On torture:

  “Some of it is really positively medieval.” – William Dalrymple [06:04]

• On political collapse:

  “It’s what Brexit has been over the last 10 years in British politics…except with vineyards, farms, businesses at stake.” – Anita Anand [11:08]

• The ambiguous promise:

  “Je vous ai compris—I have understood you.” – Charles de Gaulle (quoted by William Dalrymple) [12:36]

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Important Segment Timestamps

| Segment | Timestamps | |----------------------------------------------|--------------| | Background to Battle of Algiers | 01:41–02:45 | | General Massu's crackdown & torture | 03:08–06:53 | | Informer networks/FLN leader captures | 06:53–08:45 | | Moral blowback in France; Sartre & Mauriac | 09:45–11:08 | | De Gaulle’s return and ambiguous promise | 11:53–13:59 | | Maurice Line and FLN's shift to diplomacy | 16:52–18:50 | | De Gaulle’s self-determination pivot | 18:50–20:20 | | Coup attempts and true cost | 20:20–22:50 | | OAS terror & Day of the Jackal reference | 23:50–25:33 | | Independence, Le Pen, modern repercussions | 25:33–28:05 | | Referendum and aftermath | 27:22–28:53 |

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Tone and Style

Throughout the episode, William Dalrymple and Anita Anand strike a balance between gripping narrative detail, critical analysis, and moral clarity. Complex emotions about the conflict—horror, anger, pity—are channeled through vivid, unsparing descriptions and poignant historical comparisons. The tone is candid and at times deeply personal, making the historical stakes and lingering consequences palpable.

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Conclusion

Algeria’s war for independence was a crucible of brutality, moral crisis, and seismic political change—both in Algeria and metropolitan France. French military ‘victories’ bred international and internal condemnation, while the seeds sown during the conflict gave rise to enduring political movements (like the Le Pen dynasty) and a profoundly shaken French national identity. The next episodes promise to explore the ongoing legacy: how colonial wounds shape French society and politics even today.

Perfect for listeners seeking to understand not only the facts of the Algerian revolution, but why those events remain so crucial to the world’s present and future.

Transcript

[Narrator/Host]

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[William Durand]

Hello and welcome to Empire with me, Anita Anand and me, William Durand.

[Anita Anand]

This is episode four of our Algerian series. Now, in the last episode we saw how this nationalist military group, the fln, brought terror into the heart of the French settler community in Algeria with the Fildville massacre. Then the French response, which was even more brutal, and finally the opening of a new front in the Casbah of Algiers.

[Narrator/Host]

In today's episode, we reach for the

[Anita Anand]

most famous and morally complex chapter of the Algerian War of Independence. The Battle of Algiers is one of the greatest political films ever made.

[Narrator/Host]

And here we are exploring the the

[Anita Anand]

true history that it's based upon. Now, in the last episode, we introduced one of the key leaders of the FLN, Saadi Yousef. In the famous 1966 film, he actually played himself. As we said last time, Yousef was a former baker from the Casper, the medieval citadel at the top of the city of Algiers. And he transformed the Kasbah's medieval warren of alleyways and flat roofed mud houses

[Narrator/Host]

into a genuine military asset with hidden

[Anita Anand]

rooms and bomb factories concealed beneath the ordinary workshops. And his most devastating tactical innovation was to use Algerian women dressed in French fashions to carry bombs past French checkpoints. But at the beginning of 1957, he was to meet a formidable new French adversary, the brutal General Massu.

[William Durand]

Yeah, let me tell you a bit about General Massou. So, in January 1957, the French government handed police powers over the city of Algiers to General Jacques Massou and his 10th Paratroop DEF Division. He was 50 years old. He was a veteran of the Free French Forces and Indochina Indochine, a bull necked man who believed the FLN's urban campaign could be broken by the application of sheer force. And if that didn't work, then more force. That was his attitude. And his mandate, granted by the socialist French government of Guimolet, was effectively unlimited. You can do what you want. That meant to him that his officers had carte blanche. And the kind of thing that they did, Willi, is shocking, frankly, isn't it? From, from those who are in uniform and who have a set of codes supposedly to live by. None of that was present in the response from him.

[Anita Anand]

Masoo plays his first card when the FLN calls a general strike across algiers in late January 1957, to coincide with the United nations debate on Algeria. Masu unleashes his paratroopers who break the strike in a way that leaves no one with any doubt on the nature of French authority. They drive armored cars up to shuttered Muslim shops, rip off the shutters, and then soldiers up into the apartments where they drag Algerian workers out of their homes and into trucks to force them to work. The message was simple. The FLN does not control the city. We do. And we have demonstrated this. And then Masu turns to the harder problem of deconstructing the bombing network.

[William Durand]

Yeah, now, I mean, we already described how complicated this network is. And the only way you're going to crack the cells or make people talk is torture. And masses. Paras do exactly that. They systematically torture thousands of Algerians who they pick up in the Casbah. And look, the, the methods are awful. They're also well documented. You have this thing called a jejen, which is a field telephone without, you know, one of those old ones with a hand crank that generates an electrical charge. And instead of being attached to any apparatus, they take those electrodes and they put them to victim's fingers, to their ears, to their genitals, frankly. And then it is, you know, torture through electric shock. They also have this thing called the benoit, which is, you know, it's waterboarding, that's we'd call it today, but it's simulated drowning. They hold the victim's head underwater until they lose consciousness. Then they get them up, revive them, and they repeat and repeat and repeat. And some of it is really positively medieval, you know, suspending human beings in stress positions by, you know, with ropes, the kind of thing you would see in sort of old manuscripts. And these things are being used on

[Anita Anand]

people in the Spanish Inquisition.

[William Durand]

In the Spanish Inquisition, exactly what I was thinking. So, you know, and then, and beatings and sleep deprivation and the extensive use of sexual violence against Muslim women. All of this to get them to talk, to tell them names, name names, name places and, you know, by any means they were going to get this information. And Willi, some didn't make it through the torture, did they?

[Anita Anand]

Many didn't. Many die under torture. Others, an estimated 3,000 in the battle of Algiers alone simply disappear. They're held in secret, killed and buried without record. And the Paras develop a new practice that they cheerfully nickname big ears. Prawns. When they take prisoners, they bind their arms and legs and they drop them out of helicopters into the sea off Algiers where they drown.

[William Durand]

This is the kind of stuff that we hear, you know, from Pinochet and others. You know, I mean, it's horrific. So you deny a person their life and you deny the family the right to mourn over a body. It's meant to strike terror into hearts. Massu's intelligence officer is a man called Colonel Roger Trinkey and he sets up an informer network. And this informer network covers every street in Algiers. So you get one informer per block, mapping the entire social fabric of the city. And then he's got sort of these colleagues taking the intelligence and drawing up this vast pyramid chart mapping the entire

[Anita Anand]

covert structure, Oranigram they call it.

[William Durand]

They are Oranigram. Very good, you know, of the FLN network. And again, this also is reminiscent to me, Willi, of, you know, the way in which the Brits try to get information on the IRA and what the IRA were doing. You know, you take people in for questioning, sometimes using methods that you wouldn't want brought before parliament. And you that way, sort of map, who is the hierarchy, who is where and where do you hit?

[Anita Anand]

Yeah, I mean, this is now the mid-1950s. This is exactly what the Brits are doing at the same time in Malaya, they'll do later in Cyprus, in Kenya. This has become a sort of post war book. But the French seem to be particularly brutal. In February 1957, they capture the FLN's political mastermind in Algiers, Labi Ben Mehidi. He was secretly hanged by a French death squad in such a way that it looked like a suicide. And this is something the French government only acknowledged as recently as 2021. In September 1957, Yassef Saadi himself is finally captured along with Zora Drift, the woman that let off the bomb in the milk Bar.

[William Durand]

A few weeks later, French forces corner a man called Ali Lapoint. And this is actually Youssef's deadliest enforcer. He has a really interesting background as well. Okay, so he's a former pimp, he's a street boxer. He is the man who Yassef sends out to terrify anybody who needs either dragging into line or is suspected of being an informer. And he's hiding in his Kasbah hideout. When he refuses to surrender, they blow the entire building apart. So Ali Lepant dies in the rubble along with two associates and a 12 year old boy who's just been sheltering with them. And then 17 of his neighbors. The bombings stop as a result of this. So France declares that it has won the Battle of Algiers. But the world does not yet know about the atrocities that the French have committed. And that is going to be a shock to the system, the international system.

[Anita Anand]

The photographs and testimonies that do eventually leak out. Above all, Henri Aleg's the question, published in 1958, a first hand account of torture methods used on the Algerian community newspaper by French paratroopers, is a book that is banned in France almost immediately, but sells nonetheless, but hundreds of thousands of copies. And this is the thing that really galvanized opposition to the war among French intellectuals, French trade unions and the international community.

[William Durand]

Yeah. The philosopher Jean Paul Sartre wrote that every Frenchman who didn't oppose the war was complicit in this torture. You've got the Catholic intellectual Francois Maurillac, who publicly says that, you know, how could France condemn Nazi methods while behaving exactly the same way? And within the French army's officer corps, the battle of Algiers produces something maybe even more dangerous than bad publicity. It's a conviction that France's politicians will never make an honest peace in Algeria. And that's really important because when you have this, this doubt in the leadership, you have a crisis on the horizon. And that Crisis hits in May 1958. It's one of the most extraordinary political moments in modern French history. I would say six prime ministers in four years consumed by the question of Algeria.

[Anita Anand]

Yeah, this is what I suppose Brexit has been over the last 10 years in British politics, the way we now go through our prime ministers, and in this case it's the whole issue. You have a million piedmont. It's not just a simple question like the British in India of, of pulling out. No one in British India has got farms, vineyards, businesses. But that's not the case in Algeria. And the Pied Noirs are an enormous force. They have many sympathizers in France. And on 13 May 1958, Pied Noir settlers storm the French government buildings in Algiers, furious at the execution of French prisoners by the fln, convinced that the government in Paris was about to surrender to the Nationalists.

[William Durand]

Yeah, and the army in Algeria is so shaken by all of this, they were now on the verge of a coup against the civilian government of France. So, you know, in Paris, it's felt and it is true, the politicians capitulate. You've got General Charles de Gaulle, you know, the man who spent the war in London, broadcasting to his Frenchman to resist the Nazis during World War II. He's the one they turn to. They say, you know what? We don't trust this breed of politicians at all. We need you, General, we need you to come back. So just please take control, because everything feels out of control. And with that, with de Gaulle coming back, the Fourth Republic, you could say, is effectively over. And de Gaulle, what he does is very interesting. He flew over to Algiers and he tells the Pied Noir exactly what they want to hear. So he stood on the balcony of the Government General building in Algiers on 4 June 1958, looked out over this enormous crowd of European settlers and French soldiers who'd brought him to power, and he says, je vousez compri, I have understood you. And the crowd goes nuts. They go wild. Now, what they hear, you can kind of hear what you want to hear in that. It's not explicit, but what they hear is a promise that Algeria will remain fresh. De Gaulle is one of them. He is, you know, the saviour of the Pied Noir. He'd understood them perfectly. But you know what, that is a really nebulous statement. I have understood you. And they are about to find out that he didn't mean that at all. It's going to take four years and a great deal more blood, but their hearts will eventually be broken by De Gaulle. So we've got some very exciting news for you. We've sold out our first show, but we've got a second show at the Rest is Fest in September.

[Narrator/Host]

And we have a brilliant lineup. Incredibly topical one too. We're calling it Three Ayatollahs, an Iranian dynasty.

[William Durand]

Delighted to say we're going to be joined by a great friend of the show, Ali Ansari. We one of Britain's foremost experts on Iranian history. He is an excellent storyteller. Ali, just tell us, what are we going to be chatting about?

[Ali Ansari]

Well, we will be exploring big questions like how has the influence of the Ayatollah shaped Iran since the 1979 revolution? Does the Islamic Republic's grip appear to be fracturing? And what role have other nations played in shaping Iran's fate?

[Anita Anand]

And we're going to unpack one of

[Narrator/Host]

the most fascinating and urgent stories in the world right now as the regime faces economic pressures, regional setbacks and a disillusioned younger generation. But in many ways a revitalized Revolutionary

[Anita Anand]

Guards call what comes next for a

[Narrator/Host]

great civilization that has outlasted many, many empires.

[William Durand]

Ali, we always, always love having you on this podcast. Cannot wait to have you join us on stage.

[Ali Ansari]

And I can't wait to get into the discussion.

[William Durand]

You can expect sharp analysis, you can expect vivid storytelling, and of course you can expect the usual chaos. And that comes about when we're on stage chatting to each other.

[Narrator/Host]

The rest is fest runs from the 4th to the 6th of September at London's South Bank Centre.

[William Durand]

General Sale is on now. Just head to southbankcentre.co.uk to find out more.

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[Katie K]

to Doing It Anyway, a brand new series from Goal Hanger. I'm Katie K. I've spent years studying the science and art of confidence, writing books about how we can close the confidence gap between men and women, and talking to experts and younger women about how to pass it on. Confidence means taking risks, acknowledging your fears and, well, doing it anyway. In this series I'll be talking to psychologists, entrepreneurs and business leaders to unpack how you can rethink challenges and grow your own confidence. We'll talk about how to spot the difference between confidence and competence, how to deal with office politics and stolen credit and yes, handling rejection and ultimately how you can become a better leader, teammate and yes, a better person. Doing It Anyway with Katie K every Friday, wherever you get your podcasts.

[Anita Anand]

Welcome back. Well, I suppose the next bit of the story is the whole episode of the Maurice Line. Now this is named after the French Defence Minister Andre Maurice, and it is an electrified fence which runs nearly 400km along Algeria's borders with Tunisia and Morocco. Heavily mined, it's lit by floodlets, monitored by radar, patrolled continuously. And its purpose is to prevent the FLN's exterior army, the forces training and re equipping in Tunisia, from reinforcing the fighters inside Algeria. And it effectively works. It does stop them getting through. And combined with General Maurice Charles, relentless military sweeps through the interior, the French army by 1960 have killed or captured the great majority of the FLN's fighters inside Algeria.

[William Durand]

So while France might have been winning the military war, the FLN and their provisional government, which is known as the gpra, the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic, it's winning something arguably much more important. It's winning international recognition, it's winning hearts and minds, if you like, and it's winning the argument with the United nations, because all these stories of torture are coming out. You've got the lack of faith in French political leaders, and with De Gaulle back on the scene, you've got a new man and a new mind in charge. And he understands something that other soldiers haven't been able to bring themselves to accept. You might get a military victory, you might do that. But a military victory is not the same as a political victory. And it is not the same as settling this issue. This issue will never go back to what it was. You're never going to have Algerians content with being this sort of satellite vassal state of France. It's not going to happen anymore. That genie's out of the bottle. So in 1959, de Gaulle makes a really big decision.

[Anita Anand]

De Gaulle announces on television that Algerians would have the right of self determination, the right to choose their own future. And I think his recognition is that such is the polarization in the country that you cannot have 1/10 of the country ruling over 9/10 majority. He just thinks that that is not sustainable. It was fine while many Algerians were sitting on the French, as we saw in the last episode, and were not committed one way or the other. But the sheer brutality, the killings, the extrajudicial murders and torture have turned all Algerians against France. And 9, 10 of a country will not accept the government of the 1/10. So he announced his self determination. And the reaction of course from the Pied Noir and from the army officers who brought him to power was that De Gaulle had committed an act of pure undiluted betrayal.

[William Durand]

Well, I mean, he's kind of cut their hearts out, you know, that's not what they heard him say from the balcony. They feel angry. That's not what they heard. So in January 1960, these furious pinoires, they rise up, and you've got barricades going up in Algiers, you've got French gendarmes being shot. And for a week, it looked as if the settlers might succeed in reversing de Gaulle's policy just by sheer force of violence. But you know what? This violence is short but sharp. It lasts about a week, and then it collapses.

[Anita Anand]

And the generals tried to rebel, too. In April 1961, four retired generals seize Algiers, a proper coup d' etat for 48 hours. It appears that France is about to experience its first successful military coup since the French Revolution. De Gaulle appears on television in uniform, his voice controlled and contemptuous, and he addresses the young conscripts directly. This, of course, is a great gamble, he says. I forbid every Frenchman and above all, every single soldier to execute any of their orders. He carries a transistor radio into the camera shot. The young conscripts in Algeria had their transistor radios and they heard their president. The putsch collapses in just 48 hours, and the four generals go underground. I think it's worth pausing before we get to this final bit, the end game of the revolution, to take stock of what this war is actually costing the French. Because the numbers, when you add them up, will explain why even those who wanted to win were beginning to understand why that winning was impossible.

[William Durand]

Yeah, I mean, sort of in the height of the conflict, you've got 500,000 French troops being deployed in Algeria to fight a guerrilla war. And that is expensive. You know, you don't send these people out with their, you know, their equipment and transport and billeting and everything else. It isn't cheap. So I think the annual budget deficit, which was already severe after the war, it grows by 30% during this conflict with the Algerian uprising. So, you know, you've got. I think it sort of at one point, reaches some 925 billion francs per year. That's how much it costs. So, you know, what that. What does that do back at home in France? Well, it makes everything more expensive. You know, retail prices are going up. People, you know, grumbling about getting food in the markets that it costs so much. And we did already touch on the fact, Willi, that, you know, the political cost was even more dramatic. You know, six prime ministers swallowed up by this one issue, and you've got, you know, sort of no faith in the political classes from a country. This is what's really interesting. It's A country that has just thrown off the Nazis, that is just re establishing what it is and what it is to be Free French. Now, what does it mean? So you've got almost a nervous breakdown in identity. What are we, what are we for and how much is that? You know, all of that stuff completely combined into a crisis.

[Anita Anand]

And of course, no country likes to see its reputation tarnished. And for people to be aware suddenly that a military is committing atrocities, that the prisons are full of torture. We've seen a similar thing with Israel since the last couple of years. It's, it's a massive reputational damage that a massive campaign of repression and torture inflicts on a country. It gives a country a bad, bad name. You see this, for example, in the United States, which had initially supported France, switching to abstaining on UN votes about Algeria. France's closest allies grow increasingly embarrassed by the association. The FLN has understood from the beginning that the war would be won not in the mountains of, of Kabylia by guerrilla warfare at night, but in the court of international opinion. And every French atrocity was for them a victory. One thing we should talk about, though, Anita, and this is the true story behind the Day of the Jackal. Tell us about the oas.

[William Durand]

Okay, so the OAS is the Organisation de l' Armee Secrete, the Organization of the Secret army, the oas, which will spread spend the final months of French Algeria committing acts of violence that, you know, what, made the FLN look like boy scouts, to be honest with you. And Frederick Forsyth's 1971 novel, the Day of the Jackal is based on a real event in which this organization, the oas, so incensed by the betrayal of De Gaulle, contracts a professional killer to take him out.

[Anita Anand]

I had no idea that this was. Did you know this was based on a true story? I did.

[Mary Beard and Josephine Quinn]

I did.

[William Durand]

I did know this. But you know what? But I didn't realize just how organized the OAS was, you know, so. So they are organized. They planted bombs across Algeria and France targeting anybody who was sympathetic to the fln, and that included, by the way, French officials, you know, so their own countrymen, they're blowing them up. They are attempting to destroy anything that might survive independence. They have this, this horrible, horrible motto, the suitcase or the coffin. Like, you know, we are going to do this or we're going to die trying. And in the final weeks before what is known as the Evian Accords, where, you know, this kind of negotiated peace and withdrawal is actually made real, the OAS goes into Overdrive they are, they're scorching earth wherever they go. They're burning universities, libraries, infrastructure, and there are just indiscriminate killings of Muslim Algerians in the street at random. It is like a rampage of violence and terror.

[Anita Anand]

So peace is finally agreed in 1962, after nearly two years of on and off negotiations, this peace is signed at Evian Le B, where Evian water comes from. On 18 March 1962, France recognizes Algerian sovereignty, including over the Sahara, which is something they wanted to hold on to. But because oil had just been found

[William Durand]

there after an eight year campaign, tremendous violence, blood and coin spent in such, I mean, extraordinary and horrific amounts, a line is drawn. But it's not a line, is it? It's more of a dotted line.

[Anita Anand]

It's a very jagged line. So again, this is something that I didn't know till I did the reading for this series. And to me this is the single most fascinating thing of the whole story, because on a plane to Algiers in 1962, at the end of this episode of the story, is a certain young paratrooper, a 34 year old soldier named Jeanne Marie Le Pen. He boards the plane at Algiers and he brings with him the resentments of an entire generation that believes France betrayed its soldiers and settlers. He also brings with him the political ambitions of a man who has already served in the national assembly and knew precisely what to do with the moment that was gathering among the Pied Noirs who are now flooding back to south, finding themselves in poor suburbs of France, some of them finding their way to the south coast, which is the kind of landscape they'd left behind in Algeria. And the story of what Le Pen builds and what his daughter is continuing to do today as we speak, as the new election comes into view.

[William Durand]

So, I mean, you're talking about Marine Le Pen, who is standing and is gaining a lot of momentum now.

[Anita Anand]

This is the subject of our final two episodes in this series. And I have to say that when I was originally planning this series, I thought we were going to be ending it with the end of the Battle of Algiers. But actually the most important and the most fascinating parts of the story lie ahead. A referendum, of course, follows. On 1 July 1962, Algeria's vote for independence by nearly 6 million votes to 16,000. That's how polarized things have become by this stage. On 5 July 1962, the anniversary of the 1830 French invasion, Algeria is finally independent. The celebrations in Algiers were enormous and uncontrollable. The Eight year war was over.

[William Durand]

Yeah. But, you know, despite the celebrations, Algeria is going to suffer some more because the FLN immediately begins its own civil war, if you like, about who's going to be in charge, who's going to be running this new state. And we'll explore that in more detail in the next episode. If you don't want to wait and if you want to hear that episode right now, just head to the link in the bio and join the Empire Club. You'll get early access, you'll get special bonus episodes, and if you want extra insights into this really fascinating period of history, join the Empire Club because you will get a very special bonus episode on the experience of Algerians who are living in the baneus of Paris. So I really honestly urge you to listen to that. It's a fantastic listen. Till the next time we meet, it's goodbye from me, Anita Anand, and goodbye

[Anita Anand]

from me, William Durham. A quick word for our Empire listeners. For a limited time only, we are running a discount on the Empire Club.

[William Durand]

We totally are. It's our summer sale. It's live now. And from now until the end of August, all you need to do is head to empirepod uk.com empirepod uk.com use the code summer26. Summer 26. You get an extra 20% off annual

[Anita Anand]

membership this sizzling summer. We would love you to join our Empire Club and we know you will love being a member of our community. You'll get bonus episodes, ad free listening,

[Narrator/Host]

early access to series and much more.

[William Durand]

And your summer trips provide you that perfect opportunity to dive into our archives and catch up on all the exclusive content you might have missed before joining. So you can listen to our interview with Jung Ch Chang, our Willy's fabulous bonus on Vermeer's Girl with the Pearl Earring and our exclusive four part member series covering the scandal that shaped partition.

[Anita Anand]

So make the most of the deal before it ends at the end of August 2026. The code is Summer26 to be used on our annual [e-mail] we'd love you to become a member of our club and it's brilliant, even if we say so ourselves.

[Mary Beard and Josephine Quinn]

I'm Mary Beard. And I'm Josephine Quinn. At the Rest Is Fest this September, we're putting on a show that can only be described as an iconoclastic romp through the ancient world. We're talking about leaders behaving badly, emperors putting their horses in charge, cities built by asylum seekers and empires getting their comeuppance. There will be some proper myth busting.

[Katie K]

But we'll also be asking why these

[Mary Beard and Josephine Quinn]

myths matter even when we know they're wrong. So if you love your ancient history and you're free on September 6th, get your ticket now and join us at London's South Bank Centre.

[Katie K]

Tickets are on sale now.

[Mary Beard and Josephine Quinn]

Just visit southbankcentre.co.uk that's southbankcentre.co.uk.