The Algerian war for independence began in 1954 and ended in 1962 when French President Charles De Gaulle pronounced Algeria an independent country on July 3.
This war was one of the many wars for independence which occurred during the 1950s and 1960s. The movement for independence came from the Algerians' dissatisfaction with being treated as second-class citizens by the French colonial government. The revolution's philosophical foundations came from the privileged Algerians who were Gallicized by the French education system. However, these évolués (literally "the evolved") lost control of the movement for independence when the concessions they secured from the French government benefitted themselves.
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