Algerian War for Independence

Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On November 18, 1839 AD, the second phase of the Algerian people’s anti-colonial struggles against France started under the leadership of Seyyed Abdul-Qader bin Mohieddin al-Hassani, al-Jaza'eri, who claimed descent from Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS), the elder grandson of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).
Abdul-Qader, who returned to Algeria, a few months before the Turks lost it to the French invaders in 1930, had during his 5-year journey abroad, met with, and was highly impressed by Imam Shamil of Daghestan – the leader of the struggle against Russian expansion in the Caucasus which recently had been seized by the Czar from the Qajarid rulers of Iran.
As a Sufi scholar, Abdul-Qader now led the military struggle against France, and within two years was made an amir by tribes fighting the French. He organized guerrilla warfare and for a decade scored many victories. He often signed tactical truces with the French, but these did not last. His failure to get support from the eastern tribes, apart from the Berbers of western Kabylie led to the quelling of his uprising.
On December 21, 1847, after being denied refuge in Morocco because of French pressure, he surrendered. It took more than a century for the French to leave Algeria as a result of the freedom war that started in the 1950s and triumphed in 1962, but not before France had massacred over a million Algerian Muslims.
On 16th of the Islamic month of Moharram in 1260 AH, Amir Abdul-Qader of Algeria was finally detained after fifteen years of struggle against the French occupiers. One of the reasons behind his failure, after initial success, was the treason of the pro-French rulers of Morocco who did not allow him to use the border areas for the independence struggle. Incarcerated in a French jail for nine years, he was later released on condition of not returning to Algeria.
He died in 1883 in Damascus, Syria. His full name was Seyyed Abdul-Qader bin Mohieddin al-Hassani, al-Jaza'eri, and he was born in a family claiming descent from Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS), the elder grandson of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).
Abdul-Qader, who returned to Algeria, a few months before the Turks lost it to the French invaders in 1830 AD, had during his 5-year journey to Egypt, Arabia, and Syria, met with, and was highly impressed by Imam Shamil of Daghestan – the leader of the struggle against Russian expansion in the Caucasus which recently had been seized by the Czar from the Qajarid rulers of Iran.
On November 1, 1954 AD, with the establishment of the Algerian Liberation Movement, the battle for independence from French colonial rule started. France had occupied Algeria in 1830 after defeating the Ottoman Turks. The Algerian people were never happy with French rule and there were sporadic uprisings until the establishment of the full fledged liberation movement after World War 2, especially, when Algerians came to know about the plan being drafted in Paris to annex their country to France.
Finally, in 1962, the struggles of the Algerian Muslims bore fruit, after the death of a million people, and the French troops were forced to pull out of Algeria. Ahmed bin Bella, was elected as the first Algerian president, and three years later was overthrown in a coup by Defence Minister Colonel Houari Bo-Mohiyeddin.
Algeria is the largest country in Africa, the Arab World and the littoral states of the Mediterranean Sea. It is also the tenth-largest country in the world. It is bordered in the northeast by Tunisia, in the east by Libya, in the west by Morocco, in the southwest by Western Sahara, Mauritania, and Mali, in the southeast by Niger, and in the north by the Mediterranean Sea. Algeria's size is almost 2.4 million square km with an estimated population of 36.3 million as of 2011.