 I know it's a cliche, but I'm going to say it and use it anyway. History repeats itself, and when we check out the network news or social media, or any other source we might be getting our news from, one thing is for sure. The violent events that have overwhelmed our emotions are right there. In front of our face, raw and painful. Inhumanity, violence, aggression, pain, suffering, and death. Nation A claims that nation B's lands are rightfully theirs. Nation B suffers from decades of oppression. Nation B rise up in desperation through violence. Nation A uses disproportionate force and response and revenge. Nation B's civilian population are dehumanized and devastated. All out war erupts. But we seem to forget, wait, let me correct that, we seem to be conditioned to not recall that this has happened all before. So again, I say to you, history repeats itself, we've seen this all before. Not with the same participants of this historic conflict that was just referring to, but in another 20th century event featuring different antagonists, one of whom is a leading Western nation that proclaims itself as being a moral authority and defender of stability, freedom, democracy, and humanity, and the other nation, an Arab people of 10 million, that had suffered greatly for a century at the hands of its unapologetic colonizer. In 1830, following in the footsteps of Napoleon Bonaparte's failed civilizing exploits into Africa, France invaded Algeria as part of its expansive imperialist ambitions. Over the next three decades, the French would follow a scorched earth campaign to pacify the Algerian nation and rid it of any resistance. During this 30 year period, Algeria would formally become part of the French Second Republic after the killing of over one million Algerians, an entire one-third of the population. Thereafter, approximately 100,000 mainly French and other European immigrants would make their way into Algeria. Growing exponentially to become the prime political and economic force of the region, by 1870, the French finally achieved settler domination. The Arabs were finally tranquilized. Military and despotic rule was replaced with a French system of civilian and democratic governance. One would think that this shift would have established inequality between the colonizers and the native people, but that would be far from reality. With one empty promise after another, rules and laws were implemented categorizing Algerians as second-class citizens in their own lands. What followed were large-scale programs of confiscating cultivable land from the natives leading to mass displacements of Algerian people. With systematic restrictions of freedoms, diminishment of rights, and further expanded settler colonization, a nationalist movement kick-started at the beginning of the 20th century. This movement gained momentum along three different groups, preaching for a rise against the colonial French. The first consisted of Algerians referred to as the young Algerians, who were natives assimilated within the French colonial populations and had initially aspired to a permanent union with France, but who later became disenfranchised with the French government and their lack of honesty towards just and even integration into the Republic. The second group was the Association of Algerian Muslim Ulema, a Salafi religious group that not only espoused Algerian nationality but preached that Islam was an integral part of the Algerian identity. And the third and final group, the Algerian Popular Party, were Algerian workers that resided in France. This group was more proletarian and radical in their beliefs and actions, some of whom would follow Marxist ideologies highlighting the tenets of anti-colonialism. The nationalist momentum built up over the early part of the century, and by the late 1930s the French recognized the predicament they were facing, attempting to liberalize the treatment of Algerians, but unfortunately one event arose that would block any such resolution. During World War II, most colonial nations realized that retaining their colonies was an improbable task. The British relinquished their price-possession India, Portugal, their last remnants of its empire, and France itself would give up on its Indochina territories. More reforms were promised by the French to alleviate fears of a new Algerian independence demand, including supposedly free elections that would eventually be manipulated, and if there were any positive outcomes to any pressures by the Algerians, lack of enforcement quickly followed. The last peaceful attempts by Algerians to seek their independence came and went, only with resulting substantial native fatalities to show for. In August of 1955, a single violent outbreak fully triggered the war for Algerian independence, with the killing of over 100 French and European officials in the town of Skidna. The French, in a disproportionate response of revenge, annihilated over 12,000 Algerians. The war for Algerian independence erupts. So who were the antagonists of this war? On France's side was the French administration for Algiers, with their army of 500,000, supporting them with the native Algerian national movement and the Algerian national people's army, numbering 180,000. Other factions assisting the French were the French-Algerian Front, and the secret armed organization, a French-Algerian dissident paramilitary and terrorist organization who were 13,000 people strong. On the Algerian side, there were mainly two groups, plus most importantly, the Algerian people in mass. The more effective of the two groups was the Revolutionary Committee of Unity and Action, known as the FLN. The other was the Algerian Communist Party. In total, these two groups' fighting capacity was 300,000 people. French citizens who were born in Algeria between 1830 and 1962 were called Piennoir. This name alludes to the fact that the first French to come to Algeria were the military, who had black boots. This was an allusion to the fact that these so-called natives and their rights came off the back of colonialist military power. The most famous Piennoir is the writer Albert Camus, who was born in Dreane in North Algeria. His parents were both Piennoir. Camus would win the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature in 1957, with his most famous works being The Stranger, The Plague, and The Fall. During the war, Camus was confronted with a moral dilemma. His identity was one of a Piennoir, but he was also comprehensively opposed to imperialism in all its forms. Camus abandoned his beliefs, and severe criticism of him came from all sides, as he was no longer the self-professed defender of the politically oppressed. In 1960, Camus would die in a car crash at the young age of 46. The cause of the accident has yet to be deciphered. If you know, you know. And if you don't, then join the Chronicles, where we present content about Middle Eastern history, culture, and heritage. The war was originally spread across the various parts But in 1956, the FLN decided to bring more international visibility by focusing the conflict to the main cities. A year later, a major battle erupted, known as the Battle of Algiers, that would entail both urban guerrilla warfare, as well as a nationwide strike that would cripple the nation. The French in response were ordered to use whatever means necessary to restore order to the cities. Grutality followed. Military successes and failures followed for both sides. But what skyrocketed the national sentiments for independence was when in 1956, France allowed for the independence of Algeria's neighbors. Tunisia and Morocco, while stressing that Algeria was to remain under occupation. The toppling of the French Fourth Republic came in 1958 and brought with it the return of Charles de Gaulle onto the political scene. And with it came a final proposal to integrate all Algerians by granting them full rights of French citizenship, the development of advanced health and education infrastructure, as well as introduce the Algerians into the higher ranks of French public services. But that ship had sailed. Algerians were adamant for independence, no matter the French promises characterized by infighting between the French Republic, the administration of Algiers, and the local French settler population, or the violence it wreaked. In 1962, after long and arduous negotiations, an agreement was finally reached between France and the Algerian people. Algeria would become independent, provided that a referendum be held by the provisional government confirming the desire for it. Out of 6 million Algerians who voted, 99.7% voted in favor for independence. One major takeaway from remembering the independence of Algeria is how it proves that the invasion, colonization, and settlement of one people by another rarely succeeds. The only successful examples of colonization are the United States of America and Australia. But for their outcomes to have been different, two conditions had to be met. Number one, the colonized lands had to be immensely underpopulated. And second, the indigenous people had to be ethnically cleansed. The Algerian war for independence also reflects a major semblance to what is happening today in Palestine. One trigger event caused for new escalation in a decades-long struggle, an escalation that is represented by disproportionate violence, ethnic cleansing, and a complete disregard for civilian casualty. The question is, will Israel be stopped from either comprehensively displacing or totally eradicating the Palestinian people? Or will it go the way of the indigenous Americans and Australians when they become an extreme minority and lose their right to their lands or living a life filled with equality and liberty? Or will justice prevail and Palestinians achieve a true and real independence? Will it follow the same sequence in Algeria when the Piennois settlers must return to France even though the occupation lasted for over a century? Time will tell, but as history has always done, it has already provided us with all the answers.