Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"Leaflets scattered on the streets [on November 1, 1954] announced that a new nationalist movement called the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) had embarked on a revolutionary struggle for independence and would fight on until it had won. . . . After 124 years of la présence française in Algeria, French colons – or pieds noirs, as they were called – had achieved a total grip on political power, commerce, agriculture and employment, effectively relegating the majority Muslim population – Arab and Kabyle – to a subservient status and stubbornly resisting all attempts at change. . . . In fifty years the Algerian population had nearly doubled, prompting fears among pieds noirs that they were in danger of being ‘swamped’. . . . The plight of Algerians and their frustration at being blocked at every turn was fertile ground for militant nationalists. In 1947 they formed a revolutionary group, Organisation Spéciale, a prototype of the FLN, dedicated to armed struggle." [The Fate of Africa, p. 44-9]