The Battle Of Algiers Essay

After World War II, many European countries were struggling economically. Because they had put all of their resources into the war, their resources were low, their people were struggling and unhappy and they wanted to bounce back into the power they once had. To do this, many countries began to overwork and over-demand their colonies. In turn, the colonies themselves ran low on resources and began to struggle economically as well. Because of this, a lot of colonies demanded independence from their colonial powers. As it can be seen in the movie The Battle of Algiers, the fight for independency and the process of decolonization were not always easy or quick to settle. As shown in The Battle of Algiers, the people of Algeria were colonized by the French. In the movie, after a few attacks on French officials, French soldiers were sent to eliminate the problem: the National Liberation Front (FLN). The FLN sought independence from the French. The French, on the other hand, wanted to squash the FLN and their uprisings across Algiers. The French tortured FLN members in the hopes that they would be able to infiltrate their group and shut it down from the heads of the FLN, while the FLN bombed civilians in response to members of their own being killed. Overall, neither group were intently listening to the other nor were they willing to
Many scenes depicted FLN members fighting for what they believed in—no matter the cost—most often by bombings in public places and the harming of civilians. But even as the French soldiers and the FLN members constantly butted heads without giving up, the FLN group continued to grow in Algiers. In response to the economic and resource decrease because of World War II, nationalism increased in the European colonies, not just Algeria alone. This increase in nationalism propelled the idea and nature of independence and decolonization from European