France’s imperial ambitions in North Africa began with Napoleon’s attempted invasion of Egypt in 1798. In 1830, the French occupied Algiers, followed in 1831 by Oran. French settlers arrived in Algeria in 1834 and by 1838 the country had been incorporated into the French state. Tunisian attacks on Algeria led to France establishing a protectorate over Tunisia in 1881. In 1912, France and Spain partitioned Morocco between them.

Between the World Wars, the Destour Party in Tunisia opposed French colonial rule. After a lengthy struggle, France granted self-government in 1955, followed by independence in 1956. The same year, France granted independence to French Morocco, restoring Muhammad V as Sultan.

Algeria’s struggle for independence was harder. The French regarded it as a part of metropolitan France. Its large population of French colonists owned most of the productive land, and Moroccans had few rights. In 1954, the FLN (Front de Libération Nationale) began a brutal civil war that was to last for eight years. The French military continued to hold the cities, but could not subdue the FLN guerrillas in the countryside. The conflict was only resolved in 1962, when President General de Gaulle offered the Algerians a referendum: they voted for complete independence from France.