Essay --

Summary A Savage War of Peace was a fantastic book to read. It detailed the history of the Algerian War for Independence, which encompasses three separate wars. All of these wars were concerned with the future of the once French, now Algerian, city of Algiers. Beginning with the First War, it was a three-way fight between the FLN, the Front de Libà ©ration Nationale, the pied noirs population living in French Algeria, and the Fourth Republic of France. This First War began in 1954 and continued until 1958. The FLN was a terror organization that was anti-West, anti-Communist, anti-Liberal, and anti-Semitic. Their members were generally many Muslim opponents of French rule. The pied noirs were generally the white settlers of Algeria, composing a minority of the overall population of Algeria. The pied noirs could be seen as an in between population, not necessarily fully French but not necessarily Algerian as well. Historically, they were affiliated with Pà ©tain’s government during World War 2 and were hostile to liberal democracy. Finally, the Fourth Republic was the then current government of the democratic country of France. They inherited a very complicated situation in Algeria from their predecessor governments. France initially gained Algeria as a part of its empire when they conquered the land from the Ottoman Empire in 1830. The original system of government allowed the Muslim population to live under Sharia Law while the European settlers lived under French law and voted in French elections. Initially, the Fourth Republic’s goal was to allow the pied noirs to be citizens of the French Republic, while allowing the Algerian population to govern themselves. Each of these three factions had their own downfalls. The FLN was para... ...he European and French view. However, as the story is so exhaustively detailed I do not think it has compromised credibility in the paper. I found this book extremely useful. As someone who is very interested in French and European history, I was amazed at how large of an impact the Algerian War had on France, for example causing the collapse of the Fourth Republic. I was also amazed that so many politicians and military leaders use this book as a history lesson on what to do in Iraq. I found that the book related to the course due to the mentioning of the French involvement in Vietnam as well as how the French tried to learn from their lessons at Dien Bien Phu when they were in Algeria. I will certainly be hanging on to this book for future reference, as well as to read again even more in depth to see if I missed any comparisons or possible lessons to be learned. Essay -- Summary A Savage War of Peace was a fantastic book to read. It detailed the history of the Algerian War for Independence, which encompasses three separate wars. All of these wars were concerned with the future of the once French, now Algerian, city of Algiers. Beginning with the First War, it was a three-way fight between the FLN, the Front de Libà ©ration Nationale, the pied noirs population living in French Algeria, and the Fourth Republic of France. This First War began in 1954 and continued until 1958. The FLN was a terror organization that was anti-West, anti-Communist, anti-Liberal, and anti-Semitic. Their members were generally many Muslim opponents of French rule. The pied noirs were generally the white settlers of Algeria, composing a minority of the overall population of Algeria. The pied noirs could be seen as an in between population, not necessarily fully French but not necessarily Algerian as well. Historically, they were affiliated with Pà ©tain’s government during World War 2 and were hostile to liberal democracy. Finally, the Fourth Republic was the then current government of the democratic country of France. They inherited a very complicated situation in Algeria from their predecessor governments. France initially gained Algeria as a part of its empire when they conquered the land from the Ottoman Empire in 1830. The original system of government allowed the Muslim population to live under Sharia Law while the European settlers lived under French law and voted in French elections. Initially, the Fourth Republic’s goal was to allow the pied noirs to be citizens of the French Republic, while allowing the Algerian population to govern themselves. Each of these three factions had their own downfalls. The FLN was para... ...he European and French view. However, as the story is so exhaustively detailed I do not think it has compromised credibility in the paper. I found this book extremely useful. As someone who is very interested in French and European history, I was amazed at how large of an impact the Algerian War had on France, for example causing the collapse of the Fourth Republic. I was also amazed that so many politicians and military leaders use this book as a history lesson on what to do in Iraq. I found that the book related to the course due to the mentioning of the French involvement in Vietnam as well as how the French tried to learn from their lessons at Dien Bien Phu when they were in Algeria. I will certainly be hanging on to this book for future reference, as well as to read again even more in depth to see if I missed any comparisons or possible lessons to be learned.