Algeria proclaimed independence after 132 years of French colonial occupation. That day ended the war, begun eight years earlier, which, according to sources, caused 300,000 and one and a half million deaths. In the referendum held two days earlier the estimate was 99.7 per cent. Thus, the European exodus began, of the approximately 124 billion settlers at the beginning of the year. During the eight-year liberation war, the French government and army, in cooperation with the far-right OAS organization, turned Algeria into a massive field of murder and torture.

On the other hand, the Harkis are considered victims of independence, some 100,000 Algerians who fought for the French and left them abandoned.