ABSTRACT
In the ‘Maghreb’ (the ‘West’ of the Arab world), independence was given in 1956 to two French protectorates, Morocco and Tunisia; but Algeria did not achieve it until 1962, after seven years of fighting. The turmoil that this war caused in France was ended by President Charles de Gaulle when, defying and outmanoeuvring the powerful ‘French Algeria’ interests, he withdrew the army and recognized an independent Algeria. Since France first colonized it in the 1830s a million Europeans had settled in Algeria; nearly all left after 1962. A migration to France of about 3 million Algerians, Moroccans and Tunisians also developed.
