In August 2022, France's president, Emmanuel Macron, visited Algeria.
Coming as the country marks the 60th anniversary of the end of French
rule - an independence won following one of the most brutal liberation wars
of the colonial era - the visit was meant to mark a new era of relations.
However, behind the official statements of goodwill, it was blighted by protests.
Many believe France owes Algeria an apology
for the atrocities committed during colonialism and the war.
But can, or should, France ever say sorry?
Hello and welcome. If you're new to the channel, my name is James Ker-Lindsay and
here I take an informed look at international relations, conflict, security, and statehood.
We tend to think that the process of decolonisation was generally marked by violence.
But while the idea of armed anti-colonial liberation struggles is still common in
popular imagination, in truth the end of the European empires was often relatively peaceful.
However, there were a few cases where the struggle for independence resulted in serious conflict.
One of the clearest examples in modern international relations
was Algeria's quest for independence from France.
Now widely seen as one of the most brutal wars of liberation, over the course of eight
years it left hundreds of thousands - and possibly more than a million - people dead.
60 years on, the war and the 132 years of French colonialism is still felt strongly in Algeria.
This was highlighted in August 2022 when President Macron visited the country.
While the two leaders have called for a new era in relations,
many believe that this can't happen until France apologises.
The Democratic People's Republic of Algeria lies in North Africa.
To its east lie Tunisia and Libya and to its south it's bordered by Niger, Mali, and Mauritania.
Western Sahara and Morocco lie to its West.
The Mediterranean sits along its north coast.
At 2.4 million square kilometers, or 920,000
square miles, it's the 10th largest member of the United Nations and the largest country in Africa.
Its population currently stands at around 44 million.
Almost all are a Sunni Muslim and are of Berber and Arab descent.
The country is a member of the African Union, the Arab League,
and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
In terms of the economy, the country's per capita GDP stands at US$3,765.
This is roughly half the average across the Middle East and North Africa.
Its main exports are oil and natural gas.
Algeria has a long and fascinating history.
In ancient times, the north coastal strip was a province of the Roman and Byzantine empires.
In the 7th century, the Maghreb - as the area of Mediterranean North
Africa is often known - came under Arab Islamic control.
This in turn and was followed by Ottoman Imperial rule in the 16th century,
when it became the Regency of Algiers - a vassal state of the Empire.
However, in 1830, following a dispute with the local ruler, France invaded.
Within two decades, most of the country was under French
rule and in 1848 it was formally incorporated into the French State.
From the start, French rule in Algeria was marked by extreme brutality.
Indeed, it's estimated that in the first few decades of French rule anywhere up to a million
Algerians died from fighting, disease and hunger - a situation that some have openly called genocide.
In addition, this period saw the arrival of large numbers of French and other European settlers -
especially in the metropolitan areas where they became more than a third of the population.
As a result, by the 20th century resentment was growing amongst native Algerians.
This came to the fore after the second World War.
As the process of French decolonisation took off in
Indochina, pressure grew for Algerian self-rule.
As Paris resisted, on 31 October 1954, the National Liberation Front, the FLN, launched
an armed uprising coupled with a diplomatic campaign to win support for Algerian independence.
At first, the fighting was focused on Algiers, the capital, were a tough urban insurgency erupted -
an insurgency that was later dramatised in the critically acclaimed film, The Battle of Algiers.
From early on, French forces resorted to brutal methods to quell the uprising,
including executions, torture and internment.
At the same time, deep divisions began to arise across society.
As well as growing violence between the native Algerians and the French settlers,
who saw Algeria as an integral part of France that could never be given up,
the conflict saw Muslim Algerians turn against each other as almost 200,000
Algerians served as auxiliaries with the French army - the so-called Harkis.
By 1959, and with over half a million troops committed to the conflict,
France was seemingly gaining control of the situation.
However, it had come at a high price economically, politically and militarily.
Despite strong opposition from the settlers, the French President,
Charles de Gaulle, now appeared to accept the principle of Algerian self-determination.
While this sparked terrorist attacks in France by far-right paramilitaries,
including an assassination attempt against de Gaulle and a failed coup,
France agreed to independence for Algeria under the terms of the Evian Accords.
This was confirmed by a referendum in Algeria that showed overwhelming support for statehoods.
Following one of the bloodiest Wars of liberation of the modern colonial era, a conflict that saw
well over a million killed injured and displaced, Algeria became independent on 5 July 1962.
Three months later, the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria joined the United Nations.
The conflict was highly traumatic for both countries and had a lasting
impact on their relationship in the decades that followed.
For a start, while tens of thousands of Harkis escaped to France,
once there they were there they were put in camps or held far away from society.
But, in truth, most were simply left to their
fates in Algeria - often facing brutal and deadly reprisals.
As for the French settlers, the Pieds Noirs or Black Feet,
most were evacuated in the run-up to Independence.
Of the estimated 1.4 million in 1959 - roughly 15 percent of the population - just 200,000
remained in 1962, a number that rapidly dwindled in the decade that followed.
And this led to the first crisis between France and Algeria when,
in 1963, the Algerian government expropriated the property abandoned by the fleeing settlers.
In the years that followed, relations would continue to be strained.
For example, in 1971 a crisis erupted when the Algerian government nationalised
the French oil companies operating in the country.
But while relations eventually began to ease,
especially as economic ties improved, the legacy of the past continued to loom large.
Despite growing calls for France to apologise for colonialism and the war,
French policy makers resisted.
Many simply couldn't look at the conflict for what it was.
Indeed, it wasn't until 1999 that the country finally accepted that it had in fact been a war.
And, even then, many politicians in France, especially on the right,
believed that France had in fact played a positive role in North Africa.
The first serious signs of change came in 2012
as Algeria marked the 50th anniversary of independence.
While stopping short of an apology, President Francois
Hollande nevertheless acknowledged Algerian suffering under French rule.
But the biggest potential step forward came in 2017.
As France prepared for presidential elections, Emanuel Macron, the young centrist candidate,
visited Algiers and, while there, called France's history in Algeria a "crime against humanity".
Despite the resulting political row in France, where it was condemned by right
and far-right candidates, just weeks later he went on to win the election;
becoming the first French president born after the war.
However, while Macron would go on to admit that
French troops carried out torture in Algeria, there was still no apology.
Instead relations deteriorated again as a new row broke out.
Speaking in 2021, an event held the descendants of those involved in the Algerian War,
the French President accused the Algerian government of deliberately distorting history
to whip up anti-French sentiment and suggested that Algeria hadn't existed before French rule.
Reacting furiously to the claims, the Algerian
government accused France of genocide and recalled its ambassador to Paris.
On top of this, it also barred French military aircraft from crossing its airspace - thus
hampering France's ongoing counter-insurgency operations in neighbouring Mali.
However, as a French presidential advisor told the press, there would be no apologies
and no repentance for the French occupation of Algeria or its actions during the war.
Indeed, the only apology issued during Macron's first term in office was
to the descendants of the Harkis abandoned by France after the war.
All this forms the backdrop to Macron's latest trip to Algeria.
Following his re-election, and coinciding with the events to
Mark the 60th anniversary of Algerian Independence, the visit was meant to heal
the rifts caused by the earlier comments and mend longer-term strains in the relationship.
But while it achieved some important objectives, including greater strategic cooperation between
the two countries and an important gas deal, it fell short in one key way.
Openly admitting that the complex painful past had at times prevented
the two countries from looking to the future, and announcing a joint
committee of historians to look into the past, there would still be no apology.
So, will France ever say sorry?
It seems unlikely - at least for the foreseeable future.
Like many other colonial countries, France struggles with its imperial past and Algeria
seemingly holds an especially sensitive place in that history.
Even today, many on the political right, and especially on the far right, flatly refused
to acknowledge that France occupied Algeria and used extremely brutal methods to do so.
For them, Algeria wasn't a colony.
It was an integral part of France and had been granted
far greater privileges than other territories.
For others, the argument is that the conflict was marked by brutality from all sides.
To this extent, the focus shouldn't be on blaming one side over another.
Instead, the aim should be reconciliation.
Meanwhile there'll be those that are driven by the fear that any
formal apology could open the way for compensation claims.
Repentance means reparations.
Finally, some may just be hoping that the passage
of time will dull the pain and that the issue will eventually disappear.
Almost 70 years after the start of the war, there are few alive who remember the
conflict - let alone the worst excesses of the colonial era that preceded it.
However, hopes that it will fade away are perhaps overly optimistic.
As other cases have shown, the passage of time can see these sorts of problems grow not recede.
Despite the apparent progress that's been made between the two countries in recent years,
as the occasional spats between Paris and Algiers continue to show,
the past is still present and can still disrupt relations.
For all these reasons, one gets the sense that relationship will never be
truly normal until France fully accepts its colonial history and apologises for the war.
However, as things stand this seems unlikely to happen.
But, of course, France is certainly not the
only country that's struggling with the legacy of the past.
Here's another video looking at Turkey's long diplomatic battle over the Armenian Genocide.