Algerian ultras refused to reckon with metropolitan France’s reaction

Evidence

Once again there was no thought in the despairing minds of the “ultras” of “what then?” Nothing revealed better the egoistic isolationism of their despair and the unreal world which it drove them to inhabit than Susini’s wild declaration at this time: “The irreversible process is now under way. Between the republic and Algeria, we choose Algérie française!” Characteristically, the possible reaction of fifty million metropolitan Frenchmen was simply not taken into account. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1092

Categorization

• SEED: The ultras’ blind spot—ignoring the metropole entirely—explains why their insurrections kept collapsing, a pattern worth tracing across 1958-1962.
• XREF: connects to: Algiers ultras harbored deep Pétainist loyalties and distrust of de Gaulle; French metropolitan opinion rallied behind de Gaulle against the Algiers insurgents; Algerian ultras in 1958 wanted army rule but stopped short of Rhodesian independence — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 849 (+1 more)

Related

• Algiers ultras harbored deep Pétainist loyalties and distrust of de Gaulle (similarity 0.91)
• French metropolitan opinion rallied behind de Gaulle against the Algiers insurgents (similarity 0.88)
• Metropolitan France was largely oblivious to the gravity of the Algiers crisis. (similarity 0.84)
• The ultras staged the uprising to force the army against de Gaulle (similarity 0.82)
• Algerian ultras in 1958 wanted army rule but stopped short of Rhodesian independence (similarity 0.82)
• Ultras believed they could depose de Gaulle as they had raised him (similarity 0.82)
• Paris judged Algiers as the gravest mob-seizure threat since 1934 (similarity 0.81)
• Censorship and metropolitan distraction masked the gravity of the Algiers crisis. (similarity 0.81)
• French metropolitan public had grown apathetic about Algeria by late 1961. (similarity 0.81)
• De Gaulle’s allies saw Algeria as subordinate to the French state’s crisis (similarity 0.80)
• De Gaulle’s intransigent refusal to yield to the riots proved strategically correct (similarity 0.80)
• The barricades insurrection proved the decisive failure of the Algérie française cause. (similarity 0.80)
• Rapidly shifting loyalties in wartime France weakened Algerian trust in any authority (similarity 0.80)
• French metropolitan democracy attenuated, while colonial Algeria criminalized, dissent against empire. (similarity 0.80)
• Muslim observers saw French lassitude as the source of imminent victory (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Metropolitan France was largely oblivious to the gravity of the Algiers crisis. #expands (0.60) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1106