France could not contemplate Algerian withdrawal because Algeria was legally part of France

Evidence

To begin at the beginning, in November 1954 France was caught at a major disadvantage because, in contrast to Britain over India, no French politician, not even Mendès-France or Mitterrand, let alone the Communists, could contemplate any kind of French withdrawal from Algeria. Mollet the Socialist echoed Mendès-France the Radical: “France without Algeria would be no longer France.” Throughout those critical first years, when a compromise peace might have been conceivable, France was hobbled by the ball-and-chain of Algeria forming an integral part of French territory. From then on she was hobbled by what the army wanted, or would not permit. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1649

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Britain’s decolonization of India as the contrasting case of imperial withdrawal. — connects to: Granting Tunisian and Moroccan independence without Algeria was a strategic error.; Demographic arithmetic made Algerian integration untenable for France by 1958; Harki recruitment depended on France’s pledge never to abandon Algeria (+11 more)

Related

• Harki recruitment depended on France’s pledge never to abandon Algeria (similarity 0.89)
• Granting Tunisian and Moroccan independence without Algeria was a strategic error. (similarity 0.87)
• French assimilation destroyed Algerian leadership cadres that could have been negotiating partners (similarity 0.86)
• Annexing Algeria as French departments trapped later French republics inescapably. (similarity 0.85)
• Francisation destroyed Algeria’s native political cadres, leaving no negotiating partners. (similarity 0.84)
• An Algeria cut off from France could not survive more than a fortnight (similarity 0.84)
• French metropolitan democracy attenuated, while colonial Algeria criminalized, dissent against empire. (similarity 0.82)
• Demographic arithmetic made Algerian integration untenable for France by 1958 (similarity 0.82)
• Algerian integration was only ever workable before 1958 (similarity 0.82)
• Integration was feasible in 1936 but a delusion by 1958 (similarity 0.82)
• Algeria lacked the established governing structures that Tunisia and Morocco enjoyed (similarity 0.82)
• The Battle of Algiers marked the end of any possibility of negotiated settlement (similarity 0.82)
• The loi-cadre sought a federal-partition hybrid for Algeria under French sovereignty (similarity 0.82)
• Algeria’s departmental status split it from the rest of the Maghreb administratively. (similarity 0.81)
• France’s refusal of a Maghreb confederation doomed compromise peace efforts (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• French assimilation destroyed Algerian leadership cadres that could have been negotiating partners #complicates (0.35) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 317
• Algeria split between Europeanised coast and Muslim-populated mountain interior #qualifies (0.30) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 144