Regroupment camps won militarily but drove Algerians into F.L.N. ranks

Evidence

Persuasively he pointed out to Monteil how the French ratissages operations were “our best recruiting agent”, and after this extraordinary first meeting between a F.L.N. leader and a French official, Monteil left with the firm impression of “a man of faith, and of good faith, pushed to the limits by a lively sentiment of the injustice that has hit his people”. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 348 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Quickly he realised both that poverty was far more dire and that the revolt was far more serious than metropolitan France yet appreciated. “Terror had taken hold. No one spoke,” he wrote later. “The population as a whole, without throwing in its lot with the rebels … remained frightened and noncommittal.” He also saw the futility of General Cherrière’s grandiose and elephantine ratissages, the ill-named Operations “Véronique” and “Violette” that were then under way, and agreed with the analysis Vaujour prepared for him on his return to Algiers: “To send in tank units, to destroy villages, to bombard certain zones, this is no longer the fine comb; it is using a sledgehammer to kill fleas. And what is much more serious, it is to encourage the young — and sometimes the less young — to go into the maquis.” — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 342 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Regroupment camps produced physiological deterioration severe enough to defeat medication; France regrouped a million Algerians to sever the army from the people — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 99; Algerian women regrouped in camps turned displacement into revolutionary political organization (+10 more)

Related

• French countermeasures such as ratissages and prison drove Algerians into the F.L.N. (similarity 0.92)
• French army sweeping operations drove Algerians into the F.L.N. (similarity 0.89)
• Heavy-handed military reprisals in Algeria drove more Algerians to join the rebels. (similarity 0.89)
• France regrouped a million Algerians to sever the army from the people (similarity 0.88)
• French failed counterinsurgency reprisals drove the uncommitted into the F.L.N. (similarity 0.88)
• Regroupement bred resistance even as it hampered the A.L.N. militarily. (similarity 0.86)
• The regroupment policy displaced over a million Algerian villagers into camps with scandalous conditions. (similarity 0.86)
• French regroupment policy severed the FLN from village support (similarity 0.85)
• FLN gained most from French brutal strike-breaking methods. (similarity 0.85)
• French regroupement policy relocated over a million Algerian peasants into guarded camps. (similarity 0.84)
• French punitive failures drove uncommitted Auresians to join the F.L.N. (similarity 0.84)
• France’s refusal to restrain settler fascism drove liberal Algerians to the F.L.N. (similarity 0.83)
• Resettlement camps won ground militarily but created enduring political grievance for the F.L.N. (similarity 0.83)
• Regroupment camps held a million Algerians in dead-of-cold, starvation conditions. (similarity 0.83)
• Fear of castration conditioned brutal French reprisals against Algerians. (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• French army sweeping operations drove Algerians into the F.L.N. #corroborates (0.90) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 348
• French countermeasures such as ratissages and prison drove Algerians into the F.L.N. #corroborates (0.85)
• Heavy-handed military reprisals in Algeria drove more Algerians to join the rebels. #corroborates (0.85) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 342
• Military victory in the Battle of Algiers ultimately aided F.L.N. long-term goals. #expands (0.70)
• France’s refusal to restrain settler fascism drove liberal Algerians to the F.L.N. #corroborates (0.70)
• Winning militarily while losing politically doomed the French army in Algeria #corroborates (0.60)
• Closing legal channels of protest pushed Algerians toward violent resistance. #qualifies (0.50)