The Algerian war fit no declared-war category yet killed a million people

Evidence

It was a “war of peace” in that no declaration of hostilities was ever made (unless one should recognise the first FLN proclamation of 1 November 1954 as such), and during most of the eight years the vast majority of Frenchmen lived unaffected by it. Equally, it was undeniably and horribly savage, bringing death to an estimated one million Muslim Algerians and the expulsion from their homes of approximately the same number of European settlers. If the one side practised unspeakable mutilations, the other tortured and, once it took hold, there seemed no halting the pitiless spread of violence. As at a certain moment in the Battle of Verdun in 1916, it seemed as if events had escaped all human control; often, in Algeria, the essential tragedy was heightened by the feeling that—with a little more magnanimity, a little more trust, moderation and compassion—the worst might have been avoided. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 9 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The Algerian War killed about one million Muslims and expelled roughly a million settlers — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 9; Official naming of the Algerian conflict shaped military honors and refused war status; Algeria’s official war-dead figure of one million exceeds all credible estimates

Related

• Algeria’s official war-dead figure of one million exceeds all credible estimates (similarity 0.96)
• The Algerian War killed about one million Muslims and expelled roughly a million settlers (similarity 0.95)
• Algeria’s 1990s civil war killed roughly 100,000 people. (similarity 0.87)
• Official naming of the Algerian conflict shaped military honors and refused war status (similarity 0.86)
• The Algerian war was simultaneously a war of peace and one of extreme savagery (similarity 0.84)
• Algerians fighting for France outnumbered those fighting for independence (similarity 0.82)
• The Battle of Algiers marked the end of any possibility of negotiated settlement (similarity 0.81)
• The barricades marked the first killing of Frenchmen by Frenchmen in the war. (similarity 0.80)
• The national conflict canalized Algerian anger that had previously surfaced as common crime (similarity 0.80)
• The Algerian War was anticolonial, not religious, yet seeded later jihad (similarity 0.80)
• Algerian war sources even disagree over key meeting dates (similarity 0.80)
• The O.A.S. killed more Algerian civilians than the F.L.N. ever did (similarity 0.80)
• Algeria’s war was primarily anti-colonial, not religious. (similarity 0.79)
• A lingering Algerian hatred of French rule simmers until it erupts into war (similarity 0.79)
• Winning militarily while losing politically doomed the French army in Algeria (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• The Algerian War killed about one million Muslims and expelled roughly a million settlers #corroborates (0.85) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 9
• Algeria’s official war-dead figure of one million exceeds all credible estimates #contradicts (0.60)
• Official naming of the Algerian conflict shaped military honors and refused war status #responds-to (0.55)