Franco-Algerian Truce. On March 18, 1962, after 130 years of French rule, France and Algeria signed a truce to end the Algerian War. In 1954, Muslim guerrillas of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) had launched a war of independence. In 1956, the FLN threatened to invade the cities where much of the European colony lived, and France sent 500,000 soldiers to quell the uprising. By 1958, the FLN had retreated to rural areas, but a new crisis erupted when Europeans in Algeria organized mass demonstrations demanding Algeria’s integration with France and the return of Charles de Gaulle to power. On March 18, 1962, de Gaulle oversaw the signing of a truce, marking the end of the bloody war.
