Colonial Violence in Algeria and the Distorted Logic of State Retribution: The Sétif Uprising of 1945

This article addresses the reasons behind the rapid escalation of French security force and vigilante violence employed to suppress the Sétif uprising that broke out in colonial Algeria on VE-Day, 8 May 1945. Recourse to overwhelming military force to put down the uprising illustrated French capacity to terrorize Algerian civilians, but it should not conceal the structural weakness of the colonial state. Political initiative passed inexorably to France’s anticolonial opponents, precisely the outcome that state coercion was intended to avoid. Algeria’s nationalists may have lost the battle in May 1945, but, thanks to colonial authorities’ failings, they were already winning the war.