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The conditions under which the French Army began its repression of the Algerian uprising in November?1954 are directly related to the outcome of the decolonization conflict. In the first place, France's main concern until this moment was Indochina. Then, in denying the Algerians a national identity, the French authorities downplayed the threat of insurrection and interpreted this guerrilla warfare as a simple tribal uprising, such as Algeria had already known in the past. Unprepared in mat?riel and human resources, the French armed forces had difficulty in regaining the initiative over the Army of National Liberation formed by the National Liberation Front ( fln), a political movement which had meanwhile legitimized its action on the international scene.