Until now, historians have been inclined to look in detail at the background of the Algerian violence of May 1945 but have offered no significant analysis of the context of the violence perpetrated by the colonial forces of order and by European civilians. Previous research undertaken on May 1945 has promoted a one-sided analysis by assuming that the background to the violence committed by the European settlers and colonial authorities was somehow less complicated than that of the Algerians. This thesis is an investigation into the background of the violence of the French Armed Forces and European civilians. It takes as a starting point the nature of the physical violence undertaken by the French Army and European civilians from 8th-10th May 1945 in the area between the town of Setif and the coast.