The Arabs forced the Byzantines from North Africa in the 7th and 8th centuries, and the Maghrib became part of the Umayyad Caliphate. The Berbers converted to Islam but resisted Arab dominance. From the 10th to the 13th centuries, Algeria was ruled by a series of Muslim dynasties that originated in the Maghrib, including the Fatimids, the Almoravids, and the Almohads. The particularly prosperous Almohad period united North Africa and Spain under the Muslim rule.   

In the late 15th century Christian Spain, having expelled the Muslims from the Iberian peninsula, captured several Algerian ports. They were forced off the coast with Turkish assistance, and Algeria became nominally part of the Ottoman Empire in 1518. The local rulers of the North African Barbary States had a high degree of autonomy. Piracy against European shipping led to British and American intervention in the early 19th century. This was followed in 1830 by a French invasion and the deposition of the dey (regent) of Algiers.   

The French campaign to conquer northern Algeria ended in 1847 with the defeat of Algerian leader Abd al-Qadir. The French gradually extended their influence southward, despite fierce local resistance, until Algeria's current boundaries were drawn in 1902. France had encouraged European colonisation of Algeria from about 1834 and the area was declared an integral part of France in 1848.The European settlers confiscated Muslim land and created a flourishing colonial society removed from the Muslim majority. Muslims had almost no political rights and did not share in colonial prosperity.    

Organised Algerian nationalist movements arose after World War I under the leadership of Messali Hadj, who desired complete independence, and the moderate Ferhat Abbas, who wanted France to live up to its assimilationist ideals. European settlers, however, resisted any efforts to grant political and economic equality to the Muslims.   

Algeria was under Vichy administration during the early years of World War II. After 1942, it served as a major base for the Allied North Africa campaign. Algiers was the capital of free France until the liberation of Paris. The nationalist hopes aroused during the war were not met, and thousands of Muslims perished in bloody reprisals after 88 Frenchmen were massacred during a disorderly 1945 nationalist demonstration at Sétif.   

Although the French government granted Muslims the vote on a separate electoral roll in 1947, demands for full political equality and further reform were opposed by the European colonists. The nationalist movement gained support and became increasingly radicalised.   

In 1954 the Front National the Libération (FNL) proclaimed a war of liberation, launching terrorist attacks against the French in both Algeria and France. The long Algerian War led to the fall of the Fourth Republic and the return to power of Charles De Gaulle in 1958. On July 3rd, 1962, De Gaulle finally proclaimed Algeria's independence. After a power struggle within the FLN, Ahmed Ben Bella became Algeria's first President in 1963.   

Confronting a society devastated by war and the subsequent flight of European capital and skilled workers, Ben Bella nationalised abandoned colonial holdings and announced his support of national liberation movements in other colonial lands. Conflict with Morocco, economic problems, and Ben Bella's dictatorial personality provoked a bloodless coup (1965) led by Houari Boumedienne. Boumedienne maintained Algeria's image as an avant-garde Third World state and began its support of Polisario demands for an independent Western Sahara. His nationalisation of French oil and natural gas concessions in 1971 symbolised Algeria's economic liberation, although his government still accepted French aid.   

Chadli Benjedid, who became President in 1979 after the death of Boumedienne and was reelected in 1984 and 1988, maintained Algeria's prominence as a speaker for the Third World. He also pursued a "Greater", or unified, Maghrib: Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania, and Morocco established the Arab Maghrib Union in 1989. In 1988, Algeria restored diplomatic ties with Egypt and Morocco and sought international mediation of the war in Western Sahara. Benjedid liberalised economic policies somewhat, but high unemployment, inflation , and corruption sparked massive unrest in October 1988.   

Constitutional referenda in November 1988 and February 1989 ended the commitment to socialism and the FLN's monopoly of power. In June 1990 local elections -the first multiparty elections since 1962- the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) won almost 65% of the popular vote to the FLN's 30%. The aim of the FIS was to transform Algeria into an Islamic state. With the prospect of the FIS in control of the parliament after its victory over the FLN in the December 1991 general elections, the secular and military elite forced Benjedid's resignation, halted the electoral process and suspended parliament    

A High Committee was established with Mohammed Boudiaff named as president. However, the repression of the FIS ignited a wave of extremist fundamentalist violence which would divide the Islamic movement and polarise the country. Boudiaff was assassinated in June 1992 and he was replaced by Ali Kafi who was later replaced by a 5 member presidential High Council. This institution named Liamine Zeroual in 1994 as interim president of Algeria for a 3-year term. Zeroual initiated negotiations with the FIS and in 1995 elections were held in the country.