How Did The FLN Attacks Affected France's Success?

At the beginning of the conflict, from All Saints Day 1954 through the early winter of 1955, FLN attacks caused over 200 million francs worth of damage and forced many French nationals to leave the countryside and seek protection in urban cities. As fighting intensified and the FLN were able to move about the countryside with relative freedom, the French authorities mobilized the First Parachute Division. Fighters of the FLN effectively used guerrilla warfare, avoiding direct contact with the far superior French Military, targeting military positions, police units, and support facilities. In certain areas of the countryside, the FLN was able to establish rudimentary elements of a local government to collect tax revenue and new recruits, but the FLN units were never able to hold any large positions. While they achieved success in the first year of the conflict, the French took notice and soon deployed additional military forces.
The Paras implemented two successful counterinsurgency operations that dramatically impacted the FLNs success. First, they divided the country into grids of control and began intense sweeps of the countryside to divide the rebels from the population. The FLN lost their freedom of movement in the hinterlands, the ability to acquire necessary arms and were separated from the population to draw more fighters. The FLN
FLN leadership was influenced by Carlos Marighela’s principles of insurgency and guerilla warfare. His rational for insurgency and violent tactics wasn’t to put fear into the civilian population, rather to provoke and over reaction for the controlling state, driving the civilian population to join the movement for independence. With this school of thought, combined with their lack of effectiveness in the countryside, the FLN declared a total war on all French civilians to militarize the