After a violent French invasion, Algeria became a French colony in 1830; due to “scorched earth” tactics used to eliminate local power structures and resistance to French rule, between 500,000 and one million Algerians (out of an initial population of three million) died in the first three decades of French rule. Between 1954 and 1962, the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) fought a guerilla war against the French regime; although both sides committed atrocities during the war, French use of torture and violent tactics harmed its reputation abroad and generated international support for Algerian independence, which was eventually guaranteed by the Évian Accords in 1962. After the war ended, the FLN quickly proved hostile to political opposition and eventually banned other parties in order to consolidate its own power. Algeria remained a stable country until the 1990s, when a civil war broke out between the government and various Islamist factions. Journalist and historians have noted that these rebel groups mimicked the ruthless and brutal tactics originally developed by the FLN to defeat the French.