African Colonial Troops During World War I

African Colonial Troops During World War I the use of colonial troops was common for the European countries. France and Great Britain had controlled two of the largest colonial empires in Africa. The colonial soldiers greatly impacted the war efforts for France and Great Britain. France began its conquest and colonization in Africa fifteen years after Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. France was the most diverse, Multiethnic country in World War I, The French army assembled about 500,000 colonial troops from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, West African, Madagascar, and Indochina. Some worked in the various war factories, while others were in the trenches defending a country they never knew. The African troops were

The French knew that the colonial soldiers were fighting for their colonial master sake rather then fighting for the French’s people homes and freedom. The French rhetoric at the time was that if the colonial troops didn’t feel like the war was going to impact them negatively, that the colonial troops performance in combat would suffer. The French also believed that the African troops were inferior to the French soldiers because they lack a certain trait that only the French are capable of acquiring. Cold abnegation is the higher sense of the duty, sacrifice, and honor; this is the apparent trait that the African colonial soldiers lacked. Racial stereotypes played a major role in how the colonial troops was being used in the war. The French knew that most of the colonial troops were better at combat on the offensive side, so they had them on the frontline in the beginning of the war. Most French officials thought that the African colonial troops were unpredictable, childish, and unreliable, they believed they needed supervision from the white officers to maintain order, discipline, and effectiveness while under fire. The French also thought all of the colonial soldiers weren’t capable of withstanding the weather of Europe, But the Indochinese and Madagascan colonial troops were able to and they

The Senegalese Riflemen were officially formed in 1857 by Louis Faidherbe , general of West Africa which was occupied by the French , because he lacked French troops to control the territory and meet the criteria for colonization. The Senegalese Riflemen consisted marjority of volunteers. However, due to labor shortages of men and economic downfall in the African colonies prohibited men from coming forward to serve in the numbers expected. Also, colonial officers were unwilling to allow so many men to serve in the military due to economic problem. In response France launched a restricted conscription law and started drafting black African soldiers in 1912. There were 21 divisions of Senegalese Riflemen in the French Army by August 1914, all stationed in either West Africa or on active service in Morocco. When France was on the brink of war 37 platoons of Senegalese Riflemen, French troops, and North African colonial troops were moved from Morocco to France. Five Senegalese Riflemen divisions were placed on the western front,