ABSTRACT
The military history of the European conquest of Africa in the nineteenth century
begins north of the Sahara, in Algeria, long before the onset of the Scramble. The long
and brutal campaign by France to “pacify” Algeria from 1830 to 1847 saw the emergence
for the first time of many of the features we associate with the European wars of
conquest and with the resistance they met from indigenous peoples. To begin with, it
was in Algeria during this time that some of the best known institutional symbols and
most enduring imagery of European colonial warfare first took shape. In the 1830s the
French government took the first steps toward creating a separate force, the Armée
d’Afrique, to fight its wars in North Africa. Eventually garrisoned permanently in Algeria,
the Armée d’Afrique would include some of the more colourful units in colonial military
history: the Zouaves, European infantry decked out in the baggy pants and embroidered
tunics of the Berber peoples of the Algerian mountains; the Spahis, Arab cavalry in
flowing burnooses; and the Turcos, the Algerian light infantry who would go on to serve
with such distinction in both world wars and in Indochina. The other famous military
unit created during this time was, of course, the French Foreign Legion, formed in
1831 to siphon off the less desirable elements among France’s large foreign population.
