HOME
*



picture info

Battalions Of Light Infantry Of Africa
The Battalions of Light Infantry of Africa (French: ''Bataillons d'Infanterie Légère d'Afrique'' or BILA), better known under the acronym ''Bat' d'Af, were French infantry and construction units, serving in Northern Africa, made up of men with prison records who still had to do their military service or soldiers with serious disciplinary records. History Creation Created by King Louis Philippe I on 13 June 1832, shortly after the French Foreign Legion, the Bat' d'Af' were part of the Army of Africa and were stationed in Tataouine, Tunisia, in one of the most arid and hostile regions of the French colonial empire. The original ''Ordonnance royale'' (Royal order) creating this corps provided for 2 battalions, each of 8 companies. A third battalion was created in September 1833. According to the order the rank and file of these units were to be drawn from: (i) serving soldiers who had been sentenced to existing disciplinary companies and who had not completed their period of army ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

French Conquest Of Algeria
The French invasion of Algeria (; ) took place between 1830 and 1903. In 1827, an argument between Hussein Dey, the ruler of the Deylik of Algiers, and the French consul escalated into a blockade, following which the July Monarchy of France invaded and quickly seized Algiers in 1830, and seized other coastal communities. Amid internal political strife in France, decisions were repeatedly taken to retain control of the territory, and additional military forces were brought in over the following years to quell resistance in the interior of the country. Algerian resistance forces were divided between forces under Ahmed Bey ben Mohamed Chérif at Constantine, primarily in the east, and nationalist forces in the Kabylia and the west. Treaties with the nationalists under Emir Abdelkader enabled the French to first focus on the elimination of the remnants of the Deylik, achieved with the 1837 Siege of Constantine. Abd Al-Qādir continued to give stiff resistance in the west. Finally dri ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion (french: Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army which comprises several specialties: infantry, Armoured Cavalry Arm, cavalry, Military engineering, engineers, Airborne forces, airborne troops. It was created in 1831 to allow List of militaries that recruit foreigners, foreign nationals into the French Army. It formed part of the Army of Africa (France), Armée d’Afrique, the French Army's units associated with France's colonial project in Africa, until the end of the Algerian War, Algerian war in 1962. Legionnaires are highly trained soldiers and the Legion is unique in that it is open to foreign recruits willing to serve in the French Armed Forces. The Legion is today known as a unit whose training focuses on traditional military skills and on its strong Morale, esprit de corps, as its men and women come from different countries with different cultures. Consequently, training is often described as not only physically challenging, but also ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




March Battalion
A march battalion (french: Bataillon de Marche, , it, Battaglione di marcia or ) is a military unit comprising replacement and support personnel, usually for a regiment or brigade-sized formation. The term rear echelon – especially in the armies of the UK and other Commonwealth countries – refers to units serving analogous functions, at military formations of any size. These have included, during the early 20th Century, the replacement depots of the US Army, which supported larger formations, such as field armies (or "numbered armies"), army groups or entire military theaters. A march battalion, in the narrowest and original sense of the term, is a temporary unit made up of assorted replacement personnel destined for the regular battalions of an infantry regiment or brigade. March battalions were intended to maintain military discipline and give personnel a command structure while they were being transferred to operational duties and/or during a transitional period. In the ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the expansion of the Russian Empire in the preceding Russo-Turkish Wars, and the British and French preference to preserve the Ottoman Empire to maintain the balance of power in the Concert of Europe. The flashpoint was a disagreement over the rights of Christian minorities in Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire, with the French promoting the rights of Roman Catholics, and Russia promoting those of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The churches worked out their differences with the Ottomans and came to an agreement, but both the French Emperor Napoleon III and the Russian Tsar Nicholas I refused to back down. Nicholas issued an ultimatum that demanded the Orthodox subjects of the Ottoman Empire be placed ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Game Of Chance
A game of chance is in contrast with a game of skill. It is a game whose outcome is strongly influenced by some randomizing device. Common devices used include dice, spinning tops, playing cards, roulette wheels, or numbered balls drawn from a container. A game of chance may be played as gambling if players wage money or anything of monetary value. Alternatively, a game of skill is one in which the outcome is determined mainly by mental or physical skill, rather than chance. While a game of chance may have some skill element to it, chance generally plays a greater role in determining its outcome. A game of skill may also may have elements of chance, but skill plays a greater role in determining its outcome. Gambling is known in nearly all human societies, even though many have passed laws restricting it. Early people used the knucklebones of sheep as dice. Some people develop a psychological addiction to gambling, and will risk even food and shelter to continue. Some gam ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Biribi
Biribi, biribissi (in Italian), or cavagnole (in French), was an Italian game of chance similar to roulette, played for low stakes, that was banned in 1837. It was played on a board on which the numbers 1 to 70 are marked. The players put their stakes on the numbers they wish to back. The banker is provided with a bag from which he draws a case containing a ticket, the tickets corresponding with the numbers on the board. The banker calls out the number, and any players who backed it receive sixty-four times their stake; all other stakes go to the banker. Casanova played it in Genoa (illegally, for it was already banned there) and the South of France in the 1760s, and describes it as "a regular cheats' game". He broke the bank (fairly, he claims) and was immediately rumored to have been in collusion with the bag-holder; such collusion, presumably, was common. In the French army, "to be sent to Biribi" was a cant term for being sent to the disciplinary battalions in Algeria ) ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Tataouine Vue-generale 1925
Tataouine ( ber, Tiṭṭawin; ar, تطاوين) is a city in southern Tunisia. It is the capital of the Tataouine Governorate. The below-ground "cave dwellings" of the native Berber population, designed for coolness and protection, render the city and the area around it a tourist and film makers' attraction. Etymology The name means 'eyes' and 'water springs' in the Berber language. It is sometimes transliterated in European languages as ''Tatahouine'', ''Tatahouïne'', ''Tatawin'' or ''Tatooine''. The names "Tataouine", "Tatahouine" and "Foum Tatahouine" all appeared in the postcards portraying the city in the 1920s. The city used to be called (), alternatively spelled , , , or , which means 'mouth of the springs'. History From 1892 to 1951, Tataouine was the garrison town of the French penal military unit known as the "Battalion of Light Infantry of Africa". After the French established the town, a mosque (built in 1898) and homes were built in Tataouine. On June 27, 19 ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Taghit
Taghit ( ar, ﺗﺎﻏﻴﺖ) is a town and commune in Taghit District, Béchar Province, in western Algeria. The town is an oasis watered by the underground Oued Zousfana, which runs along beside the dunes of the Grand Erg Occidental. According to the 2008 census its population is 6,317, up from 6,047 in 1998, with an annual growth rate of 0.4%. The commune covers an area of . History The town was the site of the Battle of Taghit in 1903, in which 4000 Zayanes Berbers besieged the French in the town, whom they outnumbered by 10 to 1. The attackers were later forced to retreat. Geography Taghit lies on the left (eastern) bank of the Oued Zouzfana. The Grand Erg Occidental, a large area of continuous sand dunes, lies to the east, while the rocky Djebel Baroun lies to the west across the river. Climate Taghit has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification ''BWh''), with extremely hot summers and cool winters, and very little precipitation throughout the year. ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Battle Of Taghit
The Battle of Taghit was the siege of a fort held by a contingent of the French Army of Africa against Moroccan tribesmen during the South-Oranese Campaign. Background In the 1890s, the French administration and military called for the annexation of the Touat, the Gourara and the Tidikelt, a complex that had controlled by tribes under the domination the Moroccan Empire for many centuries prior to the arrival of the French in Algeria. An armed conflict opposed French 19th Corps Oran and Algiers divisions to the Aït Khabbash, a fraction of the Moroccan Aït Ounbgui ''khams'' of the Aït Atta confederation. The conflict ended with the annexation of the Touat-Gourara-Tidikelt complex by France in 1901. Aftermath, France faced numerous incidents, attacks and looting by uncontrolled armed groups in the newly controlled areas to the south of Oran. Under the command of General Lyautey, the French army's mission was to protect these areas newly occupied in the west of Algeria, near ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Chasseurs
''Chasseur'' ( , ), a French term for "hunter", is the designation given to certain regiments of French and Belgian light infantry () or light cavalry () to denote troops trained for rapid action. History This branch of the French Army originated during the War of the Austrian Succession when, in 1743, Jean Chrétien Fischer was authorized by the Marshal de Belle-Isle to raise a 600 strong mixed force of infantry and cavalry. It was called '' Chasseurs de Fischer.'' During the remainder of the 18th century various types of light troops () were employed within the French army, either as independent units or as companies within existing regiments. In 1788, there were 8 battalions of chasseurs, and in March 1793 this was expanded to 21 battalions. The first battalions of Chasseurs raised by 1788 included: * (1st) ''Chasseurs Royaux de Provence'' * (2nd) ''Chasseurs Royaux de Dauphiné'' * (3rd) ''Chasseurs Royaux Corses'' (Corsican) * (4th) ''Chasseurs Corses'' (Corsican) ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Béjaïa
Béjaïa (; ; ar, بجاية‎, Latn, ar, Bijāya, ; kab, Bgayet, Vgayet), formerly Bougie and Bugia, is a Mediterranean port city and commune on the Gulf of Béjaïa in Algeria; it is the capital of Béjaïa Province, Kabylia. Béjaïa is the largest principally Kabyle-speaking city in the region of Kabylia, Algeria. Geography The town is overlooked by the mountain ', whose profile is said to resemble a sleeping woman. Other nearby scenic spots include the ''Aiguades'' beach and the '' Pic des Singes'' (Peak of the Monkeys); the latter site is a habitat for the endangered Barbary macaque, which prehistorically had a much broader distribution than at present. All three of these geographic features are located in the Gouraya National Park. The Soummam river runs past the town. Under French rule, it was known under various European names, such as Budschaja in German, Bugia in Italian, and Bougie in French. The French and Italian versions, due to the town's wax trade, ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]