History
The military history of France encompasses an List of battles involving France, immense panorama of conflicts and struggles extending for more than 2,000 years across areas including modern France, greater Europe, and French colonial empire, French territorial possessions overseas. According to British historian Niall Ferguson, the French participated in 50 of the 125 major European wars that have been fought since 1495; more than any other European state. They are followed by the Austrians who fought in 47 of them, the Spanish in 44 and the English (and later British) who were involved in 43. In addition, out of all recorded conflicts which occurred since the year 387 BC, France has fought in 168 of them, won 109, lost 49 and drawn 10. The Gallo-Roman conflict predominated from 60 BC to 50 BC, with the Romans emerging victorious in the Gallic Wars, conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar. After the decline of the Roman Empire, a Germanic peoples, Germanic tribe known as the Franks took control of Gaul by defeating competing tribes. The "land of Francia," from which France gets its name, had high points of expansion under kings Clovis I and Charlemagne. In the Middle Ages, rivalries with England and the Holy Roman Empire prompted major conflicts such as the Norman Conquest and the Hundred Years' War. With an increasingly centralized monarchy, the first standing army since Roman times, and the use of artillery, France expelled the English from its territory and came out of the Middle Ages as the most powerful nation in Europe, only to lose that status to Spain following defeat in the Italian Wars. The French Wars of Religion, Wars of Religion crippled France in the late 16th century, but a major victory over Spain in the Thirty Years' War made France the most powerful nation on the continent once more. In parallel, France developed its French colonial empire, first colonial empire in Asia, Africa, and in the Americas. Under Louis XIV, France achieved military supremacy over its rivals, but escalating conflicts against increasingly powerful enemy coalitions War of the Spanish Succession, checked French ambitions and left the kingdom bankrupt at the opening of the 18th century.
Resurgent French armies secured victories in dynastic conflicts against the War of the Quadruple Alliance, Spanish, War of the Polish Succession, Polish, and War of the Austrian Succession, Austrian crowns. At the same time, France was French and Indian Wars, fending off attacks on its colonies. As the 18th century advanced, global competition with Great Britain led to the Seven Years' War, where France lost its New France, North American holdings. Consolation came in the form of dominance in Europe and the American Revolutionary War, where France in the American Revolutionary War, extensive French aid in the form of money and arms, and the Anglo-French War (1778–83), direct participation of its army and navy led to America's independence. Internal political upheaval eventually led to 23 years of nearly continuous conflict in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. France reached the zenith of its power during this period, dominating the European continent in an unprecedented fashion under Napoleon Bonaparte, but by 1815 it had been restored to its pre-Revolutionary borders. The rest of the 19th century witnessed the growth of the Second French colonial empire as well as French interventions in Ten Days' Campaign, Belgium, First Carlist War, Spain, and French intervention in Mexico, Mexico. Other major wars were fought against Russian Empire, Russia in the Crimean War, Crimea, Austrian Empire, Austria in Second Italian War of Independence, Italy, and Prussia within France itself.
Following defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, French–German enmity, Franco-German rivalry erupted again in the First World War. France and its allies were victorious this time. Social, political, and economic upheaval in the wake of the conflict led to the Second World War, in which the Allies were defeated in the Battle of France and the French government surrendered and was replaced with an Vichy France, authoritarian regime. The Allies of World War II, Allies, including the government in exile's Free French Forces and later a liberated French nation, eventually emerged victorious over the Axis powers. As a result, France secured an Allied-occupied Germany, occupation zone in Germany and a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. The imperative of avoiding a third Franco-German conflict on the scale of those of two world wars paved the way for European integration starting in the 1950s. France became a Force de Frappe, nuclear power and since the 1990s its military action is most often seen in cooperation with NATO and its European partners.
International stance
Today, French military doctrine is based on the concepts of national independence, nuclear deterrence (''see Force de frappe''), and military self-sufficiency. France is a charter member of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO, and has worked actively with its allies to adapt NATO—internally and externally—to the post-Cold War environment. In December 1995, France announced that it would increase its participation in NATO's military wing, including the Military Committee (France withdrew from NATO's military bodies in 1966 whilst remaining full participants in the Organisation's political Councils). France remains a firm supporter of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and other cooperative efforts. Paris hosted the May 1997 NATO-Russia Summit (meeting), Summit which sought the signing of the Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security. Outside of NATO, France has actively and heavily participated in both coalition and unilateral peacekeeping efforts in Africa, the Middle East, and the Balkans, frequently taking a lead role in these operations. France has undertaken a major restructuring to develop a professional military that will be smaller, more rapidly deployable, and better tailored for operations outside of mainland France. Key elements of the restructuring include: reducing personnel, bases and headquarters, and rationalisation of equipment and the armaments industry. Since the end of the Cold War, France has placed a high priority on arms control and non-proliferation. French Nuclear testing in the Pacific, and the Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, sinking of the ''Rainbow Warrior'' strained French relations with its Allies, South Pacific states (namely New Zealand), and world opinion. France agreed to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1992 and supported its indefinite extension in 1995. After conducting a controversial final series of six nuclear tests on Mururoa in the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific, the French signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 1996. Since then, France has implemented a moratorium on the production, export, and use of anti-personnel land mine, landmines and supports negotiations leading toward a universal ban. The French are key players in the adaptation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe to the new strategic environment. France remains an active participant in: the major programs to restrict the transfer of technologies that could lead to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction: the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Australia Group (for chemical and biological weapons), and the Missile Technology Control Regime. France has also signed and ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention.White Papers
2008
On 31 July 2007, President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered M. Jean-Claude Mallet, a member of the Council of State, to head up a thirty-five member commission charged with a wide-ranging review of French defence. The commission issued its White Paper in early 2008. Acting upon its recommendations, President Sarkozy began making radical changes in French defense policy and structures starting in the summer of 2008. In keeping with post-Cold War changes in European politics and power structures, the French military's traditional focus on territorial defence will be redirected to meet the challenges of a global threat environment. Under the reorganisation, the identification and destruction of terrorist networks both in metropolitan France and in francophone Africa will be the primary task of the French military. Redundant military bases will be closed and new weapons systems projects put on hold to finance the restructuring and global deployment of intervention forces. In a historic change, Sarkozy furthermore has declared that France "will now participate fully in NATO," four decades after former French president General Charles de Gaulle withdrew from the alliance's command structure and ordered American troops off French soil.2013
In May 2014, high ranking defence chiefs of the French Armed Forces threatened to resign if the defence budget received further cuts on top of those already announced in the 2013 White Paper. They warned that further cuts would leave the armed forces unable to support operations abroad.Recent operations
There are currently 36,000 French troops Deployments of the French military, deployed in foreign territories—such operations are known as "OPEX" for ''Opérations Extérieures'' ("External Operations"). Among other countries, France provides troops for the United Nations force stationed in Haiti following the 2004 Haiti rebellion. France has sent troops, especially special forces, into Afghanistan to help the United States and NATO forces fight the remains of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. In Opération Licorne a force of a few thousand French soldiers is stationed in Ivory Coast on a UN peacekeeping mission. These troops were initially sent under the terms of a mutual protection pact between France and the Ivory Coast, but the mission has since evolved into the current UN peacekeeping operation. The French Armed Forces have also played a leading role in the ongoing UN peacekeeping mission along the Lebanon-Israel border as part of the cease-fire agreement that brought the 2006 Lebanon War to an end. Currently, France has 2,000 army personnel deployed along the border, including infantry, armour, artillery and air defence. There are also naval and air personnel deployed offshore.
The French Joint Force and Training Headquarters (État-Major Interarmées de Force et d'Entraînement) at Air Base 110 near Creil maintains the ability to command a medium or large-scale international operation, and runs exercises . In 2011, from 19 March, France participated in the enforcement of a Libyan no-fly zone, no-fly zone over northern Libya, during the 2011 Libyan civil war, Libyan Civil war, in order to prevent forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi from carrying out air attacks on Anti-Gaddafi forces. This operation was known as Opération Harmattan and was part of France's involvement in the conflict in the NATO-led coalition, enforcing UN Security Council Resolution 1973. On 11 January 2013 France begun Operation Serval to fight Islamists in Mali with African support but without NATO involvement.
Exercises
France participates in several recurring exercises with other nations, including: * Caraibe 2013, every two years in the Caribbean, centering on Martinique and Guadeloupe. * Exercise Croix du Sud, Croix du Sud, in New Caledonia every two years with Australia, New Zealand, the United States and other Pacific nations. * Varuna (naval exercise), Varuna, an annual naval exercise with India. In 2023, Exercise Orion, the largest in decades, is to be held in the Champagne-Ardenne region. About 10,000 soldiers are expected to take part, along with the French navy and possibly forces from Belgium, Britain, and the United States.Personnel
The head of the French armed forces is the President of France, President of the Republic, in his role as ''chef des armées''. However, the Constitution puts civil and military government forces at the disposal of the ''Cabinet of France, gouvernement'' (the executive cabinet of ministers chaired by the Prime Minister of France, Prime Minister, who are not necessarily of the same political side as the president). The Minister of the Armed Forces (France), Minister of the Armed Forces (as of 2017, the incumbent Florence Parly) oversees the military's funding, procurement and operations. Historically, France relied a great deal on conscription to provide manpower for its military, in addition to a minority of professional career soldiers. Following the Algerian War, the use of non-volunteer draftees in foreign operations was ended; if their unit was called up for duty in war zones, draftees were offered the choice between requesting a transfer to another unit or volunteering for the active mission. In 1996, President Jacques Chirac's government announced the end of conscription and in 2001, conscription formally was ended. Young people must still, however, register for possible conscription (should the situation call for it). As of 2017 the French Armed Forces have total manpower of 426,265, and has an active personnel of 368,962 (with the Gendarmerie Nationale (France), Gendarmerie Nationale).) It breaks down as follows (2015): * The French Army; 111,628 personnel. * The French Air and Space Force; 43,597 personnel. * The French Navy; 36,044 personnel. * Tri-service French Defence Health service, DHS, Military Fuel Service (France), SEA, and Délégation générale pour l'armement, DGA; 17,647 personnel in medical, support and administrative roles, and in the acquisition of weapon systems. The Military reserve forces of France, reserve element of the French Armed Forces consists of two structures; the Operational Reserve and the Citizens Reserve. As of 2015 the strength of the Operational Reserve is 27,785 personnel. Apart from the three main service branches, the French Armed Forces also includes a fourth paramilitary branch called the National Gendarmerie. It had a reported strength of 103,000 active personnel and 25,000 reserve personnel in 2018.gendarmerie.interieur.gouv.fr, 2018 They are used in everyday law enforcement, and also form a coast guard formation under the command of the French Navy. There are however some elements of the Gendarmerie that participate in French external operations, providing specialised law enforcement and supporting roles. Historically the National Guard (France), National Guard functioned as the Army's reserve national defense and law enforcement militia. After 145 years since its disbandment, due to the risk of terrorist attacks in the country, the Guard was officially reactivated, this time as a service branch of the Armed Forces, on 12 October 2016. Since 2019 young French citizens can fulfill the Civil conscription, mandatory service ''Service national universel, Service national universel (SNU)'' within the Armed Forces in the service branch of his/her choice.
Organisation and service branches
The French Military, armed forces are divided into five Military branch, service branches:French Army (''Armée de terre'')
* French Army Special Forces Brigade, Special Forces
* List of French Paratrooper Units, Airborne Units
* Infantry (''Infanterie'')
* Armoured Cavalry (''Arme blindée cavalerie'')
* Artillery (''Artillerie'')
* French Foreign Legion, Foreign Legion (''Légion étrangère'')
* Troupes de Marine
* French Army Light Aviation (''Aviation légére de l'armée de terre'', ''ALAT'')
* Engineers (''Génie'')
* Paris Fire Brigade (brigade des sapeurs-pompiers de Paris)
* Signals (''Transmissions'')
* Transport and logistics (''Train'')
* Supply (''Matériel (French Army), Matériel'')
* Intelligence (''Renseignement'')
French Navy (''Marine nationale'')
* List of French Paratrooper Units, Parachute Units of the French Navy
** Fusiliers Marins, Naval Infantry and naval commandos (France), Naval Commandos (''Fusiliers Marins'')
* Aviation Navale, Naval Air Arm (''Aviation navale'')
* Submarine forces (France), Submarine Force (''Forces sous-marines'')
* Force d'action navale, Naval Action Force (''Force d'action navale'')
* The Marseille Marine Fire Battalion
In addition, the National Gendarmerie form a Coast Guard force called the Maritime Gendarmerie, Gendarmerie Maritime which is commanded by the French Navy.
French Air and Space Force (''Armée de l'Air et de l'Espace'')
* French Space Command
* List of French Paratrooper Units, Parachute Units of the French Air and Space Force
** Fusiliers Commandos de l'Air, Air and space force ground troops (''Fusiliers Commandos de l'Air'')
** List of French Paratrooper Units, Paratroopers/Special forces (''Commando parachutiste de l'air'')
* Territorial Air Defence
National Gendarmerie (''Gendarmerie nationale'')
* List of French Paratrooper Units, Parachute Units of the National Gendarmerie * Departmental Gendarmerie, Gendarmerie Départementale (GD) – territorial police force * Mobile Gendarmerie, Gendarmerie Mobile (GM) – anti-riot unit and counter-terrorism group (GIGN) * Republican Guard (France), Garde républicaine – republican guard of France * Air Transport Gendarmerie, Gendarmerie des Transports Aériens – airport security force * Air Gendarmerie, Gendarmerie de l'Air – used for Air and Space Force security * Maritime Gendarmerie, Gendarmerie Maritime – coast guard unit * Provost Gendarmerie – provides military police services to French Armed Forces personnel in deployments outside France * Overseas Gendamerie - provides military police services in the French overseas dependencies and territories, as well as to embassies of France abroad The National Gendarmerie is primarily a military and airborne capable police force which serves as a rural and general purpose police force.National Guard (''Garde nationale'')
Reactivated in 2016, the National Guard serves as the official primary military and police reserve service of the Armed Forces. It also doubles as a force multiplier for law enforcement personnel during contingencies and to reinforce military personnel whenever being deployed within France and abroad.Gallery
See also
{{div col, colwidth=20em * Bastille Day Military Parade * Combined Joint Expeditionary Force (CJEF) * French Air and Space Force#Ranks, Ranks in the French Air and Space Force * French Foreign Legion, Légion Étrangère * Troupes de Marine * French Army Light Aviation * History of French foreign relations * List of French Paratrooper Units * Military history of France * National Gendarmerie#Ranks * National Office for Veterans and Victims of War * Ranks in the French Army * Ranks in the French Navy * The Lancaster House Treaties (2010) {{div col endReferences
{{reflist, 40emBibliography
* {{cite book , last=IISS , title=The Military Balance 2021, year=2021 , publisher=Routledge , isbn=978-1032012278External links
Official site of the French Ministry of Defence
French Military Strategy and NATO Reintegration
€”Council on Foreign Relations
{{Militaries of European Union member states {{Military of Europe {{North Atlantic Treaty Organization {{France topics Military of France, 03 1792 establishments in France Permanent Structured Cooperation