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Jacques Massu
Jacques Émile Massu (; 5 May 1908 – 26 October 2002) was a French general who fought in World War II, the First Indochina War, the Algerian War and the Suez crisis. He led French troops in the Battle of Algiers, first supporting and later denouncing their use of torture. Early life Jacques Massu was born in Châlons-sur-Marne to a family of military officers; his father was an artillery officer. He studied successively at Saint-Louis de Gonzague in Paris, the Free College of Gien (1919–1925) and Prytanée National Militaire (1926–1928). He then entered Saint-Cyr and graduated in 1930 as a second lieutenant in the promotion class "Marshal Foch" and chose the Colonial Infantry. Between October, 1930 and August, 1931, he served in the 16th Senegalese Tirailleur Regiment (16th RTS) in Cahors. He was sent to Morocco with the 5th RTS and took part in the fighting around Tafilalt where he earned his first citation. He was promoted to lieutenant in October 1932 and took part ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Châlons-en-Champagne
Châlons-en-Champagne () is a city in the Grand Est region of France. It is the capital of the department of Marne, despite being only a quarter the size of the city of Reims. Formerly called Châlons-sur-Marne, the city was officially renamed in 1998. It should not be confused with the Burgundian town of Chalon-sur-Saône. History Châlons is conjectured to be the site of several battles including the Battle of Châlons fought in 274 between Roman Emperor Aurelian and Emperor Tetricus I of the Gallic Empire. The Catalaunian Fields was the site of the battle of Châlons in 451 which turned back the westward advance of Attila. It is the setting of the last operetta of Johann Strauss II, ''Die Göttin der Vernunft (The Goddess of Reason)'', (1897) and is mentioned in, “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” as Snoopy’s crash site after doing battle with the Red Baron. Plan de la cathedrale Châlons-sur-Marne 1859 Archives nationales France.jpg, Châlons en Cham ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zouar, Chad
Zouar ( ar, زوار) is a town in the Tibesti Ouest department of the Tibesti region in northern Chad, located in an oasis in the Tibesti Mountains. Prior to 2008 it was in the Tibesti Department of the former Bourkou-Ennedi-Tibesti region The seat of the ''derde'', the highest religious and political authority among the Teda of the Tibesti, the town came under French control in 1917. After Chad's independence, Zouar played an important role during the Chadian Civil War and the Chadian-Libyan conflict, when its control was hotly contended. It was first besieged in 1968 by the FROLINAT rebels led by Mahamat Ali Taher, and was relieved only by the arrival in August of a French expeditionary force. One of the last strongholds held by the government in the north, it was attacked in June 1977 by the People's Armed Forces (FAP), forcing the garrison to evacuate. During the Chadian-Libyan conflict, a Libyan garrison was installed, only to be expelled when the former pro-Libyan FA ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tibesti
The Tibesti Mountains are a mountain range in the central Sahara, primarily located in the extreme north of Chad, with a small portion located in southern Libya. The highest peak in the range, Emi Koussi, lies to the south at a height of and is the highest point in both Chad and the Sahara. Bikku Bitti, the highest peak in Libya, is located in the north of the range. The central third of the Tibesti is of volcanic origin and consists of five volcanoes topped by large depressions: Emi Koussi, Tarso Toon, Tarso Voon, Tarso Yega and Toussidé. Major lava flows have formed vast plateaus that overlie Paleozoic sandstone. The volcanic activity was the result of a continental hotspot that arose during the Oligocene and continued in some places until the Holocene, creating fumaroles, hot springs, mud pools and deposits of natron and sulfur. Erosion has shaped volcanic spires and carved an extensive network of canyons through which run rivers subject to highly irregular flows that are ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colonial Chad
Chad was a part of the French colonial empire from 1900 to 1960. Colonial rule under the French began in 1900 when the Military Territory of Chad was established. From 1905, Chad was linked to the federation of French colonial possessions in Middle Africa, known from 1910 under the name of French Equatorial Africa. Chad passed in 1920 to French civilian administration, but suffered from chronic neglect. Chad distinguished itself in 1940 for being, under the governorship of Félix Éboué, the first French colony to rally by the side of Free France. After World War II, the French permitted a limited amount of representation of the African population, ushering the way to the clash in the political arena between the progressive and southern-based Chadian Progressive Party (PPT) and the Islamic conservative Chadian Democratic Union (UDT). It was eventually the PPT which emerged victorious and brought the country to independence in 1960 under the leadership of François Tombalbaye. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charente-Maritime
Charente-Maritime () is a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region on the southwestern coast of France. Named after the river Charente, its prefecture is La Rochelle. As of 2019, it had a population of 651,358 with an area of 6,864 square kilometres (2,650 sq mi). History Previously a part of the provinces of Saintonge and Aunis, Charente-Inférieure was one of the 83 original departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. On 4 September 1941, during World War II, it was renamed as Charente-Maritime. When the department was first organised, the commune of Saintes was designated as the prefecture of the department (Saintes had previously been the capital of Saintonge). This changed in 1810 when Napoleon passed an imperial decree to move the prefecture to La Rochelle. During World War II, the department was invaded by the German Army and became part of occupied France. To provide defence against a possible beach landing by the Allies, the Organisation Tod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saintes, Charente-Maritime
Saintes (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Sénte'') is a commune and historic town in western France, in the Charente-Maritime department of which it is a sub-prefecture, in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Its inhabitants are called ''Saintaises'' and ''Saintais''. Saintes is the second-largest city in Charente-Maritime, with inhabitants in 2008. The city's immediate surroundings form the second-most populous metropolitan area in the department, with inhabitants. While a majority of the surrounding landscape consists of fertile, productive fields, a significant minority of the region remains forested, its natural state. In Roman times, Saintes was known as ''Mediolanum Santonum''. During much of its history, the name of the city was spelled Xaintes or Xainctes. Primarily built on the left bank of the Charente, Saintes became the first Roman capital of Aquitaine. Later it was designated as the capital of the province of Saintonge under the Ancien Régime. Following the French Revolution, it bri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
High Atlas
High Atlas, also called the Grand Atlas ( ar, الأطلس الكبير, Al-Aṭlas al-Kabīr; french: Haut Atlas; shi, ⴰⴷⵔⴰⵔ ⵏ ⴷⵔⵏ ''Adrar n Dern''), is a mountain range in central Morocco, North Africa, the highest part of the Atlas Mountains. The High Atlas rises in the west at the Atlantic Ocean and stretches in an eastern direction to the Moroccan-Algerian border. At the Atlantic and to the southwest the range drops abruptly and makes an impressive transition to the coast and the Anti-Atlas range. To the north, in the direction of Marrakech, the range descends less abruptly. The range includes Jbel Toubkal, which at is the highest in the range and lies in Toubkal National Park. The range serves as a weather system barrier in Morocco running east–west and separating the Sahara from the Mediterranean and continental zones to the north and west. In the higher elevations of the massif, snow falls regularly, allowing winter sports. Snow lasts well into late ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tafilalt
Tafilalt or Tafilet (; ar, تافيلالت), historically Sijilmasa, is a region and the largest oasis in Morocco. Etymology The word "Tafilalt" is an Amazigh word and it means "Jug", which is specifically a pottery jar used to store water. History Although previous settlements existed, especially during the Roman period, the first continuously inhabited town in the area after the spread of Islam was Sijilmasa, founded by the Berber people, Amazigh Miknasa tribal leader Moussa ben Nasser in 757 CE. It was on the direct caravan route from the Niger river to Tangier, and attained a considerable degree of prosperity. In the 17th century, the Alaouite dynasty of Morocco first achieved political ascendancy in Tafilalt, and in 1606 the Sultan Zidan al-Nasir hid in Tafilalt, where he made a profit off of gold mined in the area, built an army, eventually taking control of the city of Marrakech. A few years later in 1610, Ahmed ibn Abi Mahalli also built up an army in the Tafilalt area ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to the east, and the disputed territory of Western Sahara to the south. Mauritania lies to the south of Western Sahara. Morocco also claims the Spanish exclaves of Ceuta, Melilla and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, and several small Spanish-controlled islands off its coast. It spans an area of or , with a population of roughly 37 million. Its official and predominant religion is Islam, and the official languages are Arabic and Berber; the Moroccan dialect of Arabic and French are also widely spoken. Moroccan identity and culture is a mix of Arab, Berber, and European cultures. Its capital is Rabat, while its largest city is Casablanca. In a region inhabited since the Paleolithic Era over 300,000 years ago, the first Moroccan s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cahors
Cahors (; oc, Caors ) is a commune in the western part of Southern France. It is the smallest prefecture among the 13 departments that constitute the Occitanie Region. The main city of the Lot department and the historical center of the Quercy, Cahors is home to 19,878 ''cadurciennes'' and ''cadurciens''. Nestled in a meander of the Lot and surrounded by steep arid limestone hills, this historic city is home to a great monumental diversity, mainly inherited from Roman times and the Middle Ages; the city's monuments include a historic city centre, Saint-Étienne cathedral, Roman walls and the famous Valentré bridge (a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the pilgrimage path to Santiago de Compostela). Famed for its wine and gastronomy (truffles and foie gras), this southern French city holds the label of the French Towns of Art and History. The Cadurcian economy is reliant on tertiary services and makes Cahors the Lot's economic centre. History Cahors has had a rich hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ferdinand Foch
Ferdinand Foch ( , ; 2 October 1851 – 20 March 1929) was a French general and military theorist who served as the Supreme Allied Commander during the First World War. An aggressive, even reckless commander at the First Marne, Flanders and Artois campaigns of 1914–1916, Foch became the Allied Commander-in-Chief in late March 1918 in the face of the all-out German spring offensive, which pushed the Allies back using fresh soldiers and new tactics that trenches could not withstand. He successfully coordinated the French, British and American efforts into a coherent whole, deftly handling his strategic reserves. He stopped the German offensive and launched a war-winning counterattack. In November 1918, Marshal Foch accepted the German cessation of hostilities and was present at the Armistice of 11 November 1918. At the outbreak of war in August 1914, Foch's XX Corps participated in the brief invasion of Germany before retreating in the face of a German counter-attack and succ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
