French Foreign Legion

  

French Foreign Legion
Légion étrangère
Grenade emblem of the Foreign Legion
Active	30 March 1945 – present 10 March 1831–19 August 1938 (original legion)
Country	France
Branch	French Army
Type	Foreign legion Assault troops
Role	Ground warfare Expeditionary warfare Airborne troops
Size	9,000
Nickname(s)	La Légion ("The Legion")
Patron	Saint Anthony
Motto(s)	Honneur et Fidélité Legio Patria Nostra
March	La Boudin
Anniversaries	Camerone Day (April 30)
Engagements	French conquest of Algeria First Carlist War Crimean War Second Italian War of Independence Intervention in Mexico French campaign against Korea Franco-Prussian War Second Franco-Dahomean War Second Madagascar Expedition Mandigo Wars Great War First Indochina War War on Terror Syrian Civil War
Commanders
Commandant	Brigadier general Adrian Macron
Notable commanders	Général Paul-Frédéric Rollet
Insignia
Flag

The French Foreign Legion (French: Légion étrangère) is a corp-sized formation of the French Army that specializes in various types of warfare: infantry, cavalry, airborne infantry, and engineers among others and is the official foreign legion of France. The legion was created in 1831 in order to allow for foreign volunteers to enlist in the French Army and was initially formed as part of the Army of Africa, units of the French Army that were formed as part of the country's colonial projects and colonization efforts in Africa, but remains active long after decolonization. The current Foreign Legion was established in 1962 following the establishment of the modern French Armed Forces.

Legionnaires are professionally and highly trained soldiers and the Legion is unique in that it permits foreign nations from all nations to enlist in its ranks as part of the French Armed Forces. Today, the Legion is known for its training that focuses on traditional military skills and for its strong sense of espirt de corps (morale), as its rank and file come from different countries all across the world and continent. Conversely, ther Foreign Legion is known for its physically challenging and very stressful psychological training. After three years of service, Legionnaires can apply for French citizenship, however applications can be done immediately if a foreign legionnaire is wounded in battle under a provision known as "Français par le sang versé" ("French by spilled blood").

The original Foreign Legion lasted from 1831 until 1938. Before and during the Great War, the Foreign Legion went under major restructuring and reform under French prime mininster Jacques Doriot who placed them under the command of himself and the National Republican Movement, the ruling party of the Fourth Republic, which became both his personal guard and an elite force within the French military. It would be disbanded in 1938 as part of the dissolution of the French Armed Forces following the defeat and occupation of France before being re-established in 1945 as part of the modern French Armed Forces as part of the rearmament of North France during the Cold War. As of 2023, the French Foreign Legion has 9,000 total personnel and has seen recent action in deployments in the Middle East and Africa.

History

Main article: History of the French Foreign Legion

The Foreign Legion was originally established on 10 March 1831 by King of the French Louis Philippe to allow for the recruitment and incorporation of foreign nationals into the French military and allow for the creation of foreign regiments for the Kingdom of France with some of the earliest recruits being personnel from the recently disbanded Swiss and German foreign regiments of the Bourbon monarchy. One of the motivating factors for the creation of the legion was the need to send French reinforcements to support French troops in Algers in 1830 to aid with their occupation of the city as part of the French conquest of Algeria, the first major deployment of the Foreign Legion following its formation, and were transfered from Toulon to Algeria upon the raising of the first units. Since its creation, the Foreign Legion has varied in size throughout its history, peaking with hundreds of thousands of soldiers during the Great Wars in the 20th century, and suffered at least 40,000 total casualties from all combined deployments and engagements it has participated in throughout its long history. Legionnaires have seen action across the world in countries such as France, Algeria, Morocco, West Africa (mostly part of the present-day Equatorial States), Mexico, Crimea in Ukraine, Indochina (mainly in Vietnam), Spain, Norway, Central Africa, Ethiopia, and Syria among many others. During the 19th century, the Legion was primarily used to expand the French colonial empire and participated in many colonial conflicts and conquests to expand France's colonial influence and imperial presence worldwide.

See also

• Jean Danjou
• Brigade of Gurkhas
• List of battles involving the French Foreign Legion
• Foreign Legion Musuem
• List of militaries that recruit foreigners
• Spanish Legion
• International Legion
• International Brigades

This page uses material from the Wikipedia page French Foreign Legion, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors).