‘Les Races Guerrieres’: Racial Preconceptions in the French Military about West African Soldiers during the World War
Introduction
This report will summarise J. Lunn’s main arguments of his article: ‘Les Races Guerrieres’: Racial Preconceptions in the French Military about West African Soldiers during the World War, and how those racial prejudices effected West-African soldiers recruited for the French Army in the Great War.
Furthermore, it will contextualise his arguments into the historiography of French and European prejudice against West-African soldier, and what restrictions exist when discussing the utilization of African colonial military participation in Europe.
1. A brief summary of “Les Races Guerrieres’: Racial Preconceptions …show more content…
The French propaganda shifted racial preconceptions from calling West-African warriors the “demons noirs” to them being auxiliaries. Compared to popular belief that African soldiers got integrated into the French army and population, Lunn challenges this belief. His notion states, that the French army’s underlying motivation for partial-integration and auxiliary of West Africans is Mangin’s martial hierarchy in order to protect French soldiers. Furthermore, he argues that the French army backed up ‘black troops’ for movement support, with racial underlying reasons as they were used as the “assault troops”. While both ideas result in a (partial-)inclusion of African troops into the French army, particularly compared to other colonial powers, the profound reasons for such are very distinct and must be challenged. One can argue, that to some extent, French propaganda helped push racial prejudices aside, with portraying a more positive picture of African soldiers in the French population, whilst deepening underlying social racism for utilizing African men based on Mangin’s classifications on “warrior qualifications” and using as “shock troops” to protect the French …show more content…
With racial prejudices towards African soldiers across Europe, France had a noticeable shift in their propaganda due to martial dependency on colonial troops after dramatic military losses in the beginning of the war. The small amount of academic sources, and the ongoing debate on numbers of causalities suffered by the Senegalese Tirailleurs compared to thus suffered by the French are evidence that we have yet to fully recognize the damage caused by French racial preconceptions of African warriors. Bibliography
Fischer, Hilke, "Africa And The First World War | World War I | DW | 16.04.2014", DW.COM, 2017 (-- removed HTML --) [accessed 9 October 2017]
Koller, Christian, "Colonial Military Participation In Europe (Africa) | International Encyclopedia Of The First World War (WW1)", Encyclopedia.1914-1918-Online.Net, 2017 (-- removed HTML --) [accessed 9 October 2017]
Laurier, Joanne, "Indigènes: The French Army’S Exploited North African Soldiers", Wsws.Org, 2017 (-- removed HTML --) [accessed 9 October 2017]
Lunn, Joe, "‘Les Races Guerrieres’: Racial Preconceptions In The French Military About West African Soldiers During The First World War", Journal Of Contemporary History, vol.34 No.4 (1999), 517-36
Samson, Anne, World War I In Africa : The Forgotten Conflict Among
Introduction
This report will summarise J. Lunn’s main arguments of his article: ‘Les Races Guerrieres’: Racial Preconceptions in the French Military about West African Soldiers during the World War, and how those racial prejudices effected West-African soldiers recruited for the French Army in the Great War.
Furthermore, it will contextualise his arguments into the historiography of French and European prejudice against West-African soldier, and what restrictions exist when discussing the utilization of African colonial military participation in Europe.
1. A brief summary of “Les Races Guerrieres’: Racial Preconceptions …show more content…
The French propaganda shifted racial preconceptions from calling West-African warriors the “demons noirs” to them being auxiliaries. Compared to popular belief that African soldiers got integrated into the French army and population, Lunn challenges this belief. His notion states, that the French army’s underlying motivation for partial-integration and auxiliary of West Africans is Mangin’s martial hierarchy in order to protect French soldiers. Furthermore, he argues that the French army backed up ‘black troops’ for movement support, with racial underlying reasons as they were used as the “assault troops”. While both ideas result in a (partial-)inclusion of African troops into the French army, particularly compared to other colonial powers, the profound reasons for such are very distinct and must be challenged. One can argue, that to some extent, French propaganda helped push racial prejudices aside, with portraying a more positive picture of African soldiers in the French population, whilst deepening underlying social racism for utilizing African men based on Mangin’s classifications on “warrior qualifications” and using as “shock troops” to protect the French …show more content…
With racial prejudices towards African soldiers across Europe, France had a noticeable shift in their propaganda due to martial dependency on colonial troops after dramatic military losses in the beginning of the war. The small amount of academic sources, and the ongoing debate on numbers of causalities suffered by the Senegalese Tirailleurs compared to thus suffered by the French are evidence that we have yet to fully recognize the damage caused by French racial preconceptions of African warriors. Bibliography
Fischer, Hilke, "Africa And The First World War | World War I | DW | 16.04.2014", DW.COM, 2017 (-- removed HTML --) [accessed 9 October 2017]
Koller, Christian, "Colonial Military Participation In Europe (Africa) | International Encyclopedia Of The First World War (WW1)", Encyclopedia.1914-1918-Online.Net, 2017 (-- removed HTML --) [accessed 9 October 2017]
Laurier, Joanne, "Indigènes: The French Army’S Exploited North African Soldiers", Wsws.Org, 2017 (-- removed HTML --) [accessed 9 October 2017]
Lunn, Joe, "‘Les Races Guerrieres’: Racial Preconceptions In The French Military About West African Soldiers During The First World War", Journal Of Contemporary History, vol.34 No.4 (1999), 517-36
Samson, Anne, World War I In Africa : The Forgotten Conflict Among