National Guard (France)
National Guard | |
---|---|
Garde nationale | |
Active | 1789–1827 1831–1872 2016–present |
Country | France |
Type | Reserve Gendarmerie |
Size | >77,000[1] |
Part of | French Armed Forces National Police |
Motto(s) | Honneur et Patrie ('Honour and Fatherland') |
Engagements |
Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette |
French Armed Forces |
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Components |
Ranks |
History |
The National Guard (French: Garde nationale) is a French military,
For most of its history the National Guard, particularly its officers, has been widely viewed as loyal to middle-class interests.[citation needed] It was founded as separate from the French Army and existed both for policing and as a military reserve. However, in its original stages from 1792 to 1795, the National Guard was perceived as revolutionary and the lower ranks were identified with sans-culottes. It experienced a period of official dissolution from 1827 to 1830 but was reestablished. Soon after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the National Guard in Paris again became viewed as dangerously revolutionary, which contributed to its dissolution in 1871.[2]
In 2016, France announced the reestablishment of the National Guard for the second time, in response to a series of
Creation
The raising of a "Bourgeois Guard" ("garde bourgeoise") for Paris was discussed by the National Assembly on 11 July 1789 in response to the King's sudden and alarming replacement of minister for finance and state,
Initially, each city, town and village maintained National Guard units operated by their respective local governments in the districts for not more than a year. They were united on 14 July 1790 under Lafayette, who was appointed "Commandant General of all the National Guards of the Kingdom" and was responsible to the King as commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
Organization
On 5 December 1790 Robespierre held a speech on the urgent topic of the National Guard; envisaging an evolution from semi-organised militia to citizen-soldiers independent from the regular army. He repeated his ideas in the following year.
Under the law of 14 October 1791, all
- The 23-years-old Napoleon Bonaparte began his "political career" as lieutenant-colonel of a Battalion of Corsican Volunteers in the National Guards (la Garde nationale des Volontaires corses) in February 1792.[18]
- Garde Nationale.[a]
On 2 July 1792, the Assembly authorized the National Guard's attendance as part of the Festival of Federation on 14 July, thus circumventing a royal veto. Section assemblies were permitting "passive" citizens to join their National Guard companies without seeking formal permission.[20] On 11 July, the Jacobins won an emergency vote in the wavering Assembly, declaring the nation in danger and drafting all Parisians with pikes or pistols into the National Guard.[21] On 17 July the municipality of Paris accepted all citizens armed with a pike for enlistment as part of the capital's own National Guard unit.
The citizens kept their weapons and their uniforms at home and set forth with them when required. The initially multi-coloured uniforms of the various provincial National Guard units were standardised in 1791, using as a model the dark blue coats with red collars, white lapels and cuffs worn by the Paris National Guard since its creation.[22] This combination of colours matched those of the then young revolutionary tricolour flag. The uniform headdress was the tricorne.
From French Revolution until 1827
Role during the Revolution
The former
After
First Empire
Napoleon did not believe that the middle-class National Guard would be able to maintain order and suppress riots. Therefore, he created a Municipal Guard of Paris, a full-time gendarmerie which was strongly militarized. However, he did not abolish the National Guard but was content to partially disarm it. He kept the force in reserve and mobilised it for the defence of French territory in 1809 and 1814. In Paris during this period the National Guard comprised twelve thousand bourgeois property owners, serving part-time and equipped at their own expense, whose prime function was to guard public buildings on a roster basis.[23] Between 1811 and 1812 the National Guard was organized in "cohorts" to distinguish it from the regular army, and for home defence only. By a skilful appeal to patriotism, and judicious pressure applied through the prefects, it became a useful reservoir of half-trained men for new battalions of the active army.[24]
After the disastrous campaign in Russia in 1812, dozens of National Guard cohorts were called up for field duty the next year; four cohorts being combined to form one line infantry regiment. The 135ème to 156ème Régiments d'Infanterie de Ligne were thus formed.[25] Many of these fought in the campaigns in Germany in 1813 and the invasion of north-east France by Coalition forces in 1814. Existing National Guard units, such as those of Paris, were deployed as defence corps in their areas of recruitment. Mass conscription was extended to age groups previously exempt from military service, to provide more manpower for the expanded National Guard. Students and volunteers from gamekeepers and other professional groups formed separate units within the National Guard. Clothing and equipment were often in short supply and even the Paris National Guard was obliged to provide pikes as substitute weapons for some of its new recruits.[26] These field and regional units were disbanded in 1814 after the abdication of Napoleon I.
Six thousand national guardsmen took part in the Battle of Paris in 1814. Following the occupation of Paris by the allied armies, the National Guard was expanded to 35,000 men and became the primary force for maintaining order within the city.[27]
The Restoration
Under the
National Guard from 1831 to 1872
A new National Guard was established in 1831 following the July Revolution in 1830. It played a major role in suppressing the Paris
Second Empire
End of the National Guard (1872)
Despite its major role in the Franco-Prussian War, the National Guard was disbanded soon after the establishment of the Third Republic. Having been converted from a volunteer reserve into a much larger force composed mainly of conscripts, the National Guard had lost its identity and raison d'être. It also faced opposition from the regular army which was opposed to such a large armed force outside its direct control. The role of the Paris units of the National Guard in the uprising of the Paris Commune led to a great degree of hostility towards the National Guard, especially from the army.
Perceived as an embodiment of the revolutionary republican "nation in arms" at the time of the Revolution of 1789, the National Guard was formally disbanded on 14 March 1872 as a threat to the security and order of the new Third Republic.
The National Guard was superseded by the creation of territorial regiments, made up of older men who had completed their period of full-time military service. These reserve units were embodied only in times of general mobilisation but remained an integral part of the regular army, distinguished only by details of insignia.
Resurrection (2016–present)
This section needs to be updated.(May 2019) |
After several terror attacks in France, which intensified in 2014–15, French President François Hollande declared the establishment of a new third National Guard. By his words, the Guard would be formed using military reserve forces. [3]
On 12 October 2016, during a weekly meeting of the Cabinet, the National Guard was officially reconstituted after 145 years, as the fifth service branch of the French Armed Forces under the Ministry of the Armed Forces.[4][failed verification] The revitalized Guard would also reinforce elements of the National Gendarmerie and the National Police in securing major events nationwide while it would perform its historical responsibility as a national military and police reserve service.[citation needed]
It was expected that the new Guard would grow to a 72,500-member force in 2017 and grow to an 86,000-member national reserve in 2018.[29][30] The formation of the revived Guard would be assisted with a dedicated 311-million euro budget and its personnel come from the reserves, members from the private sector and active personnel seconded to the service. Unlike the Guard of the Revolutionary Wars, its officers are now seconded from both the Army and the National Gendarmerie and are graduates of their respective academies.[citation needed]
As of 2019, Division General Anne Fougerat serves as the Secretary-General for the National Guard, who reports to the Chief of Defence Staff and the Minister of the Armed Forces.
Personnel of the current iteration of the National Guard wear the uniform and rank insignia of the Army, officers wear the rank insignia of their service branch.
Notes
References
- ^ "La Garde nationale | garde-nationale.fr".
- ^ a b "France to create new National Guard 'to protect its citizens'". Local.fr. 28 July 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
- ^ a b "France to form National Guard to counter terrorist threat, Hollande says". France 24. 28 July 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
- ^ a b France creates National Guard to battle terrorism
- ^ Unknown (1788–1790). "Mr Necker". Archives départementales de la Seine-Saint-Denis. Archived from the original on 25 May 2023. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
- ^ A Self-Defining Bourgeoisie in the Early French Revolution: The Milice bourgeoise, the Bastille Days of 1789, and their Aftermath by Micah Alpaugh. In: Journal of Social History, 2014
- ^ The Making of the Sans-culottes: Democratic Ideas and Institutions in Paris ... By Robert Barrie Rose, p. 49
- ^ Almanach de la Garde nationale du Limousin, 1 janvier 1790, pp. 48, 53
- ^ Robespierre and War, a Question Posed as Early as 1789? by Thibaut Poirot. In: Annales historiques de la Révolution française 2013/1 (No. 371)
- ^ Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution by Ruth Scurr
- ^ Œuvres complètes de Maximilien de Robespierre, tome 6, p. 642
- ^ Goupil de Préfeln Guillaume François. Adoption de divers articles additionnels au décret général sur le rachat des rentes foncières, lors de la séance du 18 décembre 1790. In: Archives Parlementaires de 1787 à 1860 – Première série (1787–1799) Tome XXI – Du 26 novembre 1790 au 2 janvier 1791. Paris : Librairie Administrative P. Dupont, 1885. p. 532. www.persee.fr/doc/arcpa_0000-0000_1885_num_21_1_9450_t1_0532_0000_9
- ^ Robespierre, Maximilien (1819). Recueil des œuvrès de Max. J. Robespierre, et de pièces pour servir à son histoire. Recueillis, 1819. pp. 26–28.
- ^ Reimagining Society in 18th Century French Literature: Happiness and Human ... by Jonas Ross Kjærgård
- ^ The Life and Character of Maximilian Robespierre. Proving ... that that Much ... by James Bronterre O'Brien, p. 417–421
- ^ Crowdy 2004, p. 14.
- ^ "Vie de Napoléon Bonaparte 1792".
- ^ Banat 2006, p. 373.
- ^ Schama 1989, p. 604.
- ^ Schama 1989, p. 252.
- ISBN 0 7137 0936 7
- ^ Mansel 2003, p. 4.
- ^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Maude 1911, p. 229.
- ^ "French Infantry Regiments".
- ISBN 2-915239-56-8
- ^ Mansel 2003, p. 13.
- ^ Mansel 2003, p. 218.
- ^ La « garde nationale », un vivier de 72 000 réservistes en 2017, Le Monde, 12 October 2016 issue
- ^ Garde nationale, la génération « Charlie Hebdo », Le Monde, 27 October 2016 issue
Bibliography
- Banat, Gabriel (2006). The Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Virtuoso of the Sword and the Bow. Hillsdale, New York: Pendragon Press. ISBN 978-1-57647-109-8.
- Crowdy, Terry (2004). French Revolutionary Infantry 1789–1802. Oxford: Osprey. p. 14. ISBN 1-84176-660-7.
- Mansel, Philip (2003). Paris Between Empires – Monarchy and Revolution 1814–1852. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 13–14, 217–218. ISBN 0-312-30857-4.
- Maude, Frederic Natusch (1911). Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 212–236. . In
- ISBN 0679726101.
Further reading
- Bianchi, Serge (ed.) ; Dupuy, Roger (ed.). La Garde nationale entre Nation et peuple en armes: Mythes et réalités, 1789–1871. New edition [online]. Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2006 (generated 04 juillet 2021). Available on the Internet: <http://books.openedition.org/pur/16594>. .
- Roger Dupuy (2010) La Garde nationale 1789–1872. Paris, Gallimard, ISBN 978-2-07-034716-2
- Genty, Maurice. Les débuts de la Garde nationale parisienne (1789–1791) In: La Garde nationale entre Nation et peuple en armes: Mythes et réalités, 1789–1871 [online]. Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2006 (generated 04 juillet 2021). Available on the Internet: <http://books.openedition.org/pur/16612>. .
- Tulard, Jean; Fayard, Jean-François; Fierro, Alfred (1987). Histoire et dictionnaire de la Révolution française, 1789–1799. Bouquins (in French). Paris: Robert Laffont. ISBN 2-7028-2076-X.
- Bruce Vandervort, National Guard (France), on the online Encyclopedia of 1848 Revolutions, James Chastain, ed.