History of the French Navy

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"Neptune offre à la France l'empire de la mer" (homage to the decisive role of the French Navy in the US War of Independence)

The history of the French navy began with the late medieval crusades in the 13th century. From the 17th century to the beginning of the 20th century, the French Navy was the second most powerful navy in the world after the British Royal Navy . Despite repeated defeats and heavy losses, especially against the Royal Navy, France remained an important naval power . The French navy repeatedly tried to compensate for the deficit compared to the Royal Navy in terms of number of ships and training drill with structural and technical innovations in shipbuilding.

prehistory

Although the port city of Massilia (now Marseille ), founded by the Greeks, had a shipbuilding tradition as well as a war and merchant fleet in pre-Roman antiquity , it played a subordinate role within the Roman Empire . Instead, the Romans stationed war fleets in the ports of Forum Julii (now Fréjus ) and Bononia (now Boulogne ). It was from Boulogne that Caesar , Claudius and Constantius set out on invasions of Britain . Nantes and Bordeaux also played a certain role as trading ports since Roman times. The Roman fleets disbanded with the fall of the Roman Empire, and the shipyards also fell into disrepair under the Visigoths and Franks . Until the beginning of the 9th century, coast guard ships were still used against Arab raids from Andalusia and North Africa on the French Mediterranean coast, off Corsica and off Sardinia, but towards the end of the 9th century the Arabs settled in Provence ( Fraxinetum ) and continued “the Christians could no longer let a board swim on the sea”. The Norman Vikings , who had also been attacking from the sea since the 9th century , had nothing to do with the Franks or French. They left the Normans therefore the Normandy for the settlement, and Saint-Valery-sur-Somme in 1066 broke a Norman fleet to a renewed invasion of Britain on. Above all, the descendants of these Normans and the neighboring Bretons (Celts who fled the Anglo-Saxons of Britain) should always belong to the most daring seafarers in France since the subjugation of Normandy (1203).

Departure of Louis IX. and the French fleet to the crusade (1270) in a 19th century mystification

Again the French landed in England under Louis VIII , but were then defeated in the Sea Battle of Sandwich (1217). The Norman attempts to unite their French possessions with the England they ruled eventually resulted in centuries-long wars between France and England.

While England initially ruled the French territories on the Atlantic coast, French crusaders set out from Marseille and northern Italian Mediterranean ports to Palestine and the Levant in the 12th and 13th centuries . Unlike the English crusaders, who had their own fleets, the French were initially still dependent on transport with Italian ( Genoese ) fleets - e.g. B. 1190/91 King Philip II during the Third Crusade . King Ludwig IX. (France) set out for the Sixth Crusade in 1248 from Aigues-Mortes and Marseille with Genoese and Pisan ships. For the Seventh Crusade , Ludwig had his own French ships built in Aigues-Mortes and in 1270 placed them under the command of the newly created rank of Admiral of France . The crusade failed, however, and the king died - the only task left for the French fleet was to return Ludwig's body to France. After the French plans for rule in Sicily had failed ( Sicilian Vespers , 1282) and the Crusades had come to an end (1291), the Mediterranean ambitions of French kings initially subsided. About three hundred years later the port and shipyards of Aigues-Mortes were silted up.

Instead, French fleets fought in the English Channel and the Atlantic against English fleets from 1337 : in 1338 the French won the naval battle of Arnemuiden and planned to land in England. The defeats suffered by the English in the naval battles of Sluis (1340) and Brest (1342) after the destruction of a French galley fleet in the port of Boulogne (1340 ) made this impossible. Until the French won again in the battle of La Rochelle (1372), the English ruled the English Channel and thus the supply routes to France. Under Admiral Jean de Vienne , the newly built French fleet in Rouen then took offensive action against England again, but the Hundred Years War was decided on land.

After the war against England from 1494–1559, France again fought several wars with Spain for supremacy in Italy in the Mediterranean . For this purpose, the galley fleet was rebuilt and reorganized in the 1490s according to the Genoese and Venetian models. But the French began to lose the war when the traditionally allied Republic of Genoa and its fleet changed sides under Admiral Andrea Doria (1528). Instead, King Francis I allied with Ottoman Turks and Algerian pirates , and together French, Turkish and Algerian ships attacked Spanish and Italian ports. The Ottoman fleet spent the winter in Toulon, France (1543/44), and when they returned, five French galleys under Antoine Escalin des Aimars made a return visit to Istanbul.

  • Admiral Graville's small fleet was not enough to secure King Franz's supplies to Naples (1504).

  • In the battle of St. Mathieu (1512) the La Cordelière , the largest ship in France up to that time, sank

  • The Frenchman François Desch Arges developed the port- (1501) for the posted from now on Extra-deck ship cannons

After the failure of the Italian plans, King Franz looked more and more across the Atlantic and founded the port city of Le Havre (1517). Binot Paulmier de Gonneville had already reached the Brazilian coast around 1504 , and in 1524 Franz had sent the Italian captain Giovanni da Verrazzano to find a " northern passage " to India further north of the Atlantic routes dominated by Spain and Portugal . Also looking for such a passage, the French captain Jacques Cartier reached Canada in 1534. From 1530 onwards, Jehan Ango repeatedly entered the Portuguese waters off Brazil. A French fleet unsuccessfully attacked the port of Bembridge on the English Isle of Wight in 1545 , but it was not until 1558 that Calais, the last port city under English rule on the mainland side of the English Channel, could be conquered. French ships with colonists sent by Admiral Coligny on board then pushed across the Atlantic to Florida ( Fort Caroline , 1562–1565) and Brazil ( France Antarctique , 1555–1567 and France Équinoxiale , 1612–1615) in the Spanish and Portuguese spheres of power , but were initially beaten.

After the Portuguese pretender António von Crato had promised the French Brazil, he was supported by a French fleet under Filippo Strozzi , which was defeated by the Spanish in the naval battle of Ponta Delgada (off the Azores) in 1582. Nevertheless, individual ships of French pirates made their way to West Africa and the Caribbean again and again and disrupted the Atlantic slave trade of the Spanish and Portuguese and attacked their gold, silver and sugar fleets from Central and South America . Like Queen Elizabeth I of England , the French crown had provided numerous pirates with letters of credit for this purpose .

17th century

Around 1604, Samuel de Champlain had reached Canada in Cartier's footsteps and finally settled permanent colonists in Québec, and the French began to establish themselves in the Caribbean as well. In view of the steadily growing traffic between France and its colony " New France ", the French Atlantic ports became increasingly important compared to those of the Mediterranean.

Champlain reaches the Québec region (1603) and establishes the colony "New France"

France's chief minister, Cardinal Richelieu (1624–1642) recognized that a strong navy was necessary to protect the new colonies and trade routes. In 1627 an English fleet had made the siege of La Rochelle (1627–1628) difficult for the French , in 1628 English pirates cut the routes between France and Québec. To improve the effectiveness of the French fleet, Richelieu converted the previous admiralty into a Supreme Naval Office (1626) and launched a large shipbuilding program. The previously independent and often only seasonal fleets of the various coastal cities, the ships built in various countries (Netherlands, Italy, France) and their teams from different nations (French, Italian, Dutch) were combined to form a permanent royal navy and two Fleets formed - the Western Fleet du Ponant and the Eastern Fleet du Levant . The former was centered in Brest and was intended to secure the Atlantic, the latter was based in Toulon and was intended to secure the Mediterranean.

" It seems as if nature wanted to offer France the rule of the sea, because the location of its two coasts is so favorable and they are equally provided with excellent harbors on two seas, the [Atlantic] Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea ... There is no state in Europe that would be more suitable to build ships than this kingdom, which produces an abundance of hemp, linen, iron, cordage and workers ... (from the "Political Testament" Cardinal Richelieus, 1629) "

Since 1626 the fleet had its first West African base in Saint Louis , Senegal , and in 1635 French landing forces were able to conquer Guadeloupe and Martinique . From 1643, French pirates, but also French settlers, began to settle in Madagascar, and from 1667 French ships with Surat also had a trading post in India. After his death (1642) or during the Fronde Civil War (1648–1653), Richelieu's naval reforms initially stalled, and the newly established fleet quickly fell into disrepair. In 1640, 1642, 1643 and 1646 French fleets were able to destroy or capture some ships in successful attacks on the Spanish ports of Cádiz , Barcelona , Cartagena and Orbetello (Tuscany). In 1653 it was a Spanish fleet that attacked Bordeaux and many French ones Captured warships or burned the rest. In return, a French fleet defeated a Spanish one in front of Barcelona in 1655, and in the Peace of the Pyrenees (1659) France replaced Spain as the dominant power in Europe. Spain's supremacy at sea was replaced by the Netherlands, and England and France also vied for sea supremacy.

France's "Sun King" Louis XIV (1638/43 / 51–1715), who, as ruler of the most populous state in the West, commanded the largest army in Europe, also wanted to have the largest fleet. He invested gigantic sums for this. Finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert created a naval ministry (initially called the secretary of state) in 1661/62, which he took over himself, and reintroduced the admiralty, which Richelieu had abolished. Then in 1664 he founded two companies for trade with the overseas colonies - the French West India Company (Le Havre) and the French East India Company (Lorient). In the East Indies (India) Pondichéry was occupied in 1674 , in the West Indies (Caribbean) Cayenne (Guiana) was founded in 1653 and the colony Louisiana ( St. Louis ) was founded in 1682 . Safer and faster than the sea route around Spain, the Canal du Midi, completed in 1681 within French territory, offered the possibility of moving merchant ships and small gunboats from the French Mediterranean ports to the Atlantic ports (and vice versa). However, the canal was too small, not deep enough and had too many low bridges for large warships.

Colbert also reorganized the royal navy's fleets. The Mediterranean fleet remained in Toulon, but the Atlantic fleet was relocated to the newly created port of Rochefort and Lorient , while a northern fleet was formed in Brest, to which a squadron stationed in Cherbourg for securing the English Channel was attached. A "Persian Squadron" was sent to the Indian Ocean. Additional naval arsenals were created in Le Havre and Dunkerque as well as in Saint-Malo , Nantes , Bordeaux and Marseille. French shipyards rebuilt ships bought in the Netherlands, developing their own advanced shipbuilding techniques. The French shipyards were ordered to build ships exclusively from French materials, for which a special law for timber from the forests was passed in 1669. For the recruitment of the ship's crews, Colbert issued a special levy law in the port cities and coastal regions of the naval districts. Colbert had already restored the fleet in 1662. Twenty years later, when Colbert was overthrown as a result of courtly intrigues, he had already doubled the number of ships in the French Navy. Colbert's son succeeded him as Minister of the Navy and continued his father's policy, concentrating primarily on expanding the war fleet to the detriment of the merchant fleet. Thanks to the two Colberts, the French navy was temporarily superior to the English and the Dutch, the French merchant navy took third place after the Dutch and the English.

France's main opponent in colonial acquisitions and overseas trade was initially the Netherlands in the second half of the 17th century. In the Third Anglo-Dutch War , a French fleet under Admiral d'Estrées on the side of the English was initially unable to defeat the Dutch under Admiral de Ruyter (naval battles of Solebay , Schooneveld and Texel , 1672/73). In the Mediterranean, however, with his victories over de Ruyter and the Spaniards, who were now allied with the Dutch, Admiral Duquesne fought for the French to rule over the Mediterranean (naval battles of Stromboli , Augusta and Palermo , 1676), de Ruyter was killed in the process. Shortly afterwards, d'Estrées also won a victory over the Dutch in the Battle of Tobago (1677). In changing alliances with Sweden against the Dutch and Danes and with Denmark against the Dutch and Sweden, French warships operated not only on the Weser and Elbe, but also in the Baltic Sea from 1678 to 1684.

  • The victory over the Dutch-Spanish fleet (1676) brought control of the Mediterranean.

  • With the bombing of Algiers, Admiral Duquesne released Christian hostages (1683).

  • The bombardment of Genoa (1684) brought the old Italian maritime republic into French dependence.

After that, France initially devoted itself to the fight against the North African barbarian states , which, despite the first punitive expeditions against Tripoli (1661), Algiers and Tunis (1670), continued to threaten French shipping and the French coasts. With attacks on Tripoli (1680 and 1681) and Algiers (1682 and 1683), Duquesne and Admiral Tourville forced the surrender of French hostages and tribute payments. While Duquesne then eliminated this old maritime republic as a competitor with the bombardment of Genoa (1684) and the destruction of the Genoese fleet and henceforth forced it into French dependency, d'Estrées bombed Tripoli and Tunis (1685) and again Algiers (1687).

However, after the Dutch governor-general William of Orange became King of England (1689), France faced an alliance between the two naval powers. The sea power Spain, the German Empire and even France's previous ally Sweden joined this alliance . Although Tourville and d'Estrées succeeded in landing William's opponent James II in Ireland after the sea ​​meeting off Bantry Bay (1689), the Jacobites allied with France were defeated on land, and Tourville also used his English via a united English at sea - Dutch fleet won the sea ​​battle of Beachy Head (1690), so that the English and Dutch could destroy the French squadrons individually in the sea ​​battles of Barfleur and La Hougue (1692) and make the planned French landing in England impossible. France concentrated instead on the pirate war, destroyed a large Anglo-Dutch convoy a year later in the sea ​​battle near Lagos and captured almost the entire convoy. In an attack on Málaga (1693) Tourville captured 24 warships and set the rest on fire. Shortly afterwards, the privateer Jean Bart freed a Scandinavian grain convoy destined for France from Dutch control (1694), then another in front of the Dogger Bank (1696). In the same year, in the North American Bay of Fundy , Captain d'Iberville defeated English ships, and in the Caribbean, French privateers destroyed Spanish ships in the port of Cartagena (1697). In the Peace of Rijswijk , France gained another naval base in the Caribbean with the colony of Saint-Domingue (today's Haiti).

  • Tourville destroyed an Anglo-Dutch fleet off Beachy Head (1690).

  • After the defeat of Hogue (1692), the French fleet was quickly rebuilt.

  • Tourville destroyed a large Anglo-Dutch convoy off Lagos (1693).

18th century

The French naval officer, always in the arms of death (allegory, 1700)

From the succession of his grandson Philip to the throne in Spain (1700) the "Sun King" had initially hoped for a strengthening in the fight against the Anglo-Dutch naval power and against the " Great Alliance ". But the combat value of the Spanish army and the Spanish fleet was significantly lower and the international difficulties were significantly greater than expected because of the subsequent War of the Spanish Succession . The French fleet now had to defend not only the French coasts and overseas colonies, but also the Spanish ones. Apart from victories in the Caribbean at Cartagena and Santa Marta (1702) and Nassau (1703), it suffered defeats in Europe first before Vigo (1702) , Cabo de la Roca (1703), Málaga (1704) , Marbella (1705) and Lisbon (1706). In addition, the French Mediterranean fleet sank during the siege of Toulon (1707) so as not to fall into Allied hands. Then, however, French fleets won over Beachy Head (1707), Lizard Point (1707) and Syracuse (1710). Overseas, the English conquered the French colony of Acadia (1710), while the French destroyed or captured Portuguese ships off Rio de Janeiro (1711) .

Despite enormous losses of people and material both on land and at sea, France ultimately emerged victorious from this war of succession, while Spain was still ruled by the Bourbons. The Anglo-Dutch alliance dissolved soon after the end of the war, and Great Britain had not yet achieved a clear superiority. But eight decades of war, the cost of constantly building new ships and maintaining an ever larger fleet had drained France financially, and hunger riots broke out.

Louis XIV's successor, Louis XV. and his regent Philippe von Orléans , therefore initially pursued an austerity course from 1715, which also affected the fleet. All major European powers initially kept peace for similar reasons, so that during this time the only major action by the French navy was the destruction of Tripoli (1728). Again, the release of European hostages and the payment of a tribute were forced. France had initially reconciled with Great Britain (at the expense of Spain) in the 1720s and during this period of peace let its fleet decay. The British, on the other hand, used this to expand their fleet and their position overseas.

Broadside of a French 74-gun ship (around 1755, model)

From 1730, French shipyards began building 74-cannon ships with superior firepower, and in 1741 the threatened French intervention in a Spanish-British war (and the threatened superiority of a possibly united Franco-Spanish fleet) caused Great Britain to give in to diplomacy. In 1744, during the War of the Austrian Succession , the French Mediterranean fleet was able to repel a British attack on the Spanish fleet in Toulon and escort the Spanish ships back to Spain. A French invasion fleet sent against Britain in return was badly taken in a storm and had to return to Brest (1744). In 1746 a British attack on the port of Lorient failed, but in the sea ​​battle at Cape Finisterre (1747) the British were able to capture a French 74-gun ship, ten years later they began with multiple replicas and soon caught up with the French. The French Navy was initially unable to catch up with the Royal Navy, even by building even larger ships of the line with 80 or 110 to 120 cannons (according to plans by Jacques-Noël Sané ) and despite the hasty reforms and reorganizations by Naval Minister Machault (e B. Union of the galley fleet with the high seas fleet in 1748) the French Navy was ill-prepared for the Seven Years War (1756–1763).

For the French Navy, the war began with the victory of Admiral de La Galissonière over the British in the Battle of Menorca (1756); overseas, however, the British attacked the French colonies (especially in North America and India), which could be protected and supplied by the French navy less and less. The British Royal Navy successfully blocked all major French ports for the first time, while French squadrons and fleets were defeated off Cape Race (1755) and Cartagena (1758). In the Indian Ocean, the French navy remained undefeated at Cuddalore (1758), Negapatam (1758) and Pondicherry (1759), but on land the British captured the French posts in India.

To turn the war, the French admiralty planned a direct invasion of Britain, but instead, 1759 turned into a catastrophe for France. The Mediterranean fleet was to unite with the Atlantic fleet, which had been concentrated in Brest and Lorient, and German contingents of the Imperial Army were also waiting in Brest for their landing in England. The numerically superior Royal Navy countered this danger by destroying the approaching Mediterranean fleet in the sea ​​battle of Lagos and the Atlantic fleet in the sea battle in the Bay of Quiberon . Le Havre was shelled by British warships. Although the privateer François Thurot managed to land in Carrickfergus in Ireland, the expedition failed on land, and while fleeing at sea, Thurot's small fleet was destroyed by the British, with Thurot falling (1760).

  • The French Mediterranean fleet was defeated in the Battle of Lagos (1759).

  • The French defeat at Quiberon (1759) prevented an invasion of Britain

  • After the unsuccessful invasion of Ireland, Thurot fell in a naval battle off the Isle of Man (1760).

The fact that an invasion had become impossible with the loss of the French fleets, however, weighed less than the fact that the French in New France were now cut off from supplies from home. Without the fleet they were fighting a losing battle. Only then did the Royal Navy gain a preponderance in the Atlantic, even if around 180 "registered" French corsairs in the Caribbean initially disrupted the British routes of communication. Despite the desperate resistance z. B. of the naval officer Louis Antoine de Bougainville , the fall of Québec (1759) and, after the battle on the Restigouche River, also of Montreal (1760), could not be prevented, Senegal (1758) and Guadeloupe (1759) were also conquered by the British. Bougainville, who had asked for help from the mother country, which was also battered on land in the European theater of war, received a legendary rebuff from the then Minister of the Navy (State Secretary) Berryer

" You don't look after the stables when the house is on fire (Berryer, 1759)"

With the Bourbon Family Pact (1761) France therefore sought the support of Spain and the Spanish fleet, but the year 1762 turned into a catastrophe for Spain too. The French fleet was already largely eliminated, the British did not have to beat a united Franco-Spanish fleet, but could destroy the French and Spaniards one after the other. Without the support of a French fleet, the Spanish fleet was repeatedly defeated by the Royal Navy, and the British captured the Philippines as well as Cuba. In the Peace of Paris (1763) France lost its entire (first) colonial empire (New France-Louisiana, Senegal, Bengal) to Great Britain and got back only Guiana, a few islands in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean and five unfortified trading posts in India.

After the loss of the colonial empire, the French Navy and the Academy of Sciences initially focused again on discovering unknown coasts and exploring these potential new colonies. Bougainville had already taken possession of the Falkland Islands in 1764 (which were left to Spain), from 1766 to 1769 he was the first French to sail around the world, and in 1768 he reached Tahiti. His and de La Pérouse's research trips to the South Seas are no less important than those of their British contemporaries or rivals James Cook (from 1768) and John Byron . In Europe, however, France was able to acquire the island of Corsica from Genoa and thereby gained another port with a naval arsenal in Bastia (1768), and like the two Colberts 100 years earlier, Étienne-François de Choiseul appointed Foreign, War and Naval Minister (State Secretary) together with his cousin the French fleet. As early as 1770 it was restored to such an extent that Choiseul's cousin made a renewed proposal to the king to invade Britain, but the latter refused, whereupon the Choiseuls fell out of favor and lost their offices.

The chance for a war of revenge against Great Britain and the Royal Navy presented itself with the American War of Independence . In North America, the English fought against "New Englanders" since 1776, the British against American warships. France (1778), Spain (1779) and also the Netherlands (1780) allied themselves with the young USA against Great Britain. Together, the three naval powers were on a par with the Royal Navy. The French Navy alone - it bore the brunt of the fighting - comprised 149 larger warships (ships of the line and frigates) at that time (1779), the British Royal Navy was only 33 ships larger at that time. Another invasion of Britain was planned and a joint Franco-Spanish armada was formed for this purpose (1779). But like Tourville in the Battle of Beachy Head (1690), Admiral d'Estaing did not take advantage of the success in the naval battle of Grenada (1779). At least, however, the French Navy under the Admirals d'Estaing, de Guichen and de Grasse increasingly prevented British supplies to North America - just as the British had prevented any reinforcements for the French garrisons two decades earlier. The British reacted again by blocking French ports and disrupting all French trade, but according to the strategy of the new Naval Minister Castries , the French warships remained at sea and not in the blocked home ports. Since all other trading partners of France, Spain and the Netherlands suffered from the British trade blockade, Russia, Sweden and Denmark formed a coalition for the armed protection of neutrality (1780), which now also became involved in the conflict on the French-American side, what gradually made the opponents of the British predominate. Both sides engaged in a bitter pirate war. With French help, the Americans finally gained the upper hand on land after the sea ​​battle off the Chesapeake Bay and forced the British to surrender Yorktown (1781).

  • The victory in the Battle of Grenada (1779) was not used to destroy the British fleet

  • The French victory at Chesapeake Bay (1781) helped the United States to achieve independence

  • At the Battle of Cuddalore, the French defied British superiority (1783)

But no sooner had the Americans achieved their own goals (independence) than they withdrew from the conflict, while the Europeans continued the fight against the British alone. The French were then initially defeated in the Battle of Les Saintes (1782), and the British occupied the Dutch and Danish possessions in West Africa. In South Africa, however, French ships and landing forces successfully helped the Dutch defend their Cape Colony (1782), and in Indian waters Admiral Suffren was undefeated in four consecutive naval battles before gaining the upper hand in the Battle of Cuddalore (1783) against a British superior force could win. After the pirate war, which had escalated on all the world's oceans, led to an exhausting stalemate, the Peace of Paris (1783) was concluded, which returned to France and Spain at least some of the colonies lost two decades earlier (Senegal, Tobago, Florida) and the inviolability of the neutral trade guaranteed.

However, the immense cost of the lavish royal court, the constant wars and the building of new fleets had brought France to the brink of national bankruptcy. The dispute between the king, finance minister and the state parliament over tax increases led to the French Revolution (1789). D'Estaing became the last admiral of France after the overthrow of the Bourbon kings . The office was abolished as early as 1792, but a naval ministry was created in return, which upgraded the previous state secretariat. According to the will of the revolutionaries, Bougainville was to be the first naval minister, which, however, refused.

19th century

Napoleon I inspected the Cherbourg squadron (1811): most of the naval officers he had appointed were dismissed by the Bourbons.
Napoleon I and Empress Marie-Louise at the naval parade under the command of Admiral Aimable-Gilles Troudet in the roadstead of Cherbourg (1811)

The French Navy suffered its worst setbacks during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars and at the beginning of the restoration that followed . With the revolution, a large number of the experienced royalist naval officers had deserted (e.g. Castries, Charles Jean d'Hector), and many of those who remained were executed in the turmoil of the revolution (e.g. D'Estaing). It took a long time for the graduates trained under Napoleon to make up for this loss, but most of these new officers were dismissed after Napoleon's fall because the Bourbons mistrusted them.

The French navy also suffered heavy losses on ships during this period. At the beginning of the Revolution (1789) France had 315 warships, including 81 ships of the line and 86 frigates. First, in the battle for Toulon (1793), in fact half of the Mediterranean fleet was destroyed. Of the 30 French ships of the line, the British destroyed or conquered half and carried them away. The revolutionary Jeanbon St. André tried to reorganize the Atlantic fleet, but the British captured six ships in a naval battle off Brest (1794) and destroyed four more in an attack on Dunkerque (1800). While Spain and the Netherlands had belonged to France's allies again at least since 1795 ( transfer of the Dutch fleet in 1795 ), the former ally USA began a quasi-war against France from 1794 and hijacked numerous French ships. Nevertheless, the French repeatedly planned or undertook landing operations against Newfoundland, England, Wales and Ireland (1796, 1797, 1798). With a newly built Mediterranean fleet in Toulon and Genoa, Napoleon conquered Egypt ( Egyptian expedition ) before the British under Nelson in the same year sank or captured this fleet in the naval battle of Abukir (1798), with the French admiral Brueys also falling. Only four out of 17 French ships managed to escape. The then ordered from Brest to the Mediterranean Sea under Admiral Bruix operated unsuccessfully in 1799 despite numerical superiority and was outmaneuvered by the British.

When Napoleon came to power (1799), the revolution left behind only a small fleet. In the following years from 1800 to 1815, the French Navy lost another 43 ships of the line, 82 frigates, 20 corvettes and 50 briggs in the battle against the British Royal Navy. Nevertheless, the French Navy was still able to defend itself and to fight. Amiral Latouche-Tréville , for example, fended off an attack by Nelson on the parts of the Atlantic fleet lying in the port of Boulogne in 1801, and French squadrons continued to offer valiant resistance to the British in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean. Napoleon and his Minister of the Navy, Denis Decrès , had new ships built in the various port cities of France. Every year several ships of the line left the country's numerous shipyards. The Royal Navy had regained its briefly lost naval sovereignty in the Atlantic in 1778–1783, but together with the Spanish fleet, the French fleet of the Royal Navy was numerically at least in the Mediterranean until the French-Spanish fleet was defeated in the battle of Trafalgar (1805) superior, but could not exploit this superiority. (The British Admiralty later drew the lesson of the necessity of a two-power standard from this interim Franco-Spanish majority , the necessity to be stronger than the next two strongest fleets together.)

From 1825 to 1840 Jules Dumont d'Urville explored Polynesia and reached Antarctica

After Trafalgar, however, the British had achieved sea sovereignty, and renewed French plans for a landing in England or even Australia (1804/05) were no longer feasible. There were still remnants of French naval units capable of fighting in the various war ports blocked by the British, and time and again some ships managed to break through the British blockade (e.g. the privateer Robert Surcouf from St. Malo) without the protection of a strong navy, all French overseas colonies fell into British hands. In the naval battle of Grand Port off Mauritius alone , the French under Admiral Duperré managed a small victory over the British in 1810, without ultimately being able to prevent the loss of this colony as well. However, Napoleon did not give up his naval war plans. In the summer of 1810 he founded the Naval Council and worked out a huge naval armament program with the Admirals Decrès and Ganteaume and the Councilors of State Malouet and Caffarelli . Within a year and a half, from 1810 to 1812, the number of ships of the line in the entire empire rose from 50 to 72. Since it was more difficult to compensate for the human losses, the military began to put the military conscription into the service of the navy and seamen were massively withdrawn forcibly recruiting allied or dependent European states. A new French Mediterranean fleet was able to repel a British attack on Toulon in 1813, but could no longer break through the British blockade.

In the peace of Paris (1814/15) , France was ultimately only left with only two thirds of the remnants of its fleet . Despite the enormous losses of people and material between 1793 and 1815, the French Navy still had 377 ships after the war, 106 of them larger (in comparison, in 1815 the Royal Navy, including the captured French, Spanish, Italian, Danish and Dutch ships, had at its disposal 778 ships, 243 of which are larger). The scandal surrounding the sinking of the frigate Méduse (1816) marked another low point in French naval history.

In 1818 the French fleet took up the fight against North West African pirates. In 1823 French ships blocked Spanish ports and supported the French invading army . In 1827 a French squadron, alongside the British and Russians, defeated the Ottoman-Egyptian fleet at the Battle of Navarino , in 1830 the French fleet blocked Tripoli and in 1831 a French squadron destroyed several Portuguese ships while bombarding Lisbon. In the same year, France intervened in the Belgian War of Independence and had the French fleet block the Dutch port of Antwerp, and in 1838 a French fleet briefly occupied the Mexican port of Veracruz ( Cake War ).

The most extensive operation of the French navy in the 19th century was the capture of Algiers . After a French fleet had blocked the North African metropolis since 1827, 100 warships (35 of them large) and 357 transport ships with 37,000 soldiers on board set sail from Toulon on May 25, 1830 under Admiral Duperré. The occupation of Algiers, Oran and Bone was the prelude to the establishment of a new colonial empire, and the French fleet played a decisive role on all the world's oceans in the following decades. It also rivaled the British fleet again, and during the Orient Crisis (1840) at least the French Mediterranean fleet was again slightly superior to the British. The attempt of the French admiral Lalande to induce his government to attack the British Mediterranean fleet resulted in his dismissal. However, this could not prevent France's diplomatic defeat in this conflict with Great Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia.

The "La Gloire" was the world's first armored warship (1859)

Under Emperor Napoleon III. the relationship with Great Britain improved; together both fleets and land armies waged wars against Russia (1853–1856) , China (1856–1860) , Mexico (1861–1862) and Japan (1864) . The engineer Paixhans modernized the ship artillery and devoted himself to the tactic that even a small but powerful fleet could take on a significantly larger one. The fleet and the five main war ports were continuously upgraded and modernized. The "Napoléon" was the world's first steam-powered warship in 1850, in 1858 French naval engineers built the " La Gloire ", the world's first armored warship, and in 1863 the French Navy put the first submarine into service with the " Plongeur ". The construction of the Suez Canal , which was completed in 1869 and was mainly carried out with French capital, also served French maritime interests.

During the naval war in the Franco-Prussian War (1870/71), the French navy was supposed to land in northern Germany. It was actually far superior to the Navy of the North German Confederation . But Admiral Fourichon abandoned this in view of the lack of land support from Denmark. A battle broke out off Havana between a French and a German warship , in which both ships were badly damaged. After the defeat in the war, however, France was pushed back by the German Chancellor Bismarck to colonial expansion overseas (to forget the loss of Alsace-Lorraine and to divert attention from revenge in Europe), whereby France again clashed with Great Britain (which was also done by Bismarck was intended).

  • Since the Crimean War (1854), the French navy was once again on a par with the Royal Navy

  • In the port of Fuzhou destroyed Admiral Courbet torpedo boats China Fleet (1884)

  • French fleet visit to Kronstadt, Russia (1891)

Due to the temporary superiority at least in armored ships and submarines, the French fleet of the Royal Navy was about equal in combat value and maneuverability until around 1880, but afterwards its expansion was neglected again due to constant changes of government and new naval ministers as well as strategic disputes with the Jeune École . Before Alexandria, in 1882, a British-French squadron tried together to put pressure on the Egyptian government. However, when the British were preparing to bombard Alexandria, the French Prime Minister Freycinet and his Navy Minister Jauréguiberry withdrew the French squadron. The British used this for the sole landing in Egypt and to occupy the country and the Suez Canal, France had allowed itself to be outmaneuvered.

French Navy uniforms in the late 19th century

Against Great Britain and Germany, France allied itself with the former enemy Russia. After a visit to the Russian port of Kronstadt (1891) by a French naval squadron commanded by Admiral Gervais , a Franco-Russian military convention was concluded (1893). Trusting in this alliance, France in the Faschoda crisis (1898) was initially quite ready to allow another war with Great Britain to come at sea. Both the French and British fleets have already been mobilized. In Oman, too, France provoked the British by forcing the sultan, who was under British protectorate, with a naval demonstration in 1898 to let France build a naval base. A more powerful British naval demonstration in 1899 forced the Sultan to revoke the agreement with France. The British Royal Navy was clearly superior again to the French Navy, but had not been able to achieve its goal of the two-power standard , and together the French and Russian Navy seemed to be roughly equal to the Royal Navy, at least quantitatively. In the event of war, Admiral Aube , a representative of the Jeune École, had prescribed the traditionally successful caper strategy with cruisers against Great Britain. However, given Germany's unpredictable attitude to land in the event of a Franco-British war, Russia advised France to give in. Shortly before, in 1897, the German military historian Maximilian Graf Yorck von Wartenburg had spoken of a natural ruling role that France could play in the Mediterranean if it renounced its revenge against Germany.

20th century

The Foudre was the predecessor of the first aircraft carrier (1911)

Against Russia, in turn, Great Britain had allied itself with Japan (1902), which defeated two Russian fleets in the Russo-Japanese War (1904/05). After their reconciliation, France and Great Britain instead concluded the Entente cordiale (1904), which after the balance of interests between Russia and Great Britain was expanded to form the Triple Entente (1907). Within this military alliance directed against the Triple Alliance, France and Great Britain redefined their maritime tasks and obligations by means of a Franco-British naval convention (1912). For the great war ahead, Great Britain pledged to protect the French Channel coast and the Atlantic coast, while France was entrusted with the protection of British interests and lines of communication in the Mediterranean. To this end, France relocated most of its Atlantic squadron in Brest to the Mediterranean Sea, while the British brought back most of their fleet from Gibraltar and Malta to the North Sea.

However, as early as 1909, a corruption scandal involving Minister of the Navy Alfred Maurice Picard had revealed the weakness or deterioration of the navy (deficiencies in equipment and training, deficiencies in materials, manipulation of the naval armament program) and brought down the (first) Clemenceau government . In 1907, the French fleet was still considered the second strongest in the world. From 1912, however, it had fallen behind the US Navy (which sank two Spanish fleets in the Spanish-American War in 1898) and the Imperial German Navy - measured by the total tonnage and the number of armored capital ships and battleships with large firepower. The slight preponderance of capital ships and large cruisers (liners of the line) on the German and US-American side contrasted with a larger number of smaller, fast cruisers, torpedo boats and submarines on the French side (corresponding to the cruiser war concept of the Jeune Ecole ); the French submarine fleet was as strong as the British. In addition, France already had naval aviators and the first (and at that time only) aircraft mother ship, while the Imperial German Navy was only partially operational at the beginning of the war due to a lack of personnel.

On August 16, 1914, shortly after the beginning of World War I , there was a battle between Austrian and Franco-British warships off the coast of the city of Bar (Montenegro) . On September 22, 1914, German cruisers destroyed the French port of Papeete (Tahiti) in the South Pacific. In the same year the German navy sank a Franco-Russian convoy off Penang in the Strait of Malacca . The German Mediterranean Division shelled the French port of Bône (Algeria) on August 4, 1914, but did not surrender to the French Mediterranean fleet. In 1915 the French Mediterranean fleet was initially still victorious against the Austrian Navy off Durrës (it. Durazzo, Albania) , but an Austro-Hungarian submarine sank the armored cruiser Léon Gambetta , and the battleship Bouvet was running during the British-French attack on the Dardanelles off Gallipoli on Turkish mines and sank (1915). Her sister ship, the Suffren , escaped damage from the Turkish mines and Turkish fire; it was sunk in 1916 off Lisbon by the German submarine U 52 . Also in Portuguese waters, in the port of Funchal (Madeira), the French gunboat Surprise was surprised and damaged by the German submarine U 38 (1917), and in the Mediterranean, fighting with the Austro-Hungarian and German fleets at the Otranto Lock other French ships lost (1917). Compared to those of the French land army or those of the Royal Navy, the losses of the French navy were overall small: it lost a total of four ships of the line, one armored cruiser, 15 torpedo boats, 13 submarines and 9 auxiliary cruisers during the war. Her main task of securing the vital supplies of troops from the colonies in North and West Africa to France, she fulfilled unhindered. Against the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War , which was undertaken immediately after the World War, a mutiny broke out on some of the warships of the French Mediterranean fleet sent to the Black Sea (1919) . The uprising of war-weary sailors, which spread to other parts of the Mediterranean fleet, forced the (second) Clemenceau government to withdraw from Soviet Russia.

  • During the Battle of Gallipoli the Bouvet ran into Turkish mines and sank (1915)

  • The crew of Jean Bart mutinied against the intervention in Soviet Russia (1919)

  • The Béarn was France's first and only aircraft carrier between the two world wars

The First World War brought about a fundamental change in the ranking of the naval powers . With an extensive and expensive fleet program, the United States Navy had caught up with the Royal Navy during the war; After the elimination of Germany and the self-sinking of the Imperial High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow , the French Navy had once again become the third largest fleet in the world. However, given the high war bonds in the USA, France could no longer afford an expensive large fleet. The Imperial Japanese Navy , which was once built up with French help , also passed France and initially pushed the French Navy back to fourth place with extensive armaments. The new balance of power was reflected in the naval conferences of 1922 and 1930. Under Anglo-American pressure, Japan, France and Italy had to cancel or abandon armaments and modernization programs and, in the case of capital ships, a tonnage ratio of 5: 5: 3: 1.75: 1.75 from the US Navy (525,000 t) to the Royal Navy (525,000 t), Japanese Navy (315,000 t), French Navy (175,000 t) and Italian Navy (175,000 t). This not only set an upper limit for France, but also allowed Italy to equate with the French Navy. However, this upper limit only related to the tonnage of capital ships (more than 10,000 t), so that immediately following the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, a naval competition between all sea powers in cruiser construction (up to 10,000 t) began. The attempt of the Geneva Naval Conference of 1927 to also create upper limits for cruisers failed due to resistance from France and Italy, which then no longer took part in the London Conference of 1930. France no longer wanted and could no longer accept the equality of the Italian navy with the French navy, which Italy continued to demand, let alone an Italian preponderance. As a result, Franco-Italian negotiations on a bilateral naval agreement also failed in 1931.

  • Admiral Lapeyrère led the French Mediterranean fleet during the First World War

  • Admiral Guépratte failed at the side of the Royal Navy in the attack on Gallipoli

  • The rank of naval admiral was created especially for François Darlan (1939)

Due to certain exception or postponement regulations, the French Navy had 175 larger warships around 1930, a slight lead over the Italian Navy (150 larger warships), and so France only built a "real" single aircraft carrier with the Béarn between the two world wars - Apart from the aircraft mother ship Commandant Teste . The naval agreement was only to apply until 1936, and in 1937 France launched a new naval armament program, but Italy rearmed more than France and had 240 larger warships at the start of the war. With 296 warships, the French Navy was the fourth most powerful navy in the world at the start of the war. In a separate German-British naval agreement (1935), the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany was also granted equality with the French and Italian navies, but at the beginning of the war the German Navy had not yet achieved this equality and thanks to the powerful warships of the modern Richelieu class ( Richelieu and a new Jean Bart ) or the Dunkerque class ( Dunkerque and Strasbourg ), the French navy should initially remain superior to the Italian and German. On a larger scale, the French Navy came, u. a. the Commandant Teste , only used from 1937 to 1938 in the Spanish Civil War , when it blocked the coast of Galicia as part of a questionable "policy of non-interference ". At the end of the civil war, the republican Spanish fleet (the majority of the former Spanish fleet) fled to France in 1939 and was partly interned there, partly integrated into the French navy.

When the war began, the French Navy had the world's largest submarine fleet, but almost all of its submarines were made available to the British. All the other French warships of the Atlantic fleet lying in Lorient, Brest, Bordeaux and Saint-Nazaire moved to Dakar and Casablanca and into the Mediterranean. Unlike in World War I, France was no longer responsible for securing the entire Mediterranean, but only for its western sector (the waters between the west coast of Italy and Gibraltar), while the British fleet secured the eastern sector (between Malta and the Suez Canal) should. At the beginning of the fighting in 1940, most of the Italian Navy was stationed in the Mediterranean. There they had a slight preponderance of cruisers and a large preponderance of destroyers, torpedo boats and submarines compared to the French Mediterranean fleet. Despite the defeat of the French army on land, the French navy shelled the Italian naval arsenal in the port of Genoa in June 1940 (" Operation Vado ").

Memorial plaque to the fallen French sailors in Mers-el-Kébir
Gösch of the Free French Navy

According to the Franco-German armistice agreement of 1940 , the French navy was allowed to be withdrawn to the unoccupied part of France ( Vichy France ) and should remain anchored there with half crews. Although the agreement specifically stipulated that the fleet would not be surrendered to Germany or Italy, and although its commander-in-chief, Admiral Darlan , had sworn to the British allies never to allow this, the British government and the British admiralty still saw a greater danger in an intact French fleet than in the German or the Italian. Just as Nelson once (1801 and 1807) destroyed or continued the Danish fleet to prevent it from falling into the hands of Napoleon and being used for an invasion of Britain, Churchill also intended to capture or to capture the French fleet to ensure that it could not be used by Nazi Germany to invade or attack British supply routes in the North Atlantic. Taken together, German and French warships were slightly overweight in the Atlantic in 1940 compared to British ships. But the majority of the French navy was in the Mediterranean and only in the eastern Mediterranean, in Alexandria, did the British manage to take over a small French squadron (including the heavy cruiser Suffren ) - about a tenth of the French fleet. These ships joined Vice Admiral Émile Muselier , who was the first admiral to defected to de Gaulle, and henceforth formed the core of the Free French fleet. Most of the Vichy fleet was in the Mers-el-Kébir fleet base (near Oran ); he rejected the British extrimatum.

During the British attack on the French fleet ( Operation Catapult ) about half of the ships anchored in Mers-el-Kébir were destroyed or captured, the rest (including the flagship Strasbourg ) managed to make their way to Toulon , where those previously in Oran and Warships stationed in Algiers withdrew. As part of the simultaneous Operation Grasp , all French warships anchored in English ports were captured. Most of these ships were later given over to the Free French. A British-Free French attack on the squadron in Dakar ( Battle of Dakar ) in September 1940 was repulsed mainly by the Richelieu , the Vichy fleet remained victorious.

Incited by Japan, on the other side of the world, Thailand attacked French Indochina (1940). In the Franco-Thai War , the French Indochina squadron was once again able to demonstrate its superiority and destroyed a Thai fleet in the sea battle off Koh Chang (January 17, 1941). On land, however, the Japanese forced a detrimental peace for France, which brought Thailand territorial gains. Free French warships defected at de Gaulle fired at a German troop transport off the Syrian coast (1941). In December 1941 the Free French Navy succeeded in occupying Saint-Pierre and Miquelon , which, however, led to a rift between Admiral Muselier and de Gaulle.

After the British defeated the German-Italian tank army Africa in the second battle of El Alamein in Northeast Africa (November 1942), the USA began to occupy the French possessions in North Africa, which were only defended by weak colonial troops . In the port of Casablanca, Jean Bart , who had not yet been completed since her escape from the St. Nazaire shipyard (1940), offered bitter resistance to " Operation Torch ", with some French cruisers, destroyers and submarines counter-attacking. Only when the Jean Bart was sunk in the harbor and the Americans had enclosed Casablanca from land did the city and the last French warships capitulate.

In response to the Allied conquest of French North Africa , German troops also occupied the previously unoccupied zone of France and Tunisia ( Operation Anton ). Darlan then formed a counter-government in Algiers under the protection of the Western Allies, arguing that France's head of state Petain was no longer able to act under the German occupation. In view of the German attempt to seize the French fleet in Toulon (in order to prevent them from escaping to Darlan in Algiers), Admiral de Laborde gave the order for the Vichy fleet to self-sink in the port of Toulon in late November 1942 . About 80 larger and smaller warships, more than a quarter of the entire French Navy, including the Commandant Teste and the battleships Strasbourg and Dunkerque , which once escaped from Mers el-Kebir , sank. Only four French submarines were able to escape to Algiers. Darlan was heavily criticized by de Gaulle for the order to sink the fleet rather than to order it to Algiers and murdered by an assassin on December 24, 1942 . Laborde was sentenced to death for collaboration (later pardoned). Italian occupation troops lifted some of the sunk ships in 1943, made them afloat again and incorporated them into the Italian Navy (including the Commandant Teste ).

  • The unfinished Jean Bart offered the US Navy fierce resistance off Casablanca (1942)

  • The French navy also recovered from the self-sinking in Toulon (1942)

  • The pride of the Navy captured off Dakar, the Richelieu , was repaired in the USA (1943)

With the capitulation of Italy and the subsequent occupation of Italy by German troops (September 1943), however, the Italian fleet had to be handed over to the Allies, and the French warships returned to French hands. Some French warships even took part in the Normandy landing in 1944; the Richelieu fought against Japan in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific until 1945. After the Second World War , the French Navy received back the warships captured by the Allies and the Axis powers, but at the same time the Ministry of the Navy was dissolved (1947). The Jean Bart was lifted and completed like the de Grasse . Bearn , de Grasse and Richelieu were then in action in the Indochina War (1946-1954), Bearn and Jean Bart still in the attack on the Suez Canal (1956). For the Indochina War, France had bought the Colossus aircraft carrier from the Royal Navy (and renamed Arromanches ) and borrowed three other aircraft carriers from the US Navy: the Biter (renamed Dixmude ), the Langley (renamed La Fayette ) and the Belleau Wood ( renamed Bois Belleau ). All of these aircraft carriers were used both on the Suez Canal and during the Algerian War (1954–1962). During the Suez Crisis , her task was u. a. in shielding Israel from Egyptian air strikes.

  • The aircraft carrier Arromanches acquired by the British in the battle for Indochina (1953)

  • The aircraft carrier Clemenceau , built in Brest, was still fighting Iraq in 1990

  • With the Foch , France had two aircraft carriers of its own from 1963 to 1997

So armed and in the face of the disarmament or destruction of the German, Italian and Japanese fleets forced by the defeat in the World War, France first rose to become the third strongest sea power in the world (after the US Navy and the Royal Navy). In 1961 and 1963, France again took two self-built aircraft carriers into service, the Clemenceau and the Foch . With the simultaneous decommissioning of the acquired and borrowed British and US aircraft carriers, France then had only two aircraft carriers available, the Clemenceau in Brest for the Atlantic fleet and the Foch in Toulon for the Mediterranean fleet. The construction of a third aircraft carrier, the Verdun , was called off. By the late 1960s at the latest, the Soviet Navy had overtaken the French Navy in terms of number of ships and combat strength through extensive armaments programs.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union , the Soviet Navy also disintegrated . Since the decommissioning of the Clemenceau and the sale of the Foch to Brazil (2000), the French Navy has only had one aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle , in service. In 2005, 2007 and 2012 it put one Mistral-class helicopter carrier each into service.

Timetable

  • Statue of Louis IX. in the former Mediterranean port of Aigues-Mortes, which he laid out in 1248

  • In 1517 Francis I had Le Havre moored on the Atlantic (representation of the visit of Louis XV in 1747)

  • In 1666 Colbert had the Atlantic port of Rochefort built (illustration from the 18th century)

middle Ages

16th Century

17th century

18th century

  • 1702: Defeat in the sea ​​battle at Vigo against Great Britain and the Netherlands
  • 1702: Victory over Great Britain at Santa Marta
  • 1703: Victory at Nassau over Great Britain
  • 1703: Victory over the Netherlands before Cabo de la Roca
  • 1704: Naval battle at Vélez-Málaga against Great Britain and the Netherlands
  • 1705: Defeat at Marbella against Great Britain and the Netherlands
  • 1706: Defeat at Lisbon against Portugal
  • 1707: The French Mediterranean fleet was scuttled during the British-Dutch siege of Toulon
  • 1707: Victory at Beachy Head over Great Britain
  • 1707: Victory over Great Britain at Lizard Point
  • 1710: Victory over Great Britain at Syracuse
  • 1710: Defeat at Rio against Portugal
  • 1711: Victory over Portugal in the Battle of Rio de Janeiro
  • 1728: Bombing of Tripoli , destruction of the Tripolitan fleet
  • 1730: Construction of 74-gun ships begins
  • 1734: Landing near Danzig, there naval battle against Russia
  • British attack in 1744 Battle of Toulon blocked
  • 1744: French invasion fleet is forced to turn back off England by storm
  • 1744: Victory over Great Britain in the sea battle at Berlengas
  • 1746: Victory against Négapatam (India) over Great Britain
  • 1746: Repels a British attack on Lorient
  • 1747: Defeats in the First and Second Sea Battles at Cape Finisterre against Great Britain
  • 1755: Defeat before Cape Race against Great Britain
  • 1756: Victory over Great Britain at Menorca
  • 1758: Defeat at Cartagena against Great Britain
  • 1758: Naval battles at Cuddalore (Gondelour) and at Negapatam (India) against Great Britain
  • 1759: Battle of Pondicherry against Great Britain
  • 1759: Defeats in Lagos and in the Bay of Quiberon against Great Britain, a French landing in England or Scotland is prevented, but
  • 1760: French landing in Ireland (Carrickfergus), defeat in sea freight off the Isle of Man against Great Britain
  • 1760: Defeat in battle on the Restigouche River against Great Britain, loss of Canada
  • 1762: Choiseul begins restoring and modernizing the fleet
  • 1765: French bombardment of the Moroccan ports of Larache, Salé and Rabat
  • 1766: Louis Antoine de Bougainville starts to sail around the world
  • 1770: Louis XV. rejects Choiseul's plan to invade Britain
  • 1778: Naval battle in the Baie de Goulven against Great Britain
  • 1778: Battle of Ouessant against Great Britain
  • 1778: Defeat at St. Lucia against Great Britain
  • 1778: Landing on Dominica , victory over Great Britain
  • 1779: Victory over Great Britain in the Battle of Grenada
  • 1779 and 1780: Naval battles off Martinique against Great Britain
  • 1780: Victory against Great Britain at Cabo de São Vicente
  • 1781: Defeat at Cape Henry (Virginia) against Great Britain
  • 1781: Victory at Sydney (Nova Scotia) over Great Britain
  • 1781: Victory over Great Britain at Porto Praya (Cape Verde)
  • 1781: Victory over Great Britain in the naval battle of Chesapeake Bay
  • 1782: Victory at Demerara and Essequibo against Great Britain
  • 1782: Victory over Great Britain in the Battle of St. Kitts
  • 1782: Defeat in the naval battle off Ouessant against Great Britain
  • 1782: Defeat in the Battle of Les Saintes against Great Britain
  • 1782: Defeat in the naval battle of Hispaniola (Haiti) against Great Britain
  • 1782: Victory against Great Britain in the sea battle off Cape Spartel (Morocco)
  • 1782: Victory at Sadras (India) over Great Britain
  • 1782: Naval battle of Providien (India) against Great Britain
  • 1782: Naval battle of Nagapattinam Négapatam (India) against Great Britain
  • 1782: Victory over Great Britain in the Battle of Trincomalee
  • 1783: Victory in the naval battle of Cuddalore (Gondelour) over Great Britain
  • 1783: Cherbourg is under Louis XVI. expanded as a naval port
  • 1785: start of the voyages of La Pérouse
  • 1793: Destruction of the Mediterranean fleet by Great Britain in the battle for Toulon
  • 1793: Defeat in the naval battle off Cape Barfleur against Great Britain
  • 1794: defeat at Mauritius against Great Britain
  • 1794: Defeat in the sea ​​battle of Brest against Great Britain
  • 1794: Defeat in the western approach to Great Britain
  • 1794: Defeat in the naval battle of Guernesey against Great Britain
  • 1794: Victory in the naval battle in the Celtic Sea off Ouessant against Great Britain
  • 1794: USA begins privateer war against France ( quasi-war )
  • 1795: Defeat in the Golf de Roses against Spain
  • 1795: Defeat at Genoa against Great Britain
  • 1795: Defeat against Great Britain at the Hyères Islands (Toulon)
  • 1795: Defeat at Groix against Great Britain
  • 1795: Victory over Great Britain at Cabo de São Vicente
  • 1795: Transfer of the Dutch fleet to France
  • 1796: failed landing in Ireland
  • 1797: Defeat in the Bay of Biscay against Great Britain
  • 1798: Victory over Great Britain in the sea battle off Crete
  • 1798: French landing in Ireland
  • 1798: Defeat at the mouth of the Dive against Great Britain
  • 1798: Victory in the naval battle at l'île de Ré over Great Britain
  • 1798: Egyptian expedition and conquest of Malta, but defeat in the sea ​​battle at Abukir against Great Britain
  • 1798: Victory over Great Britain in the sea battle off the Gironde estuary

19th century

  • 1800: defeat at Malta against Great Britain
  • 1800: defeat by Brazil against Great Britain
  • 1801: Victory over Great Britain in the First Sea Battle of Algeciras
  • 1801: Defeat in the Second Sea Battle of Algeciras against Great Britain
  • 1801: Victory before Darna (Libya) over Great Britain
  • 1804: Defeat at Poulo Aura (Sea of ​​China) against Great Britain
  • 1804: Battle of Vizagapatam (India) against Great Britain
  • 1804: Naval battle against Great Britain at Boulogne
  • 1805: Defeat in the Battle of Cape Finisterre against Great Britain
  • 1805: Defeat in the Battle of Trafalgar against Great Britain
  • 1805: Defeat at Cape Ortegal against Great Britain
  • 1806: Defeat at Santo Domingo against Great Britain
  • 1806: Defeat in the naval battle of the Canaries against Great Britain
  • 1806: Defeat in the naval battle off Cape Verde against Great Britain
  • 1806: Defeat at Rochefort against Great Britain
  • 1809: Defeat at Rochefort (île d'Aix) against Great Britain
  • 1809: Victory at Sables-d'Olonne over Great Britain
  • 1809: Defeat at Martinique against Great Britain
  • 1809: Losing Leeward Islands to Great Britain
  • 1809: Victory at Sainte-Anne (Guadeloupe) over Great Britain
  • 1809: Defeats at Sainte-Rose and Saint-Paul (Réunion) against Great Britain
  • 1809: Victory over Great Britain in the naval battle of Grand Port (Mauritius)
  • 1809: Victory over Great Britain in the Bay of Bengal
  • 1810: Victory over Great Britain in the Comoros
  • 1811: Defeats in two naval battles off Lissa (Adria) against Great Britain
  • 1812: Defeat at Pirano against Great Britain
  • 1813: Naval battle against Great Britain at Toulon
  • 1818: Tunis bombarded
  • 1818 to 1819: British-French fleet demonstration off Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli
  • 1822: British-French fleet demonstration in front of Naples
  • 1823: Cadiz blockade
  • 1827: Victory in the Battle of Navarino against the Ottoman Empire
  • 1827 to 1830: French blockade of Algiers
  • 1830: Landing in Algiers, Oran and Bone
  • 1830: Fleet expedition against Tripoli
  • 1831: Victory over Portugal in the mouth of the Tejo
  • 1837: Victory in the Battle of San Juan de Ulúa over Mexico, occupation of Veracruz ( cake war )
  • 1838 to 1840: Blockade of Buenos Aires
  • 1840: Dumont d'Urville reaches Antarctica
  • 1844: French bombardment of the Moroccan ports of Tangier and Mogador
  • 1845: Shelling of Tamatave, Madagascar, by a British-French squadron
  • 1845: Vuelta de Obligado over Argentina
  • 1845 to 1850: Blockade of Buenos Aires
  • 1847: Victory against Tourane (Da Nang) over Vietnam
  • 1849: Rio Nunez incident (Guinea)
  • 1849: brief occupation of the Kingdom of Hawaii
  • 1851: Salé bombed
  • 1853 to 1854: During the Crimean War, bombing and landing operations in the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea ( Bomarsund )
  • 1855: Kinburn bombarded
  • 1858: French fleet demonstration off Lisbon
  • 1858 to 1860: British-French attack on Canton and Takou
  • 1862 to 1867: French intervention in Mexico
  • 1864: Bombardment of Shimonoseki (Japan)
  • 1866: Fleet expedition against Korea, landing on Ganghwado Island
  • 1870: Naval battle against Havana against Germany
  • 1873: Fleet demonstration off Cartagena, Spain
  • 1884: Victory over China in the sea ​​battle of Fuzhou
  • 1885: Victory at Shipu over a Chinese squadron
  • 1885: French marines land on Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands
  • 1889: Shelling of the Russian colony Sagallo near Djibouti
  • 1898: French fleet demonstration off Oman

20th century

  • 1906: Franco-Spanish fleet demonstration off Tangier
  • 1907: Casablanca bombarded, occupied by marines
  • 1912: Franco-British and Franco-Russian naval conventions
  • 1914: sinking of an Austrian warship off Antivari
  • 1914: German attack on Papeete (Tahiti)
  • 1914: Defeat at Penang against Germany
  • 1915 to 1916: Defeat in the Battle of Gallipoli against the Ottoman Empire
  • 1916: Defeat in the naval battle off Funchal (Madeira) against Germany
  • 1916: Athens bombarded
  • 1917: Ship losses at the Otranto Barrier against Austria-Hungary
  • 1934: Franco-British-Italian fleet demonstration in front of al-Hudaida (Yemen)
  • 1936 to 1939: Franco-British blockade of the coasts of Spain
  • 1940: Shelling of Genoa and Savona ( Operation Vado )
  • 1940: British raid on the Vichy-French ships in Mers el-Kébir
  • 1940: Vichy French Navy defeated British and Free French ships off Dakar
  • 1942: Vichy French Navy defeated in the battle for Madagascar against Great Britain
  • 1942: After violent sea battles off Casablanca and Dakar, the remnants of the Vichy-French Atlantic fleet are handed over to the Americans
  • 1942: The Vichy-French Mediterranean fleet scuttled in Toulon

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Franz Schnabel: Harms History and Culture Atlas , page 25. Berlin / Munich 1965
  2. ^ Heinrich Dannenbauer : The emergence of Europe , page 140. Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart 1959
  3. ↑ Hans Leicht: Sturmwind über dem Abendland , page 143. Wiesbaden 2002
  4. ↑ a b Fuchs / Henseke: Kolonialreich, page 21
  5. ^ Zöllner, page 124
  6. ^ Zöllner, page 163
  7. ^ Zöllner, page 164
  8. ↑ Köller / Töpfer-1, page 163 f.
  9. ↑ Köller / Töpfer-1, page 212
  10. ↑ Fuchs / Henseke: Kolonialreich, page 15 f.
  11. ↑ Fuchs / Henseke: Kolonialreich, pages 12 and 14
  12. ↑ Köller / Töpfer-2, page 75
  13. ↑ Köller / Töpfer-2, page 14
  14. ^ Fuchs / Henseke: Kolonialreich, page 13
  15. ↑ Fuchs / Henseke: Kolonialreich, page 12 f.
  16. ↑ Fuchs / Henseke: Kolonialreich, page 28
  17. ↑ Fuchs / Henseke: Kolonialreich, page 29 f.
  18. ↑ Fuchs / Henseke: Kolonialreich, page 30
  19. ^ Fuchs / Henseke: Kolonialreich, page 20
  20. ↑ Köller / Töpfer-2, page 44
  21. ↑ Herders Conversations-Lexikon , Volume 2 (Colbert), page 157 . Freiburg 1854
  22. ^ Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon , Fourth Volume (Colbert), page 216 . Leipzig and Vienna 1906
  23. ↑ Köller / Töpfer-2, page 48 ff.
  24. ↑ Köller / Töpfer-2, page 51
  25. ↑ Fuchs / Henseke: Kolonialreich, page 36 f.
  26. ↑ Köller / Töpfer-2, page 45 f.
  27. ↑ Köller / Töpfer-2, page 77 f.
  28. ↑ Fuchs / Henseke: Kolonialreich, page 42 f.
  29. ↑ Fuchs / Henseke: Kolonialreich, page 42
  30. ↑ Köller / Töpfer-2, page 89
  31. ↑ Fuchs / Henseke: Kolonialreich, page 43
  32. ↑ Köller / Töpfer-2, page 99 f.
  33. ^ Yorck von Wartenburg, page 451
  34. ↑ Franz Xaver Ritter von Rudtorffer: Military Geography of Europe , page 73f . Prague 1839
  35. ↑ Bougainville, page 446
  36. ↑ a b c d e Meyers 1876, Volume 7, page 32
  37. ^ NP Todorov, 1812 - Moscow or London? Napoleon's landing projects on the British Isles after Trafalgar from 1806 to 1813, Hamburg, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8495-0180-8 , pp. 51–61, p. 107 and p. 111 ff.
  38. ↑ Herder, page 771
  39. ↑ Ploetz. Große Illustrierte Weltgeschichte, Vol. 4, p. 267. Freiburg, Würzburg 1984
  40. ↑ Fuchs / Henseke: Kolonialreich, page 62
  41. ↑ Herder, page 756
  42. ^ Potjomkin-2, pp. 91 ff.
  43. ↑ Fuchs / Henseke: Kolonialreich, page 107
  44. ↑ Potjomkin-2, pp. 131 ff.
  45. ^ Lothar Rathmann : History of the Arabs - from the beginnings to the present , Volume 2 (The Arabs in the fight against Ottoman despotism and European colonial conquest), page 387. Akademie-Verlag Berlin 1975
  46. ^ Kurowski, page 9 f.
  47. ↑ a b Rahn, page 342
  48. ↑ Potjomkin-2, pages 166 ff.
  49. ↑ Köller / Töpfer-2, page 244
  50. ↑ Fuchs / Henseke: Kolonialreich, page 109
  51. ^ Yorck von Wartenburg, page 497
  52. ↑ Potjomkin-2, pages 257 ff.
  53. ↑ Stephen Schröder: The Anglo-Russian Naval Convention . Diss, V & R 2006, ISBN 978-3525360699 . ( Review )
  54. ^ Günther Fuchs , Hans Henseke: Clemenceau , page 87
  55. ↑ Potter / Nimitz / Rohwer, page 320
  56. ↑ a b Lothar Persius : Köhler's Illustrated German Fleet Calendar for 1913 , pages 36, 39 and 42. Minden 1913
  57. ↑ Epkenhans , pages 322 and 333
  58. ↑ Alexander Meurer : History of naval warfare in outline - naval power and naval wars, mainly from the 16th century , page 534. Hase & Koehler, Leipzig 1925
  59. ^ Wilhelm Treue: History of the French Navy , page 61. Mittler, Herford 1982
  60. ↑ Köller / Töpfer-2, page 273 f.
  61. ↑ Fuchs / Henseke: Clemenceau ; Page 132
  62. ↑ Potjomkin-3-1, page 165 f.
  63. ^ Kurowski, page 20 f.
  64. ^ Kurowski, pages 22 and 25
  65. ↑ Potjomkin-3-2, page 52
  66. ↑ a b Times Atlas, page 31
  67. ^ Kurowski, pp. 27, 31 and 37
  68. ↑ a b Treue, p. 68f
  69. ↑ authors: History of Zwelten World War 1939-1945 , twelfth volume, page 330. Military publishing house of the GDR, Berlin 1985
  70. ↑ Potjomkin-3-2, page 195 f.
  71. ↑ Alexander Meurer : History of naval warfare in outline - naval power and naval wars, mainly from the 16th century , page 529f. Hase & Koehler, Leipzig 1943
  72. ↑ Kurowski, page 33 f.
  73. ↑ Potjomkin-3-2, page 237 f.
  74. ^ David Brown: The Road to Oran - Anglo-French Naval Relations, September 1939-July 1940 , pp. Xx. Taylor & Francis, 2004
  75. ↑ Kurowski, pp. 110 and 114
  76. ^ Kurowski, page 111 f.
  77. ↑ a b Times Atlas, page 45
  78. ^ Kurowski, pages 114-118
  79. ^ Times Atlas, p. 44
  80. ^ Kurowski, page 119 f.
  81. ^ Kurowski, p. 121
  82. ↑ Kurowski, pages 122 ff.
  83. ^ Times Atlas, page 50 f.
  84. ^ Times Atlas, p. 79
  85. ^ Kurowski, pp. 345-349
  86. ^ Times Atlas, p. 116
  87. ↑ Martin Robbe : Scheidewege in Nahost , page 189. Military publishing house of the GDR , Berlin 1987

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Web links

Commons : History of the French Navy  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

See also