Colonial troops

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French colonial troops around 1900 (contemporary illustration)

Colonial troops were military formations that were stationed by the European colonial powers in overseas colonies and, unlike colonial police, not only served to maintain colonial rule, but also to wage war against other colonial powers or to expand colonial rule in colonial wars. The last European colonial troops were disbanded in 1974 after the end of the Portuguese colonial war .

Contemporary definition

Colonial troops, used continuously in the interests of colonies and constantly garrisoned there . Your organization depends on size, location, political and economic importance etc. of the colony in question as well as of the mother country.

(see entry Colonial Troops , in: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon , Vol., 11, 6th edition Leipzig / Vienna (Bibliographisches Institut) 1905, p. 290)

Character of colonial troops

Mainly for climatic reasons, but also to protect human resources for waging war in Europe, the colonial powers formed troops and auxiliary troops from natives who were better adapted to the climate and terrain than Europeans or North Americans. In the tropics , especially in the Caribbean , the losses due to climatic influences and diseases were disproportionately high. The annual death rate of British garrisons in British Honduras and Jamaica was 15.5% between 1808 and 1828.

These locally deployed troops were often deployed in other colonial areas. The French military theorist André Beaufre basically distinguished three models of European colonial troops: the British , French and Spanish .

In the early days of the colony founding there was a conglomerate of

In the 19th century, the companies were dissolved and their troops taken over or nationalized. The military service introduced in most European countries in the 19th century was generally not used to reinforce colonial troops, as service in the colonies was not very popular among the population for various reasons.

The use of indigenous auxiliary troops was not limited to the fight against insurgents, but they were also used against competing colonial powers. This also had an impact on the way the war was waged; B. 1640 in the Dutch-Portuguese war in Brazil , when the Portuguese troops attacked the invading Dutch with the help of Indian auxiliaries and a guerrilla tactic:

The guerrilla tactics pursued by the Portuguese with attacks from ambush and the ruthless treatment of prisoners had prompted Prince Johann Moritz and his leadership to resolutely demand compliance with European rules of war, otherwise massive reprisals against the civilian population would ensue. Conversely, the authorities in Bahia and the clergy demonized the Dutch as " pirates " and accused them of having allied themselves with the man-eating Tapuja Indians. In fact, the form of the military conflict did not correspond to European customs, even if one assumes that the provisions of the law of war were not observed in Europe during the Thirty Years' War .

. Horst Pietschmann , Portugal - America - Brazil , p. 76f.

British Empire

Madras Army

The British model was ideally implemented in the British Indian Army and was based on the concept of indirect colonial rule ("indirect rule"). Consequently, the army consisted to a lesser extent of British "white" units, regular Indian troops and Indian auxiliary troops.

The Indian Army also served the Empire as a global military intervention reserve. In 1900 units of the army were deployed simultaneously in the Boxer Rebellion in China , in British Somaliland , in the Second Boer War in South Africa and in the war for the Golden Chair on the Gold Coast . By 1930 the Indian Army had a manpower of over 300,000 men, including its own air force . In addition to the Royal Navy , which operated from a worldwide system of bases, the Indian Army was the second pillar of global British rule. (see also Indian Army in World War II )

In addition to the Indian Army, colonial troops were stationed in the American, African and Pacific colonies, most of which were recruited from "white" settlers. There were also local militias and, towards the end of the 19th century, regional naval forces such as the Australian (Royal Navy Auxiliary Squadron, from 1887) or the Indian navy .

A specialty among the British colonial troops were the West India regiments , which were recruited exclusively from the indigenous population of the Caribbean colonies or African slaves. Hence the British government had the right to act as first-time buyers of slave traders arriving from Africa. As a result of this procedure, a good 13,400 soldiers were recruited between 1795 and 1808. At the end of the coalition wars there were 12 West India regiments. Since the staff showed themselves to be extremely resistant to diseases, they were also used in West Africa , for example in Sierra Leone . They were the only British colonial troops to wear a Zouave uniform . The West India Regiment existed in various formations and strengths from 1795 to 1927 and again from 1958 to 1962. After its dissolution, it formed the core of the Jamaica Defense Force and the Trinidad and Tobago Defense Force .

France

Cipahis troupes indigènes

Since the 17th century, the naval troops ( Troupes de Marine ) formed in 1622 were the main bearers of colonial conquests in France . Above all, the colonial wars in North Africa from the 1830s onwards led to the formation of numerous indigenous troops and auxiliary troops:

From 1900 to 1961 France had a genuine colonial army in the Armée coloniale , which was stationed in the North African colonies. A French specialty was and is the French Foreign Legion . It was specially set up for warfare in North Africa and consisted exclusively of "white" European mercenaries who were commanded by French officers. She was also the model for the Spanish Foreign Legion .

Spain

El Castillo-01

In Spanish America and the Philippines , regular Spanish troops were generally stationed and were recruited from the motherland. In the 16th century, the encomienda system was still the bearer of the defense burdens, i. This means that Indians had to finance the maintenance of horses, weapons and equipment through taxes or services. The regular troops were supported by militias and, in the event of war, by auxiliary troops from indigenous peoples or black slaves.

These tasks were gradually taken over by the Spanish crown . The greatest military threat to the American colonies was not seen as indigenous rebels, but competing colonial powers such as England or Holland. Against the competitors, who often operated as privateers ( filibusteros ), fortresses were built in the Italian style in the 17th century ; best known to the present day is El Morro in Havana . On the basis of buildings by the royal chief engineer Tiburzio Spannocchi in Spain, Bautista Antonelli (1647–1616) constructed various fortresses in the Caribbean in the New Italian style.

Maritime access to Central America was also secured by fortresses, for example in Guatemala by the fortress Castillo de San Felipe de Lara on Lake Izabal and in Nicaragua by the Castillo de la Inmaculada Concepción, built in 1675 on the Río San Juan . The latter was conquered by Horatio Nelson in 1780 in the context of the American War of Independence to raid Granada on Lake Nicaragua , but this failed.

Spanish horseman of the Regimiento de Voluntarios de Cavalleria de la Havana, 1785

The Bourbon reforms of José de Gálvez y Gallardo in the 18th century also led to serious changes in the Spanish-American military apparatus. The current American Army ( Ejército de América ) consisted of three parts:

  1. the reformed standing army,
  2. Reinforcement units (from Spain),
  3. the reformed militia.
Presidio La Bahía

According to this, a pesidio , similar to a fort , or a plaza ( fortress ) was ideally divided into:

In the period from 1769 to 1802, regulations for their militias were issued for the following colonies:

Spanish and Portuguese colonial troops around 1900

The Regulares and the Spanish Foreign Legion were set up especially for the colonial areas in North Africa ; both based on the French model. In the early 19th century, punitive units were also used. The Regulares, popularly called Moros, played an important role in the Spanish Civil War and were de facto a shock troop for General Francisco Franco . Both formations exist to the present (2015) and are preferably used for foreign assignments.

Characteristic of the Spanish colonial troops in the second half of the 19th century was a drill suit , mostly made of blue-striped cotton , which was called Rayadillo and was later seen as a symbol of Spanish colonial rule (see illustration on the right, left half of the picture).

The Cuera dragoons were an unusual and highly specialized colonial force in the European context , but they were only deployed in the viceroyalty of New Spain . They belonged to the Spanish army, but were mainly recruited from mestizos and served primarily as border police to the Indian territories from the California coast in the west to the Texan border with the French colony Louisiana in the east. They were not dissolved after Mexico gained independence in 1821, but instead integrated into the new Mexican national army.

Other colonial powers

Portugal

Portugal also recruited Indians and African slaves as auxiliary troops. The Bandeirantes played a special role in Brazil. During the First World War , colonial troops in Mozambique fought in vain against the German East Africa protection force under Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck .

In the Portuguese colonial war , mainly conscripts were used in the three African colonies of Guinea-Bissau , Angola and Mozambique, officially known as overseas provinces . Since the war was unpopular in the mother country, conscripts often fled abroad before starting their service. Indigenous aid troops were again set up to support the army and police. The secret police PIDE , which was significantly involved in the war, set up the so-called flechas (Portuguese: arrows ), which were recruited from captured or defected members of the liberation movements and a. were used in so-called pseudo-operations, d. In other words, they appeared in the area of ​​operation as alleged guerrillas to lure real resistance fighters into ambushes . The army in turn set up the Grupos Especiais (GE) made up of Africans. The GE were not formally part of the army, but were led by officers who had served in special forces.

Netherlands

Dutch colonial troops in the Dutch East Indies around 1900

The Royal Dutch East India Army consisted of Dutch soldiers, European mercenaries and, above all, indigenous troops. The German share of the European contingent was up to 20% in the middle to the end of the 19th century, and before 1850 it was apparently even around 50%. In the event of war, the army was supported by so-called Schuttereyen (Dutch: Schützengesellschaft or Schützenverein ), a colonist militia.

A special police unit was founded in 1890 to fight guerrillas, the Korps Marechaussee te voet (Marechaussee corps on foot), whose men and non-commissioned officers were recruited from Ambonese and Javanese.

Italy

The Italian colonial troops were grouped together in the Regi corpi truppe coloniali (Royal Colonial Troop Corps ) and existed from 1885 to 1946. They too (apart from the campaigns against Abyssinia ) were mainly composed of native local Askaris such as B. the Zaptié , which were also used in other colonies if necessary.

Belgium

The Force Publique in the Belgian Congo was recruited from African mercenaries and European mercenary officers; At times, the Prussian professional officer Hermann von Wissmann also served in it . She was instrumental in the atrocities of the Congo and was used against the German East Africa protection force in World War I and against the German Africa Corps in North Africa in World War II . In 1960 she was instrumental in the coup against Patrice Lumumba .

United States

Chesty Puller and Ironman Lee

With the exception of the occupied Philippines and Puerto Rico, the USA did not set up any actual colonial troops. This function was taken over by the United States Marine Corps , which was about to be dissolved in 1895 due to technical developments in the United States Navy and was now assigned a role as a colonial constabulary during the Banana Wars . In the protectorates of Nicaragua , Haiti and the Dominican Republic , the marines formed national guards from local citizens who, after the withdrawal of the corps, took on the functions of the military and police, e.g. B. the Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua , which was only dissolved in 1979 in the wake of the Nicaraguan Revolution .

German Empire

German colonial troops only existed from 1889 to 1919. These units, known as protection troops , were stationed in Cameroon ( protection force for Cameroon ), German South West Africa ( protection force for German South West Africa ) and German East Africa ( protection force for German East Africa ). They were never part of the Reichsheer and were never subordinate to the Prussian War Ministry as the de facto Reich War Ministry , but successively to the Foreign Office , the Reichsmarineamt and, from 1907, the just established Reichskolonialamt and the high command of the protection troops .

East Africa

Since the European theater of war and the expected two-front war against France and Russia had absolute priority in German military thinking, the protection troops were seen as an annoying burden that unnecessarily devoured human and material resources without assuming any tactical significance in a future (European) war have. For this reason, a central depot was never set up in Germany as in France or Italy , in which the future colonial troops could be trained according to uniform guidelines and prepared for deployment in the colonies. As in other colonial armies, with the exception of German South West Africa, the protection forces consisted almost exclusively of African mercenaries , who were known as Askaris in German East Africa .

As in other navies of the colonial powers, the German naval battalions in Kiel (1st battalion), Wilhelmshaven (2nd battalion) and Cuxhaven (3rd battalion) were also viewed and deployed as colonial intervention reserves, especially in the uprising of the Herero and Nama . In Tsingtau , the 3rd Sea Battalion served as the permanent garrison of the fortress.

The German protection troops were dissolved due to the provisions of the Versailles Treaty and found no institutional successors in either the Reichswehr or the Wehrmacht . Plans for colonial troops during the Nazi era did not come to fruition.

The use of colonial troops in the two world wars as well as in the Spanish civil war

Allied colonial troops in the western theater of war around 1915

During the First and Second World Wars , colonial troops from the Triple Entente and the Western powers were also deployed in the European theater of war against the Central and Axis powers , and after the First World War they were also used as occupation troops in the Rhineland . The British West India Regiment (see above) was deployed both in German East Africa and for a short time in Palestine .

In the Spanish Civil War , North African colonial troops were used by the putschists of General Francisco Franco against troops loyal to the government and the interbrigades .

Navy and naval troops

Navy France (Meyers)
Amiral Charner SLV Green

The naval forces of the colonial powers played an often underestimated, but decisive role both in the conquest and in securing the colonies as well as in the form of imperial reserves. Not only the Empire, but also France, the German Empire and the USA possessed a global network of foreign stations , from which not only controlled the sea routes, but could also send cruisers and gunboats to insurrection areas as "colonial fire brigades " if necessary . In any case, gunboats or river gunboats were stationed in colonies with large rivers to control the internal waterways, such as the Nile , Niger or Ganges . In the early 1930s, France and Italy developed a special type of ship for colonial service, the colonial cruiser .

Practically all colonial powers used not only ship crews but also their marine infantry (e.g. Royal Marines , German naval battalions ) as colonial troops. However, since these consisted exclusively of European personnel, they were not suitable for long-term use in the tropics, as was explicitly shown by the use of the German marine infantry in the uprising of the Herero and Nama . On the other hand, this uprising demonstrated through the use of the gunboat SMS Habicht that a small but (also technically) well-trained landing corps of sailors was able to restore a strategically extremely important railway line that had not been sustainably destroyed by the insurgents within a very short time and secure against renewed attacks.

Dissolution, conversion into national armed forces

The vast majority of European colonial troops were converted into national armed forces when the colonies became independent in the 1950s / 60s, just as the colonial police forces were transformed into national police forces. Exceptions were former colonies such as Indochina, Algeria, Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau, in which the national armed forces were formed from earlier liberation movements.

The staging of colonial troops in film and television

See also

literature

Specialist literature

  • Peter Abbott: Colonial Armies in Africa 1850-1918, Nottingham 2006. ISBN 1-901543-07-2
  • André Beaufre : Revolutionizing the image of war. New forms of use of force, Stuttgart (Kohlhammer) 1973.
  • Tanja Bührer , Christian Stachelbeck , Dierk Walter (eds.): Imperial Wars from 1500 to today. Structures - actors - learning processes. Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2011, ISBN 978-3-506-77337-1 .
  • Lewis H. Gann: The Rulers of Belgian Africa, 1884-1914 , Princeton (Princeton University Press) 2015. ISBN 978-1-4008-6909-1
  • Philip J. Haythornthwaite: The Colonial Wars Sourcebook, London (Arms and Armor Press) 1995. ISBN 1-85409-196-4
  • Daniel R. Headricks: The Tools of Empire. Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century, New York / Oxford 1981. * David Killingray / David Omissi (eds.): Guardians of empire: the armed forces of the colonial powers, c. 1700-1964, Manchester 2000.
  • Heiko Herold: Imperial violence means sea violence. The cruiser squadron of the Imperial Navy as an instrument of German colonial and world politics 1885 to 1901 (Contributions to military history, vol. 74, also Phil. Diss. Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf), Munich (Oldenbourg Verlag) 2012. ISBN 978-3- 486-71297-1
  • Juan Marchena Fernández: Ejército y milicias en el mundo colonial americano, Madrid (Editorial MAPFRE) 1992. ISBN 84-7100-548-4 * Ivan Musicant: The Banana Wars. A History of the United States Military Intervention in Latin America from the Spanish-American War to the Invasion of Panama, New York 1990, ISBN 0-02-588210-4
  • Walter Nuhn : Colonial Policy and Navy. The role of the Imperial Navy in the founding and securing of the German colonial empire 1884-1914, Bonn 2002. ISBN 3-7637-6241-8
  • David E. Omissi: Air power and colonial control. The Royal Air Force 1919-1939, Manchester 1990.
  • Horst Pietschmann : Portugal - America - Brazil: The colonial origins of a continental power, in: Walther L. Bernecker / Horst Pietschmann / Rüdiger Zoller , Eine kleine Geschichte Brasiliens, Frankfurt am Main 2000, pp. 11–123, here pp. 76–77 .
  • Pedro Puntoni: A Guerra dos Bárbaros. Povos Indígenas ea Colonização do Sertão Nordeste do Brasil, 1650-1720, São Paulo 2002.
  • Christian Zentner / Gerd Schreiber: The wars of the post-war period. An illustrated history of military conflicts since 1945, Munich ( Südwest-Verlag ) 1969.

Memoirs, fiction

Web links