"The native army in Indo-China: Conquering force or bone of" Topic

… contention? Tirailleurs Tonkinois, Chasseurs Annamites and militiamen in the 1880s

"This paper is concerned with the severe conflicts within the French administration in Indo-China in the mid-1880s – notably between the military and the civil administration – over the recruitment of indigenous soldiers into the colonial armed forces. To a considerable degree, those conflicts reflected deep divisions in metropolitan France, which had their origins in the French Revolution. The conflicts had serious implications for the colonial project in Indo-China, as this was a period in which the French were engaged in pacifying a rebellious Tonkin. For several years, the conflicts produced an absurd system of native recruitment. Between 1886 and 1890 France recruited armed natives for a single, identical purpose in Annam and Tonkin, but under four different names or statutes. There were militiamen, paid for by the French protectorate; Tonkinois infantrymen in the first three regiments, paid by the navy, while infantrymen of the fourth regiment were paid by the Ministry of War; and the Chasseurs Annamites, paid out of the royal treasury. After the appointment of Jean-Louis de Lanessan as Governor General in June 1891, the number of categories was reduced to two, each with its own clearly separate field of operations, and the armed native at the service of France was no longer a source of conflict among Frenchmen."

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Amicalement
Armand

From Research Gate – extract only