Colonial troops
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Colonial troops or colonial army refers to various military units recruited from, or used as garrison troops in, overseas colonies. Such soldiers were used by nearly all the colonial powers including Great Britain, France, Netherlands, Denmark, the United States, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Belgium. At the beginning of the colonial period such troops were generally Europeans from the home army of the country concerned, but locally raised "native" troops were soon recruited. The latter normally served in separate units under European officers. The sepoys of the British East India Company were a major early example. These troops dated from the mid 18th century and after 1858 formed the famous regiments of the British Indian Army, some of which survive to the present day in the national armies of Pakistan and India. The French and Portugese colonies and enclaves in the Indian sub-continent also raised sepoys.
Colonial troops also comprised local forces drawn from settlers in colonies where these were numerous. In the 18th century militia units were raised in Colonial America. A large portion of the forces maintained by Spain and Portugal in South and Central America until the early 19th century were locally recruited. Colonial militias in Australia, Canada and New Zealand formed the origins of the modern armies of these countries.
By the 20th Century, colonial troops were often being used outside the boundaries of their countries of origin. Troops from France's North African colonies served in the Crimea, the Franco-Prussian War and most notably in the trenches of World War I in France itself. France also made extensive use of African troops in World War II and during the subsequent Indochina and Algerian Wars. Indian troops served in Europe in large numbers during both World Wars, as well as in the Middle East, Malaya, Burma and North Africa in World War II. The Regulares (Moorish infantry and cavalry) of Spanish Morocco played a major role in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39. Japan recruited levies from Korea and Taiwan during the period of colonial rule in both countries.
Changes in colonial ruler usually meant the continuation of local recruitment - often from the same sources. Both the United States and Spanish rulers of the Philipines employed Filipino troops from the same regions and tribal groups. In the 1830s the original zouaves were volunteers from a tribal group which provided mercenaries for both the Turkish and French rulers of Algeria. In the larger colonial pocessions the garrison was likely to comprise both locally recruited and white troops. The latter might be from the home or metropolitan army, from settlers doing their military service or occasionally from mercenaries recruited outside the territories of the colonial power concerned. The French "Armee d'Afrique" garrisoning Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia comprised all of these elements. The Dutch had a similar mix of locally recruited and metropolitan troops comprising their garrison in the East Indies.
The British Army rotated large numbers of its regular troops through India and other overseas pocessions, augmenting the local colonial forces. However it is notable that British forces in Nigeria and other West African territories were, under normal circumstances, nearly all locally recruited, except for officers, some non commissioned officers and a few specialists.
The advantages of locally recruited troops in colonial warfare were several. They had familiarity with local terrain, language and culture. They were likely to be immune from disease in areas such as the West Indies and West Africa which were notoriously unhealthy for European troops until the beginning of the 20th century. "Native" troops were usually recruited from tribal or other groups that had long established martial traditions. It was not uncommon for colonial armies to favour the races that had shown fiercest opposition to the initial conquest of a given territory (examples being the Sikhs of India and the Riff tribesmen of Morocco). Colonial units could be employed in campaigns or conditions where the use of conscripts from metropolitan regiments would be politically unpopular.
Colonial troops were usually more lightly equiped than their metropolitan counterparts. This mainly reflected their predominantly light infantry or cavalry roles, designed for low intensity colonial warfare against poorly armed opponents in difficult country. Until World War II it was rare to find artillery or mechanised units comprising indigenous troops (although the Italian colonial army maintained a number of Eritrean, Somali and Libyan mule artillery batteries). This relative lack of up to date weaponry and training put colonial troops at at a disadvantage when facing modern opponents such as the German or Japanese Armies of World War II. Even earlier, the African and Indian troops sent to France in 1914 had encountered a climate, diet and general conditions of service that differed greatly from those with which they were familiar. The black African tirailleurs of the French Army had to be withdrawn to southern France for recuperation and training during the harsh winters of the Western Front.
Colonial troops could be used to garrison or subdue other territories than those where they were recruited, thereby avoiding problems of conflicting loyalties. As an example Italy used Eritrean askaris in Libya and during the two wars with Ethiopia (1898 and 1936). Indian regiments garrisoned Aden, Singapore and Hong Kong at various times in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During the 1950s the Portugese used African troops from Mozambique to garrison Goa and the Dutch had employed West Africans for service in the East Indies during much of the nineteenth century.
The end of the colonial empires saw mixed outcomes for colonial troops. Where the transition was a relatively peaceful one the existing colonial units were likely to form the basis of the new national armies. Where there had been extended conflict those locally recruited troops who had remained loyal to their former colonial rulers might find themselves regarded as collaborators and subject to reprisals after independence. This was particularly the case in Algeria in 1962 (see Harkis).
[edit] Fiction
The soldiers in the original Battlestar Galactica series were referred to as "Colonial Warriors", referring to their home colonies.
