A brief history of the french foreign legion



Throughout history there have been lots of memorable units within world armies; these units not only distinguished themselves because of the quantity of deployments and wars fought under the same banner but also and mainly because of their courage, will and determination to defeat the enemy, establishing a high standard that follows them into eternity. We have to take into account that these are the exceptions in the battlefields throughout history because fear more often than we believe makes cowards of men and haunts them taking the soul of every fighter. One of the units that has proven to be exceptional in the battlefield and willing to face fear is the well known Foreign Legion. 

It is easy to understand why this group of fighters is well known in the military world, the legion is commanded by french officials and ruled by the republic but it is composed by foreign members that take the chance to fight for another country and to die for causes that are not their own. We are not going to give any opinion about this but we are going to explain why this legion was formed and why it has risen to fame in the course of almost three centuries. 

France is known to be one of the countries that sponsored and followed a colonization politic even in his most turbulent political times. The France that we know now is little and powerless compared to the colonial empire that used to be. The empire haunted places like the Americas and Africa and enriched it with their commodities and people enslaving many, establishing a commerce of people that peaked throughout the XIX and the XVII century.

The second colonial empire began with the invasion of Algeria in 1830 an invasion that was planned by Napoleon in 1808 but was made by Guy-Victor Duperré. It was in this conflict that the french foreign legion was born a year later. To support the conquest of Algeria King Louis Pilippe founded the legion in march 9 it allowed the incorporation of foreign fighters which were mainly refugees and ex-officers of the army.

It was divided in six battalions of a different nationality each, this battalions spend most of the time in the worst condition in the pacification of Algeria and this shaped their character and made them a rough opponent to beat because they developed a fight to death attitude and a commodity in bad and rough weather fields. They quickly became one of the most disciplined and advanced mercenary corps in the military world and have been fighting until this day. 

The legion was known to be a place where men with criminal records and haunted pasts found their home. Since the beggining in 1831 they had a no discrimination politic towards accepting anyone without having in count their past and this provided criminals and deserters an incredible chance to create a new life for themselves where they can keep past troubles secret.

This is a brief history of the legion, an elite corps within the French army that fighted all over the world.



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