Portal:Military history of France/Selected unit/9
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Zouave was the name given to certain infantry regiments in the French army, as well as to units in other armies which imitated the dress or drill of the French zouaves.
The corps was first raised in Algeria in 1831 with one and later two battalions, and recruited solely from the Zouaoua, a tribe of Berbers, dwelling in the mountains of the Jurjura range (see Kabyles). In 1838 a third battalion was raised, and the regiment thus formed was commanded by Lamoriciere. Shortly afterwards the formation of the Tirailleurs algeriens, the Turcos, as the corps for Muslim troops, changed the enlistment for the Zouave battalions, and they became a purely French body. Three regiments had been formed by 1852, and a fourth, the Zouaves of the Imperial Guard, in 1854.
The Crimean War was the first service which the regiments saw outside Algeria. They subsequently saw service in the Franco-Austrian War of 1859, the Mexican Intervention (1864-66)and the Franco-Prussian War(1870). (More...)
