Talk:Spahi

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[edit] Gold insignia of Spahis

The Spahis were part of the French Metropolitan Army, as were all other units (zouaves, turcos, chasseurs d' Afrique, Foreign Legion etc) recruited from or based in French North Africa (Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco). The Spahis were recruited from all three territories - not just Morocco. The French colonial army was a separate organisation which came under the Ministry of Marine and provided the garrisons of French West and Central Africa, Indo China and some other territories. I would be interested to know the reasons for the gold or bronze insignia of the Spahi regiments but it has nothing to do with any connection to the colonial troops. Most probably it was just a historic distinction of this branch - like the red jackets. I am happy to be corrected but if there is no source or reference cited in a few days then I will feel justified in correcting the entry.210.246.8.55 18:43, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Well, as I understand it, Spahis was part of the Army of Africa (the XIX Corps), which was part of the regular French Army. Carl Logan 18:46, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

The Army of Africa was not the Metropolitan Army (i am not sure if that is what you mean by "regular French Army"). According to the French article about the 1st Spahi Regiment, Ce régiment, à l'instar du RICM (Régiment d'infanterie de chars de marine), possède la particularité d'être une unité or et non argent, portant donc des insignes de type « armes à pied » bien qu'elle appartienne à l'Arme blindée-cavalerie. La raison est qu'historiquement, il ne dépendait pas de l'ABC mais des troupes d'Afrique.L'insigne de béret est d'ailleurs de couleur or. I assumed the Army of Africa could be described as colonial, but the defintion of Colonial Troops is perhaps more specific. Mesoso2 00:50, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for the interesting extract from the French Wikipedia. One unanswered question though is why the other two cavalry branches of the Armee d'Afrique (chasseurs d'Afrique and the Foreign Legion Cavalry Regiment) always had (and still have) silver insignia and braid. The Spahis do appear to have been the only significant exception to the universal rule for French mounted troops. The conflict between "metropolitan" and "colonial" seems to be a matter of semantics - yes the XIXth Corps (popularly known as the "Army of Africa") was formally part of the French Metropolitan Army (just as Algeria was formally part of metropolitan France until 1962) but turbaned Arab/Berber soldiers led by European officers can reasonably be perceived as colonial troops. Perhaps a comparison can be made with the Indian Army prior to 1947. They are seldom referred to as colonial troops in British sources but were widely seen as such in other countries.210.246.12.107 07:04, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

The French Army during the late 19th and early 20th centruy really had three seprate forces: The metropolitan army that would fight in europe, the Army of Africa that would fight in north africa and the colonial force that would fight in the rest of the world (mostly Sub-Saharan Africa and Indochina). For more information on this see French Colonial Forces. Another important thing to note is that the colonial force was administered by the Navy ministry, not the the army, while the army of africa was under the army. Carl Logan 17:48, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

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