Congo-Brazzaville Army - Colonial History
Before achieving full independence in 1960 outside the French Community, the country's defense had been the responsibility of metropolitan France, which deployed the French colonial army on a regional basis throughout West and Central Africa for this purpose. No distinctive Congolese national military institutions were developed or considered necessary under this concept.
In developing their colonial empire the French did not create territorial military forces under local command to provide for the security and defense of newly acquired areas. After establishing a firm presence in West Africa, the French government in 1900 organized a French colonial army for the purpose of acquiring and policing a colonial empire. This army was a specialized military force, autonomous and distinct from the metropolitan army. It had a separate budget and a separate officer corps that was recruited for service with colonial troops. It could be employed anywhere within the African colonies or abroad, as the French government directed.
Initially, the French colonial army consisted largely of Senegalese troops, but after French penetration of Central Africa and the establishment of the AEF, recruitment into the forces was extended to include the new territories. After World War I the French colonial army was grouped into brigades, which were stationed at key installations throughout French Africa to provide a flexible regional defense of the area and to ensure the strategic coherence of the French colonial empire. In the AEF major French bases included Pointe-Noire and Brazzaville, which also was the headquarters of the commander of all French troops in Central Africa.
Although the conscription of Africans into the French colonial army had been instituted in 1919 in the AEF, voluntary enlistments were generally in excess of actual needs. To most volunteers army pay was attractive, and military service outside the home area pre-sented an opportunity for the more adventuresome youths to escape the monotony of village life. As a consequence, those selected for induction were well motivated and usually became excellent soldiers.
After the occupation of France in World War II and the Franco-German armistice of June 1940, the Congolese joined the Free French forces, and Brazzaville became a major center for Free French activities in Africa. A military headquarters was established there by General Charles de Gaulle in November 1940, and African troop units were organized and participated with other Free French forces in campaigns against occupying Italian forces in southern Libya.
After World War II French policy in Africa was reoriented and liberalized to give local populations a greater voice in their own political destiny within the French Community. Under this principle the colony of Moyen-Congo (Middle Congo) became an overseas territory in 1946 and, in 1958, an autonomous republic. Consistent with these changes, adjustments were made in the colonial military establishment to reflect an eventual assumption of military control by the Congolese over their own forces.
As a first step toward improvement of conditions within the colonial army, a system of pensions and allowances on the scale in use in France was established in 1948 and 1949. This was followed in 1950 by the abolition of conscript military labor, a practice whereby local youths with military obligations, who were excess to the army's needs, had been conscripted to perform work on engineering and other civic projects. In addition, by 1955 changes had been made and implemented in colonial military regulations that provided equal treatment for Africans in such matters as pay, clothing, equipment, housing, and advancement.
As a backup to these unified conditions of service in the colonial forces, the French instituted an officer procurement program to increase the number of African officers and noncommissioned officers in the army and in the gendarmerie. Military preparatory schools were established in various parts of French Africa in 1956 to produce officer candidates from among sons of African veterans and from selected soldiers serving on active duty. Graduates of these preparatory schools were then sent to a school for the development of officers for overseas areas, established at Frejus in southern France.
After successful completion of the two-year course at the officers' school in France, graduates were given an additional year of branch training and were then commissioned in the colonial army. As an adjunct to this program, the entrance requirements to other French military academies, including St. Cyr, were modified for African applicants in 1958 to increase further the flow of officers into the colonial forces.
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