• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Guarde nationale / National Guard

French President François Hollande on 28 July 2016 confirmed that a National Guard would be formed from existing reserve forces to better protect citizens facing terror attacks. A "defence council" to be held early in August would hammer out the force's hierarchy and command structure, Hollande's office said in a statement. The president said parliamentary consultations on the formation of the force would take place in September 2016 "so that this force can be created as quickly as possible". He said he hoped the guard, made up of volunteers from the police, paramilitary police and military, would be operational by early autumn.

Hollande had called on French “patriots” to enlist in the country's operational reserves in the wake of the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice in which 84 people were killed. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on 27 July 2016 that “2,500 French people have said they are interested and we are getting constant new inquiries”. The French presidency said some 15,000 operational reservists should be available by the end of the month "to ensure security for various events of the summer".

The French public and a number of politicians have expressed outrage at what they regard as a lack of necessary security measures to ensure people’s safety, after a recent spate of terrorist attacks. In Nice, heavily armed national police officers were absent at the entrance to a promenade, from where an attacker drove a truck and slammed through the crowd at Bastille Day celebrations on July 14, leaving 84 people dead.

The creation of a National Guard was defended by several commentators in January 2015, following the attacks of Charlie Hebdo and Hypercacher and after the November attacks . The president of the UDI, the modem and the PRG had all three suggested Francois Hollande. "We do not have the means to monitor and secure the entire country, places of transport, public places. We suggested that, as has been done in our history and in other countries, we can create a National Guard which citizens come relay the police, equipped, trained, trained, supervised "explained Jean-Christophe Lagarde.

"The president decided that the National Guard would be built on existing operational reserves," said the Elysee. This decision was taken "in accordance with the work" done by specialists parliamentarians of the subject. On 20 July 2016, as in November 2015, the head of state had largely focused on the role of reservists in a National Guard. "When you add all these reservations, 1st and 2nd levels, we used the reserves of our armies, we can say that France with you has a national Guard" had he told the reservists. In November, François Hollande had also expressed the wish "that we draw most of the opportunities of the defense reserves, yet insufficiently exploited in our country." A clear reference to military reservists, which "constitute the elements that can make tomorrow a framed and available National Guard."

The reserve was created specifically to replace the National Guard . There are a for the army and one for the gendarmerie to which is added that of the national police in 2003. The National Guard in the US is not fully comparable with the idea of National Guard expressed by François Hollande. The missions of the US force go well beyond the maintenance of internal order.

History

France had not had a national guard since 1872. Members of the very first one, formed in 1789 at the outset of the French Revolution, wore a blue, white and red rosette on their hats – the origin of the French national colors.

The National Guard of Prance was instituted by the Committee of Safety at Paris on 13 July, 1789 (the day before the destruction of the Bastile), to maintain order and defend the public liberty. Its first colours were blue and red, to which white was added, when its formation was approved by the king. Its action was soon paralysed by the revolution, and it ceased altogether under the consulate and empire. It was revived bv Napoleon in 1814, and maintained by Louis XVIII, but was broken up by Charles X, after a tumultuous review in 1827. It was revived in 1830, and helped to place Louis Philippe on the throne. In 1848 its reconstitution and its enlargement from 80,000 to 100,000 men led to the frightful conflict of June 1848. Its constitution was entirely changed in January 1852, when it was subjected entirely to the control of the government. Formerly it had many privileges, such as choosing their own officers, &c. In consequence of the defection of part of the National Guard and the incompetency of the rest during the outbreak in Paris in 1871, its gradual abolition was decreed by the national assembly at Versailles (488-154), 24 August 1871. The peaceful disarmament began in September.

The institution of the national guard seems peculiar to France; not, as some will have it, on account of the military character of the people, but on account of the military character of the governments, which succeeded one another for so many centuries, and which, acknowledging no law but their own will, and always ready to support that law by physical force, compelled the people to resist by the same means.

So early as the reign of Louis le Gros there were the beginning of the national guard. The government of France was then a feudal anarchy,—a nominal king, with powerful vassals constantly employed in making war against their sovereigns, or against one another; that is to say, plundering and murdering one another's subjects, through the whole territory of France. The poor and defenceless villagers, and the rich inhabitants of the towns, at last grew tired of such a government, and resolved to submit to it no longer, but to take measures of self-defence. The burgesses first fortified their towns, and organised companies of hommes d'armes, to resist the attacks of the noble or royal brigands, and to protect their own property. The Kings soon perceived that their rebellious vassals were likely to be considerably enfeebled by these measures, encouraged the citizens, and promoted, in their own towns, the establishment of similar companies, not for the King's service, but for their own defense; and, from their establishment to their dissolution, under Louis XIV, they have been true to their cause, even when misled, as was often the case during the League and the Fronde.

In 1789, when it became evident that the King, in concert with the nobles and the high church party, was determined to dissolve the general estates (now the national assembly), and that household troops and foreign regiments were collected in and round Paris, and at Versailles, for that purpose, the people immediately resolved to resist the attempt. The result of the attack of Prince Lambesch was, a general insurrection, the destruction of the Bastille, and the formation of the national guard in all the provinces of France, for the avowed purpose of destroying the despotism of the sovereign, and the unjust privileges of the nobility and of the clergy, and of supporting the national assembly in their efforts to establish a constitution which should guarantee the liberties of the citizens, public order, and national independence.

Consuls, Emperors, and Kings, well aware that a national guard, if effective for any purpose, must act as a defence of the rights of the people, did not like the institution, and would willingly annihilate the very name of it; but that is impossible; and Charles X lost his crown for having attempted it. Had the national guard been in existence in 1830, the revolution of July would not have turned out, as it did, in the exile of himself and his dynasty.

Dissolved in 1827, by a royal ordinance, in Paris, and disorganised in the departments, the national guard reappeared, and more numerous than ever, at the revolution of July, to assist that portion of the inhabitants of Paris who had begun the insurrection, and afterwards to secure the results of the popular victory. The general opinion entertained of the liberal principles of the Duke of Orleans, his conduct during the first revolution, and his opposition to the policy of the Restoration, since the return of the Bourbons, had induced everyone to believe that, with such a chief, the French people would be free at home, and respected by foreign governments; and, in consequence, the national guard rallied round Louis Philippe. In Paris, they were the first and only supporters of his throne; and, in the departments, they, after due consideration, resolved to send deputations from their own body, to acknowledge him as a King, and to promise their allegiance to the new institutions of the country.

Louis Philippe and his worthy ministers were meditating the means of reducing the national guard to the same state of passive obedience as the regular army; nay, were aiming to manage its direction in such a manner, that it could be employed, with less danger than the army, in supporting the anti-national system and the despotic measures which the government was resolved to adopt. For this purpose, six months after the revolution of July, when grants of money and of the highest offices had completely monarchised the revolutionary chamber, a law for the organization of the national guard was proposed and passed.

Every Frenchman aged twenty-one years, and under sixty, and paying the capitation tax {contribution personnelle), was inscribed on the registry of the national guard. The national guards are formed into companies, battalions, and legions. The national guards of a company elect their officers and non-commissioned officers; the officers of each company, with an equal number of non-commissioned officers, elect their chiefs of battalions, and ten candidates for the grades of colonel and lieutenant-colonel of the legion, who were appointed by the King. The King also appointed the adjutant major of every battalion. These officers were paid by the government.

The national guard could not assemble for any purpose, with or without arms, unless they are authorised by the mayors, the sub-prefects, or the prefects, even when summoned by their officers. They are bound to obey the orders of the mayors and of the prefects, to attend in arms, and to march and act according to these orders. The prefects were authorised to suspend the officers, and even the companies, battalions, and legions, for disobedience to their orders, or to the orders of the mayors, either in meeting without leave, or in not attending when called on any duty; and the King was empowered to dissolve the national guards, subject to their re-organisation within six months from their dissolution.

The 1872 Act gave France an army of about 440,000 men. In practice, con- scription ... The Territorial Army was created in 1872 to replace the Garde Mobile and National Guard, which had been found wanting in wartime.