Armée Noire.

This is coolbert:

The person of Charles Mangin in that period prior to the Great War [WW1] a strong advocate of what were called Colonial Troops.

Mangin a long-term career serving officer in the French Army his attitudes and opinions regarding this matter most startling.

According to Mangin the recruitment of colonial troops not only a good idea but highly desirable.

Armée Noire = Black Force.

"The mass recruitment of African troops in the French Army, was the result chiefly of Mangin's persistent advocacy of the idea, which had many opponents. His conception of a “plus grande France,” based on political autonomy and military obligation for all parts of the French Empire, is put forward in the concluding chapters of his book Comment finit la Guerre."

"‘Les Races Guerrières’"

[the warlike people!]

"Mangin  also  invoked  cultural  relativism  to  buttress  his  case.Referring to the ‘warrior instincts that remain extremely powerful in primitive races’, Mangin claimed that once Africans were made aware of the benefits of French military service, recruits would be plentiful."

"Mangin  asserted  that  Africans  were  endowed  with  a  series  of  natural attributes that made them outstanding soldiers, including: (1) an ability to live in  harsher  climates  than  other  races;  (2)  the  capacity  (owing  to  centuries  of portage  and  migration)  to  carry  heavy  loads  great  distances;  (3)  a  nervous system that was less developed than that of ‘whites’, which gave them greater resistance to pain and hence more willingness to shed blood in battle; (4) the patriarchal nature of African societies, which endowed them with a sense of discipline  and  hierarchy that  was  readily  transferable  to  military  life;  and,finally, (5) the ‘selectionist’ argument that Africans were naturally suited to be excellent  soldiers,  since  Africa  had  for  centuries  been  a  ‘vast  battlefield’."

"Collectively, he argued, these factors not only contributed to making Africans ideal  soldiers  but,  considering  the  character  of  European  warfare,  also rendered them especially valuable to be used as ‘shock troops’: The black troops . . . have precisely those qualities that are demanded in the long struggles in modern war: rusticity, endurance, tenacity, the instinct for combat, the absence of nervous-ness, and an incomparable power of shock. Their arrival on the battlefield would have a considerable moral effect on the adversary."

BLACK AFRICANS FOR A VARIETY OF REASONS MAKE FOR SUPERIOR SOLDIERS. THIS ALL CLEARLY AND CAREFULLY ENUNCIATED!

Charles Mangin "his attitudes and opinions" today would be considered as racist!

Mangin during that period in history however NOT alone in his pronouncements and opinions.

More to follow.

coolbert.