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Article A – The Tirailleurs Senegalais The Tirailleurs Senegalais were West African Colonial Army troops who fought for the French during World War I, World War II, and in numerous conquest, police, and colonial counterinsurgency operations. Despite the name, the Tirailleurs Senegalais were composed of soldiers recruited and conscripted from throughout French West Africa and not just from Senegal. However, recruitment and casualty burdens for Senegalese soldiers often numbered among the highest of the Tirailleurs Senegalais. The Tirailleurs Senegalais were created as the first permanent units of black African soldiers under French rule in 1857. From 1857 to 1905 the Tirailleurs Senegalais was primarily a mercenary force composed of slaves and Africans from low social ranks although a small group of well-born Africans served as intermediaries. The rachat (repurchase) system of slave purchase was employed by the French in obtaining soldiers, and although the practice officially ended in 1882, coercive tactics similar to slave purchasing still continued. The creation of the West African Federation in 1905 initiated the transition from military to civilian rule, but increasing numbers of African troops were needed in this period for policing, fighting resistance forces, and as garrison troops. The Tirailleurs Senegalais also participated in the conquest of Morocco in the early 1900s. In 1912 a new partial conscription law was passed. With the start of World War I, many Tirailleurs Senegalais soldiers were brought to the front in France and served in several important battles, like Vimy Ridge and Somme. They were also for a time amalgamated with black American soldiers in the trenches. French West African troops serving in World War I comprised about 170,891 men, and approximately 30,000 of them were killed. In Senegal alone more than 1/3 of all males of military age were mobilized. Following World War I, the Conscription Law of 1919 in French West Africa called for universal male conscription in peacetime as well as wartime. Hundreds of thousands served in the Tirailleurs Senegalais in colonial wars in this time period and in reserves and labor brigades. During World War II France once again used the Tirailleurs Senegalais troops, this time in even greater numbers. In 1940, African troops comprised roughly 9% of the French army. The French recruited more than 200,000 black Africans during the war. Approximately 25,000 were killed in battle. Many were also interned in German labor camps and thousands of black African Prisoners of War (POWs) were murdered by the Wehrmacht in 1940. In contrast to World War I, African troops were integrated into French military units. But when victory was close for the Free French forces de Gaulle ordered a “whitening” of the troops and replaced 20,000 Africans at the front with white Frenchmen. After French liberation, African servicemen were grouped in French centers to await the journey back home. However, they faced discriminatory treatment, and shortages of food, shelter, and other resources. In December of 1944 a protest at a camp in Thiaroye in Senegal involving the first group of ex-POWS to be sent back to West Africa resulted in 35 Africans killed, hundreds wounded, and many sentenced to jail terms. This protest, sometimes known as the “Thiaroye Massacre,” stemmed from French mistreatment and failure to provide back pay. Following World War II, a series of veterans organizations were formed that demanded equal rights. Many played important roles in Senegalese nationalist movements. The Tirailleurs Senegalais controversially participated in the French counterinsurgency war in Algeria in the 1950s, although some troops protested the involvement. Léopold Sédar Senghor, who in 1960 became the first President of independent Senegal, had served in the Tirailleurs Senegalais and was a POW during WWII. Sources: Myron Echenberg, Colonial Conscripts: The Tirailleurs Senegalais in French West Africa, 18571960 (Portsmouth: Heinemann Educational Books, Inc., 1991); Joe Lunn, Memoirs of the Maelstrom: A Senegalese Oral History of the First World War (Portsmouth: Heinemann Educational Books, Inc., 1999). Article B - Paris Honors African Soldiers Supporting France during WWI and WWI exhibit examines role of Asian, African troops France has launched the commemorations for next year’s 100-year anniversary of the start of World War I. In his solemn speech, French President François Hollande said that he wanted the program of commemorative events to unfold in a spirit of national unity, as well as friendship between all the countries involved in the conflict that wreak havoc on Europe from 1914 to 1918, causing nearly 1.7 million French deaths. However, the French leader also described the commemorations as an opportunity to express gratitude to all soldiers who fought for France, including those coming from the territories that were back then French colonies. As a matter of fact, some historians and observers have repeatedly expressed their consternation at the fact that the role of such soldiers in the French collective memory of the war has been consistently downplayed. According to a French journalist, Charles Onana, although “African troops actively participated in World War I [and] their contribution was crucial, … the larger French public isn’t necessarily aware of that. I’ve often been faced with high school and university students who knew nothing about these men’s engagement.” This is why Onana has called – echoing the French President’s recent appeal to raise the French awareness of African soldiers’ immense contribution to France’s victory and freedom – for more rigorous teaching of World War I history in French class rooms. As a major colonial power, France called on roughly 500,000 African men to take part in WWI fierce battles alongside the 8 million soldiers from mainland France. Participating in this socalled “colonial army” were 175,000 Algerians, 40,000 Moroccans, 80,000 Tunisians and 180,000 sub-Saharan Africans, or “Senegalese infantrymen”. Reflecting on why France had been so slow to address this controversial and divisive chapter of its past, Onan pointed to French sensitivities with respect to its colonial history: “It’s a part of the French story that is ignored, because it is linked to colonialism, a subject that elicits discomfort whenever it is raised.” http://northafricapost.com/4543-paris-honors-african-soldiers-supporting-france-duringwwi.html BRUSSELS, Belgium — After the guns of World War I fell silent, a young Vietnamese kitchen worker petitioned the leaders of the victorious Allied powers at the 1919 Versailles peace conference to support independence for his country. The appeal went unheeded, and Ho Chi Minh ended up leading the movement that decades later liberated Vietnam from French colonial rule. There's a connection, and it's evident at a Belgian exhibition that coincides with Tuesday's 90th anniversary of the end of World War I. More than a million soldiers from Europe's African and Asian colonies answered the call to arms, yet they were largely forgotten afterward, and promises of freedom were not fulfilled. The betrayal laid the foundations of the independence movements that ultimately brought an end to the colonial empires. "Man, Culture and War," an exhibit at Brussels' BELvue Museum, seeks to set the record straight about the contribution of colonial troops during the 1914-1918 conflict that became known as the Great War. The colonials fought alongside France, Britain, the U.S., Belgium, Canada, Australia and others on the Western Front. They accounted for more than 100,000 of the almost 4 million killed on that front, but their sacrifice was long overlooked by the history books and the governments that sent them into battle. "Asian and African units played an immensely important role on the Allied side throughout the war," said Piet Chielens, head of the In Flanders Fields Museum in the town of Ypres. "But very quickly after the war their contribution was reduced to a footnote in history." A replica of a tombstone and a helmet of North African soldiers are displayed at the Bellevue Museum in Brussels, Belgium, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2008. Although more than a million troops from Asia and Africa fought on the Western Front during the Great War, where 100,000 died, their sacrifice in the Allied war effort have generally been ignored by the colonial powers that ruled their nations. (AP Photo/Thierry Charlier) "The worldwide surge of decolonization which came after World War II had its origins in the disappointments and humiliations suffered by colonial troops during and after the Great War," he said. The soldiers -- all volunteers since there was no conscription in the colonies -- were lured in part by promises of greater freedom for their homelands in Africa, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. But after returning home they saw the promises being broken, and the resentment fed their liberation movements. The British apparently foresaw the problem. They were reluctant to arm and train black African troops lest they turn their know-how against their colonial masters once they got home, according to the exhibition captions. They were used instead as auxiliaries along with tens of thousands of Chinese laborers for digging trenches and clearing unexploded ordnance. The French had no such qualms. They armed 140 battalions from West Africa and Madagascar and sent them into the carnage of trench warfare. Whole divisions of North Africans -- mainly Moroccan, Algerians, and Tunisians -- also took part in the fighting. More than 35,000 of them were killed. Germany used local troops in its African colonies, but could not bring them to Europe because sea lanes were blocked. Colonial troops were mobilized again by France and Britain in World War II. North African units in France's World War I army, such as Zouave infantrymen or Spahi cavalrymen, gained fame for their battlefield courage and for the splendor of their colorful uniforms. Although most of the rank and file were Arabs, the units included European settlers and North African Jews who rallied to the French cause. The exhibit also details the discrimination the colonial soldiers suffered. In the British and Belgian armies, non-Europeans could rise no higher than sergeant. Only the French allowed them to become officers -- captains at best. The troops were inadequately trained and equipped, and discipline was harsh. "Care should be taken to prevent all familiarity between Europeans and Natives as it is subversive of discipline and impairs their efficiency," reads an order by the British commander of a South African labor battalion, which is part of the BELvue exhibit. Solomon Plaatje, a South African writer, witnessed the treatment of his fellow blacks in the ranks. Plaatje, who also tried unsuccessfully to address the Versailles peace conference, became one of the founders of the African National Congress which in the 1990s ended apartheid rule in his homeland. By Slobodan Lekic, Associated Press Writer http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-11-09-1456329040_x.htm Article C – The Treaty of Sevres The Treaty of Sèvres was signed with the Ottoman Empire after the end of World War One. The terms of the Treaty of Sèvres were harsh and many in the Ottoman Empire were left angered and embittered by their treatment. The Treaty of Sèvres was signed on August 10th 1920 after more than fifteen months was spent on drawing it up. Great Britain, Italy and France signed it for the victorious Allies. Russia was excluded from the process and by 1920 America had withdrawn into a policy of isolation. The Treaty of Sèvres territorially carved up the ‘Sick Man of Europe’. Britain and France had already decided what would happen to the area generally referred to as the ‘Middle East’. Britain took effective possession and control of Palestine while France took over Syria, Lebanon and some land in southern Anatolia. East and West Anatolia were declared areas of French influence. This had already been decided some three years before the Treaty of Sèvres in the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1917. Britain also took over Iraq and was given very generous oil concessions there via the British-controlled Turkish Petroleum Company, later renamed the Iraq Petroleum Company. The Kingdom of Hejaz was given formal international recognition as an independent kingdom. With Mecca and Medina as its most important cities, the Kingdom of Hejaz was 100,000 square miles in size with a total population of 750,000. Armenia was recognised as a separate sovereign state. Smyrna was put under effective control of Greece while technically remaining within the Ottoman Empire. The Treaty of Sèvres also gave the people of Smyrna the chance of a plebiscite on whether they wished to join Greece as opposed to remaining in the Ottoman Empire. This plebiscite would be overseen by the League of Nations. Greece was also given Thrace. The Dodecanese Islands were formally handed over to Italy who was also given influence in the coastal region of Anatolia. The Dardanelles Straits was made an international waterway with the Ottoman Empire having no control over it. Certain ports near to Constantinople were declared “free zones” as they were deemed to be of international importance. The Treaty of Sèvres failed to deal with the issue of a Kurdistan. There was an initial agreement on the boundaries of a Kurdistan but nationalist Kurds rejected this as it failed to include a region called Van. The issue ended with some Kurds living in Turkey where they were deemed by the government there as being Turks and some in northwest Iraq where they were deemed to be Iraqis. Like the other defeated Central Powers, the Ottoman Empire had military restrictions imposed on it. The Ottoman Army was limited to 50,000 men. An air force was forbidden and the navy was limited to thirteen boats – six schooners and seven torpedo boats. The Treaty of Sèvres also contained clauses that allowed the Allies to supervise these military terms. The financial consequences of the Treaty of Sèvres equalled those of the Treaty of Versailles in terms of severity; however, the new Weimar Germany was allowed to run her own economy – though the terms of Versailles obviously impacted this. The Ottoman Empire had the control of its finances and economy taken away from her and handed over to the Allies. This included the control of the Ottoman Bank, control over imports and exports, control of the national budget, control over financial regulations, requests for loans and reform of the tax system. The Allies controlled even debt repayments. One of the terms of this was that only France, Italy and Great Britain could be debt bondholders. The Ottoman Empire was also forbidden from having any economic collaboration with Germany, Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria and all the economic assets of these four states were liquidated within the Ottoman Empire. The Treaty of Sèvres also gave the Allies the right to reform the electoral system of the Ottoman Empire. Those deemed guilty of engaging in “barbarous warfare” were required to be handed over to the Allies. The Grand Vizier, Ahmed Pasha, of the Empire planned to ratify the Treaty of Sèvres but was faced with a rebellion by the Turkish nationalist leader Mustafa Kemal. Pasha’s defeat meant that Kemal refused to sign the Treaty of Sèvres, which he viewed as unacceptable with regards to its terms that directly impacted Turkey. Kemal would not countenance the Dardanelles Straits as being anything other than Turkish and saw no reason why ports in Turkey itself should be deemed “free zones”. Kemal believed that the leaders of the Ottoman Empire had taken the people of Turkey into World War One and that the Turkish people should not be punished for the actions of their former leaders. His stand meant that the victorious Allies and the newly created Turkey had to start treaty negotiations afresh http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/treaty_of_sevres.htm Name: ______________________________ Beard – Honors WH Date: __________ WWI’s Impact on Africa Directions: In your groups, assign one article per person (three people maximum per group). Read your article and answer the corresponding questions below. One you have finished with your article, discuss the answer with your group. Write your answers on a separate piece of paper. Each person in the group needs to answer the questions; this assignment will be collected and graded. Article A: 1. Describe the way the French government recruited troops from its colonies 2. Compare and contrast how these troops were treated during WWI and WWII. What explains the differences? 3. How do you feel about the way the French used colonial troops? Explain using evidence from the text. Article B: 4. Evaluate the change in tone that people in Europe now seem to have regarding the troops in colonial troops who fought in the World Wars. What are some of the specific actions now being taken to recognize the contributions of these troops? How do you feel about that? Article C: 5. Evaluate the fate of the Ottoman Empire following WWI. What particular actions were taken by the European powers at this time? How did this affect the Ottoman state? Once questions 1 through 5 are answered, answer the following as a group: 6. Evaluate the impact of WWI on the African colonies. Which colonial troops were treated the harshest? Explain your answer using evidence from your readings