Repeated regime changes left the French army uniquely divided over where its loyalties lay
Evidence
Since the execution of Louis XVI in 1793, the French army had been subject to the First Republic, the Directory, the Consulate, the First Empire, the First and Second Restorations, the “Bourgeois Monarchy” of Louis-Philippe, the Second Republic, the Second Empire, the Commune, the Third Republic, Pétain’s Vichy and de Gaulle’s Free French Committee, the Fourth Republic, and now the Fifth Republic. Each change of regime had contributed fresh divisions within the army, and added new confusion as to where loyalties were ultimately due—a compound of experience shared by no other army in the world (outside, perhaps, Latin America). — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1078
Categorization
- XREF: Directly serves the reader’s stated goal of tracing the French Revolution’s structural aftereffects into the Algerian war. — connects to: Mollet’s political-warfare policies propelled the French army into politics.; Each French regime change since 1793 fractured army loyalties, uniquely in world history; France’s successive regimes since 1789 produced an army with uniquely divided loyalties (+5 more)
Related
- Each French regime change since 1793 fractured army loyalties, uniquely in world history (similarity 0.96)
- France’s successive regimes since 1789 produced an army with uniquely divided loyalties (similarity 0.95)
- The Algerian army command split along loyalty lines when the putsch began. (similarity 0.93)
- Algerians were forced to shift loyalty across four French authorities within three years (similarity 0.85)
- Rapidly shifting loyalties in wartime France weakened Algerian trust in any authority (similarity 0.83)
- The self-determination speech widened the split between France and the army and settlers (similarity 0.82)
- Mollet’s political-warfare policies propelled the French army into politics. (similarity 0.82)
- Algeria’s post-independence regime was captured by its wartime armed wing. (similarity 0.80)
- By 1956 the French army’s overriding aim became political, pushing Algérie française. (similarity 0.80)
- France believed wrongly that toppling Nasser would collapse the Algerian revolt. (similarity 0.79)
- Military victory elevated the army to ultimate political arbiter in Algeria (similarity 0.79)
- Algeria hosted several simultaneous revolutions on distinct levels (similarity 0.79)
- Winning militarily while losing politically doomed the French army in Algeria (similarity 0.79)
- French counterinsurgency repeatedly traded military advantage for political costs (similarity 0.79)
- Army disaffection and Fourth Republic decay were visible inside the state before 1958 (similarity 0.79)