Zouaves

Zouaves 

a variety of light infantry in the French colonial armies. It was recruited from the inhabitants of North Africa and from French volunteers who lived there. In the beginning of the 20th century, it was made a compulsory military service.

The first two battalions of Zouaves were created in Algeria in 1830 to conduct a colonial war in North Africa. Three regiments were formed in the middle of the 19th century, four in 1914, and six in 1939. The Zouaves participated in various wars that France fought in the 19th and 20th century, including the Crimean War of 1853–56, the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, and World Wars I and II. The troops had a special uniform that included a jacket, a waistcoat, wide trousers with a wide belt, and a fez or turban. The hired rifle (infantry) units in the army of the Turkish sultan were also known as Zouaves. There was one such brigade of Zouaves in the beginning of the 20th century.

Detachments of Zouaves of death, consisting of brave suicide fighters, were among the insurgent forces in the Polish Uprising of 1863–64.