Editing French Foreign Legion (section)

===Conquest of Algeria 1830–1847===
{{Main|Origins of the French Foreign Legion|2nd Foreign Legion (2LE)|1st Foreign Regiment|2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment}}

Created to fight "outside [[Metropolitan France|mainland France]]", the Foreign Legion was stationed in [[French Algeria|Algeria]], where it took part in the [[Pacification of Algeria|Algerian genocide]] and destruction of the natural habitat of the colony, notably by drying the marshes in the region of [[Algiers]]. The Foreign Legion was initially divided into six "national battalions" (Swiss, Poles, Germans, Italians, Spanish, and Dutch-Belgian).<ref>{{cite book| author=Douglas Porch| title=The French Foreign Legion: A Complete History| date= 1991| isbn=978-0-333-58500-9| page=14| publisher=Macmillan}}</ref> Smaller national groups, such as ten Englishmen recorded in December 1832, appear to have been placed randomly.

In late 1831, the first legionnaires landed in Algeria, the country that shaped its character and became the Foreign Legion's homeland for 130 years. The early years in Algeria were hard on the legion because it was often sent to the worst postings and received the worst assignments, and its members were generally uninterested in the new colony of the French.<ref name="Algeria">Porch pp. 17–18</ref> The Legion served alongside the [[Bat' d'Af'|Battalions of Light Infantry of Africa]], formed in 1832, which was a [[penal military unit]] made up of men with prison records who still had to do their military service or soldiers with serious disciplinary problems.

The Foreign Legion's first service in Algeria came to an end after only four years, as it was needed elsewhere.