Editing French Foreign Legion (section)

===Colonization of Africa===
[[File:Bonifacio Légion JPG1.jpg|thumb|upright|Monument commemorating the soldiers of the Foreign Legion killed on duty during the South-Oranese campaign (1897–1902).]]

As part of the [[Army of Africa (France)|Army of Africa]], the Foreign Legion contributed to the expansion of the [[French colonial empire]] in [[Sub-Saharan Africa]]. Simultaneously, the Legion took part to the [[pacification of Algeria]], suppressing various tribal rebellions and [[Ghazi (warrior)#Razzia|razzias]].

====Second Franco-Dahomean War 1892–1894====
{{Main|Second Franco-Dahomean War}}

In 1892, [[Béhanzin|King Béhanzin]] ordered his soldiers to attack villages near [[Grand Popo]] and [[Porto-Novo]] (in modern-day [[Benin]]) in an effort to reassert the older boundaries of Dahomey. King Béhanzin rejected complaints by the French, who proceeded to declare war

A battalion, led by commandant Faurax Montier, was formed from two companies of the First Foreign Regiment and two others from the second regiment. From [[Cotonou]], the legionnaires marched to seize [[Abomey]], the capital of the [[Dahomey|Kingdom of Dahomey]]. Two and a half months were needed to reach the city, at the cost of repeated battles against the Dahomean warriors, especially the [[Dahomey Amazons|Amazons of the King]]. King Behanzin surrendered and was captured by the legionnaires in January 1894.

====Second Madagascar Expedition 1894–1895====
{{Main|Second Madagascar expedition}}

In 1895, a battalion formed by the First and Second Foreign Regiments was sent to the [[Merina Kingdom|Kingdom of Madagascar]] as part of an expeditionary force whose mission was to conquer the island. The foreign battalion formed the backbone of the column launched on [[Antananarivo]], the capital of Madagascar. After a few skirmishes, Queen [[Ranavalona III]] promptly surrendered.<ref name="books.google.com">{{cite book| author=Philip D. Curtin| title=Disease and Empire: The Health of European Troops in the Conquest of Africa| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jVRF8hDyhpgC&pg=PA186| date=
1998| publisher=Cambridge University Press| isbn=978-0-521-59835-4| page=186}}</ref><ref>''Cambridge history of Africa'', p. 530</ref> The Foreign Legion lost 226 men, only a tenth of whom died during actual combat. Others, like much of the expeditionary force, died from tropical diseases.<ref name="books.google.com"/> Despite the success of the expedition, the quelling of sporadic rebellions would take another eight years until 1905, when the island was completely pacified by the French under [[Joseph Gallieni]].<ref name="books.google.com" /> During that time, insurrections against the Malagasy Christians of the island, missionaries and foreigners were particularly terrible.<ref>{{cite book| author=Herbert Ingram Priestly| title=France Overseas: A Study Of Modern Imperialism, 1938| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BOopmtvrsOAC&pg=PA308| date=1967| publisher=Routledge| isbn=978-0-7146-1024-5| page=308}}</ref> Queen [[Ranavalona III]] was deposed in January 1897 and was exiled to [[Algiers]] in Algeria, where she died in 1917.<ref>[[Musée de l'Armée]] exhibit, Paris</ref>

====Mandingo War 1898====
{{Main|Mandingo Wars}}

From 1882 until his capture, [[Samori Ture]], ruler of the [[Wassoulou Empire]], fought the French colonial army, defeating them on several occasions, including a [[Battles of Woyowoyanko|notable victory at Woyowayanko]] (2 April 1882), in the face of French heavy [[artillery]]. Nonetheless, Samori was forced to sign several treaties ceding territory to the French between 1886 and 1889. Samori began a steady retreat, but the fall of other resistance armies, particularly [[Babemba Traoré]] at [[Sikasso]], permitted the colonial army to launch a concentrated assault against his forces. A battalion of two companies from the 2nd Foreign Regiment was created in early 1894 to pacify the [[Niger]]. The Legionnaires' victory at the fortress of Ouilla and police patrols in the region accelerated the submission of the tribes. On 29 September 1898, Samori Ture was captured by the French [[Henri Gouraud (French Army officer)|Commandant Gouraud]] and exiled to [[Gabon]], marking the end of the Wassoulou Empire.