France
The first notable militia in French history was the resistance of the Gauls to invasion by the Romans until they were defeated by Julius Caesar.
The next notable militia was organized and led by Joan of Arc until her capture and execution in 1431. It settled the succession to the French crown and laid the basis for the formation of the modern nation of France.
During the French Revolution the term levée en masse came into use.
During the Franco-Prussian War the Parisian National Guard, which was founded during the time of the American Revolution, engaged the Prussian Army and later rebelled against the Versailles Army under Marshal McMahon.
During World War II under German occupation, militia usually called the French Resistance emerged to conduct a guerrilla war of attrition against German forces and prepare the way for the D-Day Allied Invasion of France. The Resistance militia were opposed by the collaborationist French Militia - the paramilitary police force of the German puppet state of Vichy.
Read more about this topic: Militia
Famous quotes containing the word france:
“But as some silly young men returning from France affect a broken English, to be thought perfect in the French language; so his Lordship, I think, to seem a perfect understander of the unintelligible language of the Schoolmen, pretends an ignorance of his mother-tongue. He talks here of command and counsel as if he were no Englishman, nor knew any difference between their significations.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)
“It is not enough that France should be regarded as a country which enjoys the remains of a freedom acquired long ago. If she is still to count in the world—and if she does not intend to, she may as well perish—she must be seen by her own citizens and by all men as an ever-flowing source of liberty. There must not be a single genuine lover of freedom in the whole world who can have a valid reason for hating France.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)
“The good critic is he who relates the adventures of his soul among masterpieces.”
—Anatole France (1844–1924)