The Force Publique (FP), French for "Public Force", was both a gendarmerie and a military force in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian colonial rule (1908 to 1960). Immediately following independence, the FP was retitled as the Congolese National Army or ANC.
Read more about Force Publique: Establishment, Under The Congo Free State, Post-Independence, Aviation, Former Members, See Also
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“Who shall set a limit to the influence of a human being? There are men, who, by their sympathetic attractions, carry nations with them, and lead the activity of the human race. And if there be such a tie, that, wherever the mind of man goes, nature will accompany him, perhaps there are men whose magnetisms are of that force to draw material and elemental powers, and, where they appear, immense instrumentalities organize around them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)