Louis Brière de l'Isle
Encyclopedia
Louis Alexandre Esprit Gaston Brière de l'Isle (24 June 1827 – 19 June 1897) was a French Army
general who achieved distinction firstly as Governor of Senegal
(1876–81), and then as general-in-chief of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
during the Sino-French War
(August 1884–April 1885).
. In 1847 he graduated from Saint-Cyr
and was made Sous lieutenant in the Troupes de marine
, promoted to lieutenant in 1852 and captain in 1856. In the French colonial campaign
in French Indochina
, he was served as adjudant major du régiment de marine (1859–1860). Stationed in Cochinchine from 1861 to 1866. In 1861 he received a citation in the ordre de l'armée for combat at the February Battle of Kỳ Hòa, just west of Saigon.
Briere de l'Isle was made Chef d'escadron in 1862, and inspecteur des affaires indigènes at Tay Ninh
in 1863.
At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War
he was made Colonel, led the 1st Marine Infantry Regiment
at the Battle of Bazeilles
(for which he was made a Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur), and was wounded at the Battle of Sedan
in 1870.
After the war, Brière de l'Isle was named Governor of Sénégal from 1876 to 1881. He took an important role in the French conquest of Senegal
.
Kanya-Forstner describes him as "an authoritarian ruler who angered French commercial interests and turned the colony into a quasi-military dictatorship". Finding the colony in dire financial straits, he increased taxes on imported cloth from other countries, which went some way to placating the large French commercial houses while alienating local interests in Saint-Louis
and Dakar
. Militarily, the Senegal colony had recently faced both uprisings in the Wolof states which now make up the coastal heart of Senegal, and powerful states in the interior. The Minister of the Navy issued orders to Governor Brière de l'Isle that no new territory was to be annexed. Despite this he began a series of expansions through protectorates and direct military control, unprecedented since the highpoint of expansion under the governorship of Louis Faidherbe
(1854–1865). Brière de l'Isle oversaw the conquest of French territory in West Africa which would be formalised at the Berlin conference
of 1884, beginning the so called "Scramble for Africa
".
(now central Mali
) to open negotiations with the ruler Ahmadu Tall
, beginning French expansion into the Middle Niger River
valley. In March 1880, he again sent envoys to Segou, this time led by the future governor Joseph Gallieni
to establish regular trade. In the process, Gallieni constructed the French fort at Bafoulabé
. Soleillet had advocated in his reports for what was to become the Dakar-Niger Railway
, linking Senegal to the middle Niger near Segou. Brière de l'Isle was quickly won over, and found an ally in the new Minister of the Navy (to whom colonial officials reported), Admiral Jean Bernard Jauréguiberry, appointed February 1879. While Jauréguiberry failed to win sufficient government funding, and Gallieni's failure to build roads to Bafoulabé shook government resolve, the process of eastward expansion of direct territorial control had begun. Charles de Freycinet
, Minister of Public Works supported the propsed railway, and in 1880, Jauréguiberry issued a decree that all work on the railway was to be carried out by the Troupes de Marine.
Brière de l'Isle was committed to expanding French control over the middle Niger River valley, but unlike many of his predecessors the French governments of the late 1870s were more willing to sanction (or accept) direct conquest of territory. Ironically the merchant houses based in Saint-Louis were in this period still hesitant about direct control of the hinterlands, preferring to work through their own trade networks and the series of French military trading posts. In this way as well, Brière de l'Isle was representative of the next stage in French colonialism.
kingdom again rose in 1879, the French crushed them for the final time. This enabled Brière de l'Isle's government to go ahead with what had been Faidherbe's grand project: the construction of the Dakar-Saint-Louis railway through the rich groundnut
cultivating regions of central Senegal. This provided transport, security, and access to a rich export crop that would be channeled through French merchant ports. In October 1877 Brière de l'Isle's began a campaign east and south along the Senegal River
aimed at Abdul Bubakar
's state in the northern Fouta Djallon
highlands. Ignoring direct orders from Paris, he sent a force to attack Bubakar, forcing him to submit to a French protectorate over the provinces of Toro, Lao and Irlabé.
), he began a series of offensives in Rivières du Sud
occupying positions near Benty in 1879 and seizing the islands of Kakoutlaye and Matacong. This, with the expansion in Fouta Djallon, laid the basis for the formal creation of Rivières du Sud colony in 1882.
vassal state along the north bank of the Senegal River
. Again blocked by the colonial minister in Paris, he argued that they were a threat to the Senegalese kingdom of Futa Tooro
(then a French client state) with which the British were poised to interfere. The Ministry, under Jauréguiberry, gave in and on 7 July 1878, a French force destroyed the Tokolor fort at Sabouciré, killing their leader, Almany Niamody. This portion of the Kaarta vassal state was then incorporated into the Khasso
Wolof protectorate kingdom.
This marked the beginning of the conquest of the Toucouleur Empire
by the French. While the Siege of Medina Fort
in 1857 had helped persuade the empire's founder El Hadj Umar Tall to turn his attentions east of the Senegal River valley, the French had had little contact with the conquest state since then. This allowed first Faidherbe and then Brière de l'Isle a free hand in what is now Senegal. Brière de l'Isle's tenure marked not only the consolidation of French control of Senegal, but the next push to the east.
This same commitment to military expansion led to Brière de l'Isle dismissal when the political winds in Paris changed. Admiral Georges Charles Cloué was named Minister of the Navy in 1881, and the Governor was warned that expansion of the rail line to the Niger River was a low priority, to be pressed by civilian (business) interests only, removing the Marine involvement in its construction. Cloué ordered the governor to cease military operations pushing east of Kita
. Within weeks Brière de l'Isle ordered his military protege Lieutenant Colonel Gustave Borgnis-Desbordes
to launch a punitive expedition
to the Niger and seize the small town at Bamako
. Brière de l'Isle was recalled on 11 March 1881 in response. By the end of 1881 Senegal had its first civilian governor, Marie Auguste Deville de Perière.
and Louis Archinard
to lead the conquest of the middle Niger region, Brière de l'Isle began the advance, and oversaw the creation of the military territory of "Upper Senegal" (Haut-Sénégal) region on 27 February 1880. This created the institutional conditions, just as Brière de l'Isle's flauting of government restrictions stoked the martial culture, for independent action and imperial expansion by officers in the field. One historian has written that the creation of Haut-Sénégal:
Giving its military commanders sufficient cover to act unilaterally (if unlawfully), this territory was quickly expanded through conquest to the east, and renamed French Sudan
in 1890.
Promoted brigadier (général de brigade) in 1881, Brière de l'Isle was given command of the 1st Brigade of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
in February 1884, during the French expedition to Tonkin
(now northern Vietnam
). In March 1884 he drove the Chinese from the Trung Son heights and routed the right wing of the Guangxi Army in the Bac Ninh campaign
. In recognition of his services at Bac Ninh, he was appointed a Grand Officier de la Légion d'honneur in April. In April 1884 he outflanked the defences of Hung Hoa with the 1st Brigade while General François de Négrier
's 2nd Brigade fixed them frontally, forcing Liu Yongfu to withdraw the Black Flag Army
from the town before his men were cut off. Brière de l'Isle's flank march at Hung Hoa enabled the French to occupy the most heavily fortified Black Flag stronghold in Tonkin without losing a man.
In September 1884, shortly after the outbreak of the Sino-French War
(August 1884 to April 1885), he replaced General Charles-Théodore Millot
as general-in-chief of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
. In October 1884 he defeated a major Chinese invasion of the Tonkin Delta in the Kep Campaign
. In January 1885 he was promoted divisional general (général de division). In February 1885 he commanded both brigades of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps in the Lang Son Campaign
, defeating China's Guangxi Army and capturing the strategically important border town of Lang Son
. This campaign, which required months of patient preparation, was perhaps the greatest military achievement of his career. Immediately after the capture of Lang Son he returned to Hanoi with Lieutenant-Colonel Laurent Giovanninelli's 1st Brigade to relieve the Siege of Tuyen Quang
, leaving General François de Négrier
's 2nd Brigade at Lang Son. After defeating Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army
at the Battle of Hoa Moc
(2 March 1885), Brière de l'Isle entered the beleaguered French post in triumph on 3 March. These battlefield successes underscored the failure of concurrent diplomatic attempts to resolve the conflict between France and China, and evoked a heartfelt tribute from the French premier Jules Ferry
: 'It seems that the only negotiator China will respect is General Brière de l'Isle.'
Brière de l'Isle's record of substantial military achievement was marred at the end of March 1885 by the controversial Retreat from Lang Son
. The retreat, which threw away the gains of the February Lang Son Campaign
, was ordered by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Gustave Herbinger, the acting commander of the 2nd Brigade, and came less than a week after General de Négrier's defeat at the Battle of Bang Bo (24 March 1885). Brière de l'Isle was in Hanoi at the time, and was planning to shift his headquarters to Hung Hoa, to supervise a planned offensive against the Yunnan Army around Tuyen Quang. Without waiting to sift the misleading information contained in Herbinger's alarmist cables from Lang Son, Brière de l'Isle fired off a pessimistic telegram on the evening of 28 March to the French government, warning that the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps faced disaster unless it was immediately reinforced. This cable, immediately dubbed the 'Lang Son telegram', brought down Jules Ferry
's government on 30 March 1885, ruined Ferry's political career, and dealt a severe blow to domestic support for French colonial expansion (see Tonkin Affair
). It also cast a shadow over Brière de l'Isle's professional reputation. Although he was to obtain further professional advancement before his retirement, he knew that he would in future be remembered not as the French commander who had captured Lang Son and relieved Tuyen Quang but as the man who had lost his head and sent the notorious telegram that had brought down Ferry's administration.
In May 1885, in consequence of its expansion into a two-division army corps, Brière de l'Isle was replaced in command of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps by General Henri Roussel de Courcy. He was offered command of the 1st Division of the expanded expeditionary corps, and accepted only on condition that General François de Négrier was given command of the 2nd Division. The army ministry granted this request, and Brière de l'Isle served under de Courcy's command for several months. De Courcy was an arrogant and obtuse commander, unwilling to listen to advice from his more experienced juniors, and relations between the two men soon plummeted. Brière de l'Isle disagreed with de Courcy's unimaginative pacification strategy in Tonkin and his failure to take effective quarantine measures to deal with a cholera outbreak in August 1885. In October 1885, with Annam and Tonkin in open insurrection against French rule and the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps decimated by cholera, he decided that he had had enough. Unable to stomach working for de Courcy any longer, he left Tonkin and returned to France.
-Taverny
, Seine-et-Oise Department
(now in Val-d'Oise Department
), France.
French Army
The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...
general who achieved distinction firstly as Governor of Senegal
History of Senegal
The History of Senegal is commonly divided into a number of periods, encompassing the prehistoric era, the precolonial period, colonialism, and the contemporary era.- Paleolithic :...
(1876–81), and then as general-in-chief of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
The Tonkin Expeditionary Corps was an important French military command based in northern Vietnam from June 1883 to April 1886. The expeditionary corps fought the Tonkin campaign taking part in campaigns against the Black Flag Army and the Chinese Yunnan and Guangxi Armies during the...
during the Sino-French War
Sino-French War
The Sino–French War was a limited conflict fought between August 1884 and April 1885 to decide whether France should replace China in control of Tonkin . As the French achieved their war aims, they are usually considered to have won the war...
(August 1884–April 1885).
Military career to 1871
Louis Briere de l'Isle was born on 4 June 1827 in MartiniqueMartinique
Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
. In 1847 he graduated from Saint-Cyr
École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr
The École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr is the foremost French military academy. Its official name is . It is often referred to as Saint-Cyr . Its motto is "Ils s'instruisent pour vaincre": literally "They study to vanquish" or "Training for victory"...
and was made Sous lieutenant in the Troupes de marine
Troupes de marine
The or Infanterie de marine, formerly Troupes coloniales, are an arm of the French Army with a colonial heritage. The Troupes de marine have a dedicated overseas service role. Despite their title they have been a part of the Army since 1958...
, promoted to lieutenant in 1852 and captain in 1856. In the French colonial campaign
Colonization of Cochinchina
The French conquest of Cochinchina – which was the European name for the southern part of Vietnam – occurred in two phases between 1858 and 1867.-Historical background:...
in French Indochina
French Indochina
French Indochina was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin , Annam , and Cochinchina , as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887....
, he was served as adjudant major du régiment de marine (1859–1860). Stationed in Cochinchine from 1861 to 1866. In 1861 he received a citation in the ordre de l'armée for combat at the February Battle of Kỳ Hòa, just west of Saigon.
Briere de l'Isle was made Chef d'escadron in 1862, and inspecteur des affaires indigènes at Tay Ninh
Tay Ninh
Tây Ninh is a town in southwestern Vietnam. It is the capital of Tay Ninh province, which encompasses the town and much of the surrounding farmland....
in 1863.
At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
he was made Colonel, led the 1st Marine Infantry Regiment
1st Marine Infantry Regiment
The 1st Marine Infantry Regiment is a French regiment, that inherits from Colonial Infantry. It is one of the oldest regiments of the Troupes de Marine with 2e RIMa, 3e RIMa, 4e RIMa and 1er RAMa, forming the Blue Division during Franco-Prussian war....
at the Battle of Bazeilles
Battle of Bazeilles
The Battle of Bazeilles was one of the first occasions of modern urban warfare.During the 1870 Franco-Prussian war, Bazeilles, a small village in the French Ardennes department near Sedan was the theater of an ambush on Bavarians, allies of the Prussians, by a small detachment from the "Blue...
(for which he was made a Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur), and was wounded at the Battle of Sedan
Battle of Sedan
The Battle of Sedan was fought during the Franco-Prussian War on 1 September 1870. It resulted in the capture of Emperor Napoleon III and large numbers of his troops and for all intents and purposes decided the war in favour of Prussia and its allies, though fighting continued under a new French...
in 1870.
Governor of Sénégal
French conquest of Senegal
The French conquest of Senegal started from 1659 with the establishment of Saint-Louis, Senegal, followed by the French capture of the island of Gorée from the Dutch in 1677, but would only become a full-scale campaign in the 19th century....
.
Kanya-Forstner describes him as "an authoritarian ruler who angered French commercial interests and turned the colony into a quasi-military dictatorship". Finding the colony in dire financial straits, he increased taxes on imported cloth from other countries, which went some way to placating the large French commercial houses while alienating local interests in Saint-Louis
Saint-Louis, Senegal
Saint-Louis, or Ndar as it is called in Wolof, is the capital of Senegal's Saint-Louis Region. Located in the northwest of Senegal, near the mouth of the Senegal River, and 320 km north of Senegal's capital city Dakar, it has a population officially estimated at 176,000 in 2005. Saint-Louis...
and Dakar
Dakar
Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...
. Militarily, the Senegal colony had recently faced both uprisings in the Wolof states which now make up the coastal heart of Senegal, and powerful states in the interior. The Minister of the Navy issued orders to Governor Brière de l'Isle that no new territory was to be annexed. Despite this he began a series of expansions through protectorates and direct military control, unprecedented since the highpoint of expansion under the governorship of Louis Faidherbe
Louis Faidherbe
Louis Léon César Faidherbe was a French general and colonial administrator. He created the Senegalese Tirailleurs when he was governor of Senegal.- Background :...
(1854–1865). Brière de l'Isle oversaw the conquest of French territory in West Africa which would be formalised at the Berlin conference
Berlin Conference
The Berlin Conference of 1884–85 regulated European colonization and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period, and coincided with Germany's sudden emergence as an imperial power...
of 1884, beginning the so called "Scramble for Africa
Scramble for Africa
The Scramble for Africa, also known as the Race for Africa or Partition of Africa was a process of invasion, occupation, colonization and annexation of African territory by European powers during the New Imperialism period, between 1881 and World War I in 1914...
".
Expansion into the Middle Niger
In April 1873 Brière de l'Isle, had sent Paul Soleillet to SégouSégou
Ségou is a city in south-central Mali, lying northeast of Bamako on the River Niger, in the region of Ségou. It was founded by the Bozo people, on a site about from the present town...
(now central Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
) to open negotiations with the ruler Ahmadu Tall
Ahmadu Tall
Ahmadu Seku Tall was a Toucouleur ruler of the Toucouleur Empire and of Ségou from 1864-1884 . Ahmadu Seku's father, El Hadj Umar Tall, conquered Ségou on March 10, 1861...
, beginning French expansion into the Middle Niger River
Niger River
The Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea...
valley. In March 1880, he again sent envoys to Segou, this time led by the future governor Joseph Gallieni
Joseph Gallieni
Joseph Simon Gallieni was a French soldier, most active as a military commander and administrator in the French colonies and finished his career during the First World War. He was made Marshal of France posthumously in 1921...
to establish regular trade. In the process, Gallieni constructed the French fort at Bafoulabé
Bafoulabé
Bafoulabé is a town and commune in south-western Mali. It is located in the Region of Kayes. Bafoulabé is the capital of the Cercle of Bafoulabé, which in 1887 was the first Cercle to be created in Mali.-Local administration:...
. Soleillet had advocated in his reports for what was to become the Dakar-Niger Railway
Dakar-Niger Railway
The Dakar–Niger Railway connects Dakar, to Koulikoro, . It serves many cities in Senegal and Mali...
, linking Senegal to the middle Niger near Segou. Brière de l'Isle was quickly won over, and found an ally in the new Minister of the Navy (to whom colonial officials reported), Admiral Jean Bernard Jauréguiberry, appointed February 1879. While Jauréguiberry failed to win sufficient government funding, and Gallieni's failure to build roads to Bafoulabé shook government resolve, the process of eastward expansion of direct territorial control had begun. Charles de Freycinet
Charles de Freycinet
Charles Louis de Saulces de Freycinet was a French statesman and Prime Minister during the Third Republic; he belonged to the Opportunist Republicans faction. He was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1890, the fourteen member to occupy seat the Académie française.-Early years:He...
, Minister of Public Works supported the propsed railway, and in 1880, Jauréguiberry issued a decree that all work on the railway was to be carried out by the Troupes de Marine.
Brière de l'Isle was committed to expanding French control over the middle Niger River valley, but unlike many of his predecessors the French governments of the late 1870s were more willing to sanction (or accept) direct conquest of territory. Ironically the merchant houses based in Saint-Louis were in this period still hesitant about direct control of the hinterlands, preferring to work through their own trade networks and the series of French military trading posts. In this way as well, Brière de l'Isle was representative of the next stage in French colonialism.
Final pacification of Senegal
In 1876 and 1877, Brière de l'Isle saw to it that the last remaining Wolof leader who could offer a threat to the French, the already isolated Lat Dior, was blocked from any attempt to retake his lost territory, and consolidated French control over northwest Senegal. When Dior and his CayorCayor
The Kingdom of Cayor was the largest and most powerful kingdom that split off from the Empire of Jolof , in what is now Senegal. Cayor was located in north and central Senegal, southeast of Waalo, west of the kingdom of Jolof and north of Baol and the Kingdom of Sine.In 1549, the king, or...
kingdom again rose in 1879, the French crushed them for the final time. This enabled Brière de l'Isle's government to go ahead with what had been Faidherbe's grand project: the construction of the Dakar-Saint-Louis railway through the rich groundnut
Peanut
The peanut, or groundnut , is a species in the legume or "bean" family , so it is not a nut. The peanut was probably first cultivated in the valleys of Peru. It is an annual herbaceous plant growing tall...
cultivating regions of central Senegal. This provided transport, security, and access to a rich export crop that would be channeled through French merchant ports. In October 1877 Brière de l'Isle's began a campaign east and south along the Senegal River
Sénégal River
The Sénégal River is a long river in West Africa that forms the border between Senegal and Mauritania.The Sénégal's headwaters are the Semefé and Bafing rivers which both originate in Guinea; they form a small part of the Guinean-Malian border before coming together at Bafoulabé in Mali...
aimed at Abdul Bubakar
Abdul Bubakar
Abdul Bubakar was the ruler of the Kingdom of Fouta Djallon in the late nineteenth century, which covered area of what is now Mauritania and Senegal. He sought to reorganize the Tukolor confederation to oppose further French advancement up the Senegal River. In 1877, Bubakar was forced to recognize...
's state in the northern Fouta Djallon
Fouta Djallon
Fouta Djallon is a highland region in the centre of Guinea, West Africa. The indigenous name is Fuuta-Jaloo...
highlands. Ignoring direct orders from Paris, he sent a force to attack Bubakar, forcing him to submit to a French protectorate over the provinces of Toro, Lao and Irlabé.
French Guinea
To the south (in what is today GuineaGuinea
Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...
), he began a series of offensives in Rivières du Sud
Rivières du Sud
Rivières du Sud was a French colonial division in West Africa, roughly corresponding to modern coastal sections of Guinea...
occupying positions near Benty in 1879 and seizing the islands of Kakoutlaye and Matacong. This, with the expansion in Fouta Djallon, laid the basis for the formal creation of Rivières du Sud colony in 1882.
Conflict with the Toucouleur Empire
In 1878 he sent another French force against the Kaarta ToucouleurToucouleur Empire
The Toucouleur Empire was founded in the nineteenth century by El Hadj Umar Tall of the Toucouleur people, in part of present-day Mali....
vassal state along the north bank of the Senegal River
Sénégal River
The Sénégal River is a long river in West Africa that forms the border between Senegal and Mauritania.The Sénégal's headwaters are the Semefé and Bafing rivers which both originate in Guinea; they form a small part of the Guinean-Malian border before coming together at Bafoulabé in Mali...
. Again blocked by the colonial minister in Paris, he argued that they were a threat to the Senegalese kingdom of Futa Tooro
Futa Tooro
Futa Tooro refers to the region on the Senegal River in what is now northern Senegal and southern Mauritania.The word Fuuta was a general name the Fulbe gave to any area they lived in, while Tooro was the actual identity of the region for its inhabitants. The people of the kingdom spoke Pulaar, a...
(then a French client state) with which the British were poised to interfere. The Ministry, under Jauréguiberry, gave in and on 7 July 1878, a French force destroyed the Tokolor fort at Sabouciré, killing their leader, Almany Niamody. This portion of the Kaarta vassal state was then incorporated into the Khasso
Khasso
Khasso or Xaaso was a West African kingdom of the 17th to 19th centuries, occupying territory in what is today Senegal and the Kayes Region of Mali. Its capital was at Medina until its fall....
Wolof protectorate kingdom.
This marked the beginning of the conquest of the Toucouleur Empire
Toucouleur Empire
The Toucouleur Empire was founded in the nineteenth century by El Hadj Umar Tall of the Toucouleur people, in part of present-day Mali....
by the French. While the Siege of Medina Fort
Siege of Medina Fort
The Siege of the Fort du Médine took place in 1857 at Médine near Kayes modern-day Mali, when the Toucouleur forces of al-Hājj Umar Taal unsuccessfully besieged French colonial troops under General Louis Faidherbe, governor of Senegal.-Origin:...
in 1857 had helped persuade the empire's founder El Hadj Umar Tall to turn his attentions east of the Senegal River valley, the French had had little contact with the conquest state since then. This allowed first Faidherbe and then Brière de l'Isle a free hand in what is now Senegal. Brière de l'Isle's tenure marked not only the consolidation of French control of Senegal, but the next push to the east.
This same commitment to military expansion led to Brière de l'Isle dismissal when the political winds in Paris changed. Admiral Georges Charles Cloué was named Minister of the Navy in 1881, and the Governor was warned that expansion of the rail line to the Niger River was a low priority, to be pressed by civilian (business) interests only, removing the Marine involvement in its construction. Cloué ordered the governor to cease military operations pushing east of Kita
Kita, Mali
Kita is a town and commune in western Mali. It lies on the eastern slope of Mount Kita , known for its caves and rock paintings. Today, the city is known for its music, its annual Roman Catholic pilgrimage and its role as a processing center for the surrounding cotton- and peanut-growing region...
. Within weeks Brière de l'Isle ordered his military protege Lieutenant Colonel Gustave Borgnis-Desbordes
Gustave Borgnis-Desbordes
Gustave Borgnis-Desbordes was a French general. He was a major figure in the French Imperial conquest of the French Soudan, modern Mali...
to launch a punitive expedition
Punitive expedition
A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a state or any group of persons outside the borders of the punishing state. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong behavior, but may be also be a covered revenge...
to the Niger and seize the small town at Bamako
Bamako
Bamako is the capital of Mali and its largest city with a population of 1.8 million . Currently, it is estimated to be the fastest growing city in Africa and sixth fastest in the world...
. Brière de l'Isle was recalled on 11 March 1881 in response. By the end of 1881 Senegal had its first civilian governor, Marie Auguste Deville de Perière.
Foundation for the conquest of French Soudan
While it fell to Borgnis-Desbordes, Joseph GallieniJoseph Gallieni
Joseph Simon Gallieni was a French soldier, most active as a military commander and administrator in the French colonies and finished his career during the First World War. He was made Marshal of France posthumously in 1921...
and Louis Archinard
Louis Archinard
Louis Archinard was a French Army general at the time of the Third Republic, who contributed to the colonial conquest of French West Africa. He was traditionally presented in French histories as the conqueror and "Pacifier" of French Soudan . Archinard's campaigns brought about the end of the...
to lead the conquest of the middle Niger region, Brière de l'Isle began the advance, and oversaw the creation of the military territory of "Upper Senegal" (Haut-Sénégal) region on 27 February 1880. This created the institutional conditions, just as Brière de l'Isle's flauting of government restrictions stoked the martial culture, for independent action and imperial expansion by officers in the field. One historian has written that the creation of Haut-Sénégal:
...marks the real beginning of the phase of French expansion in Africa christened "military imperialism" by Kanya-Forstner. For the next twenty years marine commanders, not government ministers, would determine the pace and extent of French expansion along the road to TimbuktuTimbuktuTimbuktu , formerly also spelled Timbuctoo, is a town in the West African nation of Mali situated north of the River Niger on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. The town is the capital of the Timbuktu Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali...
.
Giving its military commanders sufficient cover to act unilaterally (if unlawfully), this territory was quickly expanded through conquest to the east, and renamed French Sudan
French Sudan
French Sudan was a colony in French West Africa that had two separate periods of existence, first from 1890 to 1899, then from 1920 to 1960, when the territory became the independent nation of Mali.-Colonial establishment:...
in 1890.
Tonkin
Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
The Tonkin Expeditionary Corps was an important French military command based in northern Vietnam from June 1883 to April 1886. The expeditionary corps fought the Tonkin campaign taking part in campaigns against the Black Flag Army and the Chinese Yunnan and Guangxi Armies during the...
in February 1884, during the French expedition to Tonkin
Tonkin
Tonkin , also spelled Tongkin, Tonquin or Tongking, is the northernmost part of Vietnam, south of China's Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces, east of northern Laos, and west of the Gulf of Tonkin. Locally, it is known as Bắc Kỳ, meaning "Northern Region"...
(now northern Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
). In March 1884 he drove the Chinese from the Trung Son heights and routed the right wing of the Guangxi Army in the Bac Ninh campaign
Bac Ninh campaign
The Bac Ninh Campaign was one of a series of clashes between French and Chinese forces in northern Vietnam during the Tonkin campaign...
. In recognition of his services at Bac Ninh, he was appointed a Grand Officier de la Légion d'honneur in April. In April 1884 he outflanked the defences of Hung Hoa with the 1st Brigade while General François de Négrier
François de Négrier
General François Oscar de Négrier was one of the most charismatic French generals of the Third Republic, winning fame in Algeria in the Sud-Oranais campaign and in Tonkin during the Sino-French War .- Early career :Born in Belfort, France on October 2, 1839, De Négrier served with Marshal...
's 2nd Brigade fixed them frontally, forcing Liu Yongfu to withdraw the Black Flag Army
Black Flag Army
The Black Flag Army was a splinter remnant of a bandit group recruited largely from soldiers of ethnic Zhuang background, who crossed the border from Guangxi province of China into Upper Tonkin, in the Empire of Annam in 1865. They became known mainly for their fights against French forces in...
from the town before his men were cut off. Brière de l'Isle's flank march at Hung Hoa enabled the French to occupy the most heavily fortified Black Flag stronghold in Tonkin without losing a man.
In September 1884, shortly after the outbreak of the Sino-French War
Sino-French War
The Sino–French War was a limited conflict fought between August 1884 and April 1885 to decide whether France should replace China in control of Tonkin . As the French achieved their war aims, they are usually considered to have won the war...
(August 1884 to April 1885), he replaced General Charles-Théodore Millot
Charles-Théodore Millot
Charles-Théodore Millot was a French general who distinguished himself in the Franco-Prussian War and the Tonkin campaign...
as general-in-chief of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
The Tonkin Expeditionary Corps was an important French military command based in northern Vietnam from June 1883 to April 1886. The expeditionary corps fought the Tonkin campaign taking part in campaigns against the Black Flag Army and the Chinese Yunnan and Guangxi Armies during the...
. In October 1884 he defeated a major Chinese invasion of the Tonkin Delta in the Kep Campaign
Kep Campaign
The Kep Campaign was an important campaign in northern Vietnam during the opening months of the Sino-French War...
. In January 1885 he was promoted divisional general (général de division). In February 1885 he commanded both brigades of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps in the Lang Son Campaign
Lang Son Campaign
The Lang Son Campaign was a major French offensive in Tonkin during the Sino-French War...
, defeating China's Guangxi Army and capturing the strategically important border town of Lang Son
Lang Son
Lạng Sơn , sometimes Langson, is a city in far northern Vietnam, is the capital of Lang Son province. It is accessible by road and rail from Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, and it is the northernmost point on National Road 1A.-History:...
. This campaign, which required months of patient preparation, was perhaps the greatest military achievement of his career. Immediately after the capture of Lang Son he returned to Hanoi with Lieutenant-Colonel Laurent Giovanninelli's 1st Brigade to relieve the Siege of Tuyen Quang
Siege of Tuyen Quang
The Siege of Tuyen Quang was an important confrontation between the French and the Chinese armies in Tonkin during the Sino-French War...
, leaving General François de Négrier
François de Négrier
General François Oscar de Négrier was one of the most charismatic French generals of the Third Republic, winning fame in Algeria in the Sud-Oranais campaign and in Tonkin during the Sino-French War .- Early career :Born in Belfort, France on October 2, 1839, De Négrier served with Marshal...
's 2nd Brigade at Lang Son. After defeating Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army
Black Flag Army
The Black Flag Army was a splinter remnant of a bandit group recruited largely from soldiers of ethnic Zhuang background, who crossed the border from Guangxi province of China into Upper Tonkin, in the Empire of Annam in 1865. They became known mainly for their fights against French forces in...
at the Battle of Hoa Moc
Battle of Hoa Moc
The Battle of Hoa Moc was the most fiercely-fought action of the Sino-French War . At heavy cost, Colonel Giovanninelli's 1st Brigade of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps defeated forces of the Black Flag and Yunnan Armies blocking the way to the besieged French post of Tuyen Quang.- Background :The...
(2 March 1885), Brière de l'Isle entered the beleaguered French post in triumph on 3 March. These battlefield successes underscored the failure of concurrent diplomatic attempts to resolve the conflict between France and China, and evoked a heartfelt tribute from the French premier Jules Ferry
Jules Ferry
Jules François Camille Ferry was a French statesman and republican. He was a promoter of laicism and colonial expansion.- Early life :Born in Saint-Dié, in the Vosges département, France, he studied law, and was called to the bar at Paris in 1854, but soon went into politics, contributing to...
: 'It seems that the only negotiator China will respect is General Brière de l'Isle.'
Brière de l'Isle's record of substantial military achievement was marred at the end of March 1885 by the controversial Retreat from Lang Son
Retreat from Lang Son
The Retreat from Lang Son was a controversial, and almost certainly unnecessary, French strategic withdrawal in Tonkin at the end of March 1885 that brought down the government of the French premier Jules Ferry and brought the Sino-French War to an end in circumstances of considerable...
. The retreat, which threw away the gains of the February Lang Son Campaign
Lang Son Campaign
The Lang Son Campaign was a major French offensive in Tonkin during the Sino-French War...
, was ordered by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Gustave Herbinger, the acting commander of the 2nd Brigade, and came less than a week after General de Négrier's defeat at the Battle of Bang Bo (24 March 1885). Brière de l'Isle was in Hanoi at the time, and was planning to shift his headquarters to Hung Hoa, to supervise a planned offensive against the Yunnan Army around Tuyen Quang. Without waiting to sift the misleading information contained in Herbinger's alarmist cables from Lang Son, Brière de l'Isle fired off a pessimistic telegram on the evening of 28 March to the French government, warning that the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps faced disaster unless it was immediately reinforced. This cable, immediately dubbed the 'Lang Son telegram', brought down Jules Ferry
Jules Ferry
Jules François Camille Ferry was a French statesman and republican. He was a promoter of laicism and colonial expansion.- Early life :Born in Saint-Dié, in the Vosges département, France, he studied law, and was called to the bar at Paris in 1854, but soon went into politics, contributing to...
's government on 30 March 1885, ruined Ferry's political career, and dealt a severe blow to domestic support for French colonial expansion (see Tonkin Affair
Tonkin Affair
The Tonkin Affair of March 1885 was a major French political crisis that erupted in the closing weeks of the Sino-French War. It effectively destroyed the political career of the French prime minister Jules Ferry, and abruptly ended the string of Republican governments inaugurated several years...
). It also cast a shadow over Brière de l'Isle's professional reputation. Although he was to obtain further professional advancement before his retirement, he knew that he would in future be remembered not as the French commander who had captured Lang Son and relieved Tuyen Quang but as the man who had lost his head and sent the notorious telegram that had brought down Ferry's administration.
In May 1885, in consequence of its expansion into a two-division army corps, Brière de l'Isle was replaced in command of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps by General Henri Roussel de Courcy. He was offered command of the 1st Division of the expanded expeditionary corps, and accepted only on condition that General François de Négrier was given command of the 2nd Division. The army ministry granted this request, and Brière de l'Isle served under de Courcy's command for several months. De Courcy was an arrogant and obtuse commander, unwilling to listen to advice from his more experienced juniors, and relations between the two men soon plummeted. Brière de l'Isle disagreed with de Courcy's unimaginative pacification strategy in Tonkin and his failure to take effective quarantine measures to deal with a cholera outbreak in August 1885. In October 1885, with Annam and Tonkin in open insurrection against French rule and the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps decimated by cholera, he decided that he had had enough. Unable to stomach working for de Courcy any longer, he left Tonkin and returned to France.
Final years
Brière de l'Isle was appointed Adjutant Inspector General of Marine Infantry from 1888 to 1891, then Inspector General from 1892 to 1893. He died on 19 June 1896, Saint-LeuSaint-Leu-la-Forêt
Saint-Leu-la-Forêt is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.-History:In 1806 the commune of Saint-Leu-la-Forêt merged with the neighboring commune of Taverny, resulting in the creation of the commune of Saint-Leu-Taverny.In 1821 the commune...
-Taverny
Taverny
Taverny is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.Inhabitants are called Tabernacians.-History:...
, Seine-et-Oise Department
Seine-et-Oise
Seine-et-Oise was a département of France encompassing the western, northern, and southern parts of the metropolitan area of Paris. Its préfecture was Versailles and its official number was 78. Seine-et-Oise was abolished in 1968....
(now in Val-d'Oise Department
Val-d'Oise
Val-d'Oise is a French department, created in 1968 after the split of the Seine-et-Oise department and located in the Île-de-France region. In local slang, it is known as "quatre-vingt quinze" or "neuf cinq"...
), France.
Commemoration
- There is a Rue Brière de l'Isle in ToulonToulonToulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....
, the site of a major naval base in southern France. - While a Rue Brière de l'Isle remains in central DakarDakarDakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...
, the Rue Brière de l'Isle in Saint-LouisSaint-Louis, SenegalSaint-Louis, or Ndar as it is called in Wolof, is the capital of Senegal's Saint-Louis Region. Located in the northwest of Senegal, near the mouth of the Senegal River, and 320 km north of Senegal's capital city Dakar, it has a population officially estimated at 176,000 in 2005. Saint-Louis...
has been renamed Rue Abdoulaye SeckAbdoulaye SeckAbdoulaye Seck is a Senegalese footballerr, who plays for FC Brussels, on loan from R.S.C. Anderlecht, as a full back.-Career:...
. - Prior to independence, the Avenue Brière de l'Isle ran by the Colonial Governors Place in central HanoiHanoiHanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
, VietnamVietnamVietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
. - Barracks of the 5eme Régiment Interarmes d'Outre-Mer in DjiboutiDjiboutiDjibouti , officially the Republic of Djibouti , is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. The remainder of the border is formed by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the east...
are named Quartier Brière de l'Isle. - In colonial Indochina, a major French base in HanoiHanoiHanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
was named fort Brière-de-l'Isle. It was taken by the Japanese from Franco-Vietnamese colonial forces in a bloody battle on 9 March 1945.