Limited trust and its roots: the attitude of French military and political officials toward North African soldiers during the Great War (1914-1918)

In 1914-1918, 294,000 indigenous people were mobilized in North Africa and sent to the European front. Nearly 45,000 of them were killed or missing in action. This article examines the attitude of the French toward their North African soldiers and tries to explain why in the face of copious evidence of North African loyalty, the appreciation of courage and sacrifice in the fight against Germany was accompanied by suspicion and uncertainty about total loyalty. The article draws attention to the equal sacrifice belief in French thinking about the participation of colonial people in the war. It maintains that opposition to this belief, combined with the manifestations of soldiers' identity, and the paternalism and racism on the part of the French authorities, created the limited trust of French officials in North African Muslim soldiers.