See also: Amorce=pour French National defense, to see, National defense (France)

This article presents a historical evolution of the national defense .

For a definition of defense

See also: Defense and safety

To also consult the article devoteds to with the defense organizations in the world

Since the birth of the first men, the destiny always has them conduit has to create competitions. These competitions, parallel to the social evolutions, resulted in vendetta S, battles, wars opponents several groups of individuals, several clans. But with the wire of time, these groups were organized in various nations, in various armies.

Antiquity

Neither the Préhistoire nor the beginning of the Christian era knew organized armies. Thus, in the Antiquity, for the greatest part of the world, defense consisted of a simple tribal defense of its primitive community and its grounds of hunting and pasture vis-a-vis the other tributes neighbors whose mood and threat varied according to natural hardnesses. The engagements were insulated. The soldiers were the hunters.
L' use of citizen-soldiers started with the rise of the sedentarisation, in particular in Persia, along the valley of the Tigre and the Euphrate, and along the the Nile. It is in Mésopotamie, towards 3200 av. J-C, that the first standing armies, provided with arcs and lances appeared, then, around 2500 av. J. - C., they transfer the introduction of the Cavalerie.
Au Ve before J-C, vis-a-vis the chaotic attacks of the Barbarian S, the Greek cities opposed to an organized union their militia respective, thus forming only one and large army using, for first time, of strategy.
Au IVe Alexandre Large the, which destroyed the Persian Empire, organized the first military system of provisioning, and set up the light Infanterie, which established the link between the heavy Fantassin S and the cavalry. The use of Archer S, of catapults S light, of all the parts of seat, the emission of smoke and of aural signals to fine tactics, the establishment of a service of care were also improvements made to the Greek military organization.
Aux neighborhood of 200 av. J. - C., Rome instituted for the first time a system of conscription, concerning all the good men for the service, old from 17 to 46 years. The Romans were also the first to seize the importance of the speed of deployment long distance by developing the idea of military engineering, facilitating by their various constructions the progression of the troops.
the battle of Adrianapole (378 av. J. - C.), which allowed the coalition Huns, Alains, Goths and Spartiates to overcome the Romans, clearly showed the superiority of the cavalry on the infantry.
Les Mongolian, in 1190, used the first of the “special weapons” including of the Missile S launched, fire and the explosives.

The fall of Rome in Ve century, followed by the invasion of the people of Northern Europe, provided the foundations on which the Feudal system developed, which saw disappearance, several centuries during, of the permanent large armies of Europe.

Armies with the Middle Ages

Le Feudal system rested on the principle of local defense: each Lord or owner had his own forces freely. N the other hand, the monarch could, for the defense of the fatherland, to combine the dispersed forces of them. Thus, of the national armies started to constitute itself. In spite of the change of the nature of the war caused by the appearance of the Gunpowder, the use of the crossbow S and others new weapons, it is the ambition of the knight (pushing it to engage individually and hastily in engagements of sword to dead) which decreased the effective use of an organized army.
Lorsque the firearms made their appearance in XIVe century, one especially saw developing armies of mercenaries having the advantage of autodétruire during the use (the mercenaries not being more controllable, they often plundered le/les country buildings).

Modern armies (XVIe at the XVIIIe century)

L' Spain is the first modern European country to establish a standing army.
Louis XIV, king very ambitious and proud thus hastened to copy the Spanish innovation. In 1678, permanent manpower of the French Army exceeded 250.000 soldiers. They for the first time were listed in a register containing a “indentity card” of the soldier (stoutness, distinctive signs), at the origin to avoid the “master key-wheels”, phantom soldiers present at the time of counting.
Consequently, French national defense was ensured by this regular army being able, if necessary, to call upon a broad mass of “reservists”, trained, for one period varying according to the times, with the rudiments of the combat. However, the number of soldiers is unverifiable (400 000 for the War of succession of Spain), one records 20% of desertion; in times of peace, this one made of many devastations while paying itself on the habitants.
The army is here a tool of the defense of the territory, but especially a tool of the royal power, and before of the lord. Its role is not to defend the people, but to be an instrument of the capacity. There is no here national defense strictly speaking.

Its role

The regular national army was created to have a quantity sufficiently imposing and constantly spreadable of powerful soldiers because professional with an aim of defending a Territoire.

It also has the role of ensuring the Sécurité of the population and the Souveraineté of this territory like taking part in defense, brought closer or remote, of the interests of this one. This general mission implies that it is able to destroy (or to reject out of the national territory) any threatening enemy.

Today, the role and the means of national defense evolve/move radically under the influence of the Technologies the information. National defense must in particular ensure the Information system security in a total way on a territory, with respect to the Menace S of all kinds.

Internal bonds

• List of the French Ministers for the Administration of the War

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