1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Zouave

ZOUAVE, the name given to certain infantry regiments in the French army. The corps was first raised in Algeria in 1831 with one and later two battalions, and recruited solely from the Zouaves, a tribe of Berbers, dwelling in the mountains of the Jurjura range (see Kabyles). In 1838 a third battalion was raised, and the regiment thus formed was commanded by Lamoricière. Shortly afterwards the formation of the Tirailleurs algériens, the Turcos, as the corps for natives, changed the enlistment for the Zouave battalions, and they became, as they now remain, a purely French body. Three regiments were formed in 1852, and a fourth, the Zouaves of the Imperial Guard, in 1854. The Crimean War was the first service which the regiments saw outside Algeria. There are now four regiments, of five battalions each, four of which are permanently in Africa, the fifth being stationed in France as a depôt regiment. For the peculiarly picturesque uniform of these regiments, see Uniform.

The Papal Zouaves were formed in defence of the Papal states by Lamoricière in 1860. After the occupation of Rome by Victor Emmanuel in 1870, the Papal Zouaves served the government of National Defence in France during the Franco-Prussian war, and were disbanded after the entrance of the German troops into Paris.