Bugeaud joined Napoleon’s imperial guard and later distinguished himself during the Peninsular War, after which he rose to the rank of colonel. He supported the First Restoration (1814), but his troops forced him to side with Napoleon during the Hundred Days (1815). During the Second Restoration, Bugeaud made a rich marriage and repurchased his family lands lost in the Revolution. He then took up farming until the July Revolution of 1830 allowed him to resume his military career.
Sent to Algeria for a short period in 1836, Bugeaud defeated Abdelkader, emir of Mascara and hero of the Arab resistance, at Sikkah (July 6), and with whom he negotiated the Treaty of Tafna (1837), which delimited the territories of the two parties. Critical of the traditional cumbersome French military tactics used in Algeria, Bugeaud successfully developed particularly harsh techniques more suited to conditions of irregular warfare. In 1841, when he returned to Algeria as governor-general, his new tactics won early successes over the Algerians. In 1843 he was made a marshal of France. After crushing Abdelkader’s Moroccan allies at the Battle of Isly (1844), Bugeaud received his ducal title. He returned to Algeria for short periods in 1845 and 1847 but resigned as governor-general in September 1847 in protest over the government’s neglect of his plans for military colonization.
When revolution broke out in Paris in 1848, Bugeaud commanded Louis-Philippe’s troops in the city but failed to save the monarchy. Under the Second Republic he published many antisocialist pamphlets and accepted command of the Army of the Alps. Bugeaud’s collected military writings were published in 1883 and served as a handbook of colonial warfare.
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France: The July Monarchy…during the Guizot era, General Thomas-Robert Bugeaud used brutal methods to break Algerian resistance, pushed the native population back into the mountains, and began the process of colonizing the rich coastal plain.…
Algeria: The conquest of AlgeriaLed by General (later Marshal) Thomas-Robert Bugeaud, the campaign of conquest eventually brought one-third of the total French army strength (more than 100,000 troops) to Algeria. The new military campaign and the initial onslaught caused widespread devastation to the Algerians and to their crops and livestock. Abdelkader’s hit-and-run tactics failed,…
French Foreign Legion: History…the arrival in 1840 of Thomas-Robert Bugeaud as commander in chief in Algeria. A veteran of the Napoleonic Peninsular War, Bugeaud broke with a strategy of scattering French units in static posts that might be isolated and overwhelmed by Algerian resisters. Organized into mobile columns, French forces now took the…
Abdelkader: Early careerBugeaud, he managed to rally support from Algerians who had become indignant over the French use of violence. By able negotiation, he convinced General Bugeaud to sign the Treaty of Tafna (1837), which further increased his territory and made him master of the whole interior…
LimogesLimoges, city, capital of Haute-Vienne département and of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine région, southeastern France (formerly in the province of Limousin), south-southwest of Paris, on the right bank of the Vienne River. Capital of the Lemovices, a Gallic tribe, Limoges was an important Roman centre, with…
More About Thomas-Robert Bugeaud, duke d'Isly6 references found in Britannica articles
- association with Pélissier
- colonization of North Africa
- conflict with Abdelkader
- French Foreign Legion
- role in French history
- theory of guerrilla warfare