Indochina In 1894, he was posted to
Indochina, serving under
Joseph Gallieni. He helped crush the so-called piracy of the
Black Flags rebellion along the Chinese border. He then set up the colonial administration in Tonkin and then became head of the military office of the Government-General in Indochina. When he left Indochina in 1897, he was a lieutenant colonel and had received the
Legion of Honour. In Indochina, he wrote:
Madagascar From 1897 to 1902, Lyautey served in
Madagascar, again under Gallieni. He
pacified northern and western Madagascar; administered a region of 200,000 inhabitants; began the construction of a new provincial capital at Ankazobe and a new roadway across the island; He encouraged the cultivation of rice, coffee, tobacco, grain, and cotton; and opened schools. In 1900 he became Governor of Southern Madagascar, an area a third the size of France with a million inhabitants; 80 officers and 4,000 soldiers served under him. French commanders in Algeria moved into Morocco largely on their own initiative in early 1903. Later that year, Lyautey marched west and occupied
Béchar, a clear breach of the 1840s treaties. The following year, he advanced further into Morocco in clear disobedience of the Minister of War and threatened to resign if he were not supported by Paris. The French Foreign Minister issued a vague disavowal of Lyautey because he was concerned at clashing with British influence in Morocco. In the event, Britain, Spain and Italy were placated by France agreeing to allow them a free hand in Egypt, northern Morocco, and Libya respectively, and the only objections to French expansion in the region came from Germany (see
First Moroccan Crisis). Lyautey met
Isabelle Eberhardt in 1903 and employed her for intelligence missions. After her death in 1904, he chose her tombstone. In early 1907
Émile Mauchamp, a French doctor, was killed in Marrakesh, possibly as he was attempting to lay the groundwork for French expansion. Lyautey then occupied
Oujda in eastern
Morocco near the
Algerian border. Having been promoted to
division general, Lyautey was the military governor of
French Morocco from 4 August 1907. After taking Oudja, he went to Rabat to put pressure on the Sultan and got embroiled in a power struggle between the Sultan and his brother, with Germany and France taking sides in the dispute. He returned to France in 1910, and in January 1911, he took up command of a corps at Rennes. On 31 October 1912, he was elected at the seat 14 of the
Académie Française.
First World War On 27 July 1914, Resident-General Lyautey received a cable from Paris from the undersecretary of foreign affairs
Abel Ferry. He was quoted as telling his officers: However, like many professional soldiers, he disliked the
Third Republic and in some ways welcomed the outbreak of war "because the politicians have shut up". The same day, War Minister
Messimy told Lyautey to prepare to abandon Morocco except for the major cities and ports and to send all seasoned troops to France. Messimy later said that had been a "formal" order. At the outbreak of the war, Lyautey commandied 70,000 troops, all members of the
Armée d'Afrique or part of
La Coloniale. Under French law, metropolitan conscripts could not serve except under very exceptional circumstances abroad. Initially, he sent two Algerian-Tunisian divisions to the western front, then another two, plus two brigades of Algerians serving in Morocco, and a brigade of 5,000 Moroccans. Over 70 battalions of Algerians and Tunisians served on the Western Front, and one Moroccan and seven Algerian regiments of
Spahis (cavalry) served dismounted on the Western Front. Others fought in
Macedonia or mounted in the Levant. In 1914, 33 officers, 580 soldiers and the weapons of two battalions were
lost in an expedition near Khenifra. Although that was to prove the only incident in Morocco during the war, Lyautey was worried about the threat of
jihad as a result of German propaganda in Morocco, and many of the remaining legionnaires were German. Four territorial regiments were sent from southern France and served alongside the mobilised European colonists. By mid-1915 Lyautey had sent 42 battalions to the Western Front, receiving in return middle-aged reservists (who to his delight were regarded as seasoned warriors by the Moroccans), battalions of
Tirailleurs sénégalais and
Tirailleurs marocains, as well as irregular Moroccan
goumiers. With 200,000 men, Lyautey had to hold down the Middle Atlas and the Rif and to suppress rebellions by
Zaians at Khenifra, Abd al Malik at the Taza, and al Hiba in the south, the latter aided by German U-boats. Lyautey argued that
Verdun and Morocco were part of the same war. Lyautey disregarded advice to concentrate major forces in a few cities and took a personal risk by spreading them all over the country. In the end, his gamble turned right as he got a psychological edge over potentially mutinous tribal chiefs. Lyautey had 71,000 men by July 1915. He insisted France would win the war and continued with the usual trade fairs and road and rail construction. == Political career ==