17th century Cardinal Richelieu personally supervised the Navy until his death in 1643. He was succeeded by his protégé,
Jean Baptiste Colbert, who introduced the first code of regulations of the French Navy and established the original naval dockyards in
Brest and
Toulon. The Navy continued to protect colonial safety and expansion under the
French Third Republic. The
Sino-French War saw considerable naval action including the
Battle of Fuzhou, the
Battle of Shipu, and the
Pescadores Campaign. In Vietnam, the Navy helped wage the
Tonkin Campaign which included the
Battle of Thuận An, and it later participated in the
Franco-Siamese conflict of 1893. The 19th century French Navy brought forth numerous new technologies. It led the development of
naval artillery with its invention of the highly effective
Paixhans gun. In 1850, became the first steam-powered
ship of the line in history, and became the first seagoing
ironclad warship nine years later. In 1863, the Navy launched , the first submarine in the world to be propelled by mechanical power. In 1876, became the first steel-hulled warship ever. In 1887,
Dupuy de Lôme became the world's first
armoured cruiser. During the latter part of the century, French officers developed the so-called
Jeune École (Young School) theory that emphasized the use of small, cheap
torpedo boats to destroy expensive battleships, coupled with long-range commerce raiders to attack an opponent's merchant fleet.
20th and 21st centuries , 1943 The first
seaplane, the French
Fabre Hydravion, was flown in 1910, and the first
seaplane carrier, , was christened in the following year. Despite that innovation, the general development of the French Navy slowed down in the beginning of the 20th century as the
Anglo-German naval arms race grew in intensity. It entered
World War I with relatively few modern vessels, and during the war few warships were built because the main French effort was on land. While the British held control of the North Sea, the French held the Mediterranean, where they mostly kept watch on the
Austro-Hungarian Navy. The French Navy also played an important role in countering Germany's
U-boat campaign by regularly patrolling the seas and escorting convoys. Between the World Wars, the Navy modernized and expanded significantly, even in the face of limitations set by the 1922
Washington Naval Treaty. New additions included the heavy and fast "super-
destroyers", the battleships, and the submarine which was the largest and most powerful of its day. During the first two years of
World War II, the French Navy participated in the
Battle of the Atlantic, the
Norwegian campaign, the
Dunkirk evacuation and, briefly, the
Battle of the Mediterranean. However, after the
fall of France in June 1940, the Navy was obligated to remain neutral under the terms of the armistice that created
Vichy France. Approximately 100 French warships around the world joined the
Free French under
Charles de Gaulle, but the bulk of the French Navy, including all its
capital ships, declared their allegiance to Vichy France. On 3 July 1940,
Force H of the Royal Navy launched an
attack on Mers-el-Kébir in Algeria to prevent the French fleet there from falling into German hands, destroying or damaging several French warships. In 1942, the Vichy Navy fought the
Naval Battle of Casablanca when the Allies
invaded French North Africa, but the confrontations were set aside once the Germans
occupied Vichy France. The capital ships were a primary target for the Germans, but before they could be seized they were
scuttled by their own crews. A few small ships and submarines managed to escape in time, and these joined the
Free French Naval Forces, an arm of
Free France that fought as an adjunct of the Royal Navy until the end of the war. In the
Pacific theatre as well, Free French vessels operated until the Japanese capitulation; was present at the
Japanese Instrument of Surrender. The Navy later provided fire support and troop transport in the
Indochina War, the
Algerian War, the
Gulf War, and the
Kosovo War. Since 2000, the Navy has given logistical support to the
War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) as well as the global
war on terror. In 2011, it assisted
Opération Harmattan in Libya. ==Organisation==