General Noël Marie Amédée Garnier-Duplessix or Duplessis was a French army officer. Whilst still a colonel he commanded the 2nd Infantry Division in the Allied victory at the First Battle of the Marne before seeing service in the Zaian War in the French protectorate of Morocco. Garnier-Duplessix returned to France in October 1916 and received command of the 37th Infantry Division for the 15 December offensive of the Battle of Verdun and the Nivelle Offensive of April 1917. He received command of the 9th Army Corps in June 1918 and led that unit to victory in the August Battle of Amiens and the autumn Meuse-Argonne Offensive. After the war he was posted to Cilicia in the Franco-Turkish War of 1918–21 where he argued against early withdrawal of troops following the March 1921 Cilicia Peace Treaty.

The Zaian War was fought between France and the Zaian Confederation of Berber tribes in Morocco between 1914 and 1921 during the French conquest of Morocco. Morocco had become a French protectorate in 1912, and Resident-General Louis-Hubert Lyautey sought to extend French influence eastwards through the Middle Atlas mountains towards French Algeria. This was opposed by the Zaians, led by Mouha ou Hammou Zayani. The war began well for the French, who quickly took the key towns of Taza and Khénifra. Despite the loss of their base at Khénifra, the Zaians inflicted heavy losses on the French, who responded by establishing groupes mobiles, combined arms formations that mixed regular and irregular infantry, cavalry and artillery into a single force.