The Senegalese Tirailleurs were a corps of colonial infantry in the French Army. They were initially recruited from Senegal, French West Africa and subsequently throughout Western, Central and Eastern Africa: the main sub-Saharan regions of the French colonial empire. The noun tirailleur, which translates variously as 'skirmisher', 'rifleman', or 'sharpshooter', was a designation given by the French Army to indigenous infantry recruited in the various colonies and overseas possessions of the French Empire during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Yora Comba, 38 years old, lieutenant in the tirailleurs sénégalais, born in Saint-Louis (Exposition universelle de 1889)
Tirailleurs Sénégalais under the command of Jean-Baptiste Marchand, 1898
Muslim area of the national cemetery in Amiens (Saint-Acheul) – in the foreground is the tomb of a soldier of the 45e régiment de tirailleurs sénégalais killed in the battle of the Somme
The flag of the 43rd Senegalese Tirailleurs Battalion [fr] decorated with the fourragère, who fought in the recapture of Fort Douaumont in October 1916
The Troupes coloniales or Armée coloniale, commonly called La Coloniale, were the colonial troops of the French colonial empire from 1900 until 1961. From 1822 to 1900 these troops were designated Troupes de marine, and in 1961 they readopted this name. They were recruited from mainland France and from the French settler as well as indigenous populations of the empire. This force played a substantial role in the conquest of the empire, in World War I, World War II, the First Indochina War and the Algerian War.
French regulars of the Colonial Infantry disembarking in Madagascar 1895.
French marines ('marsouins') of the Infanterie Coloniale, from a Régiment Mixte Coloniale, practising an advance at Mudros in May 1915, prior to deployment to Gallipoli.
Recruitment poster of the Colonial Forces for the Free French Forces.
Vichy regime poster: "We must rebuild the empire: Madagascar, Syria, French Equatorial Africa. Enlist in La Coloniale."
![The flag of the 43rd Senegalese Tirailleurs Battalion [fr] decorated with the fourragère, who fought in the recapture of Fort Douaumont in October 191](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ad/Le_fanion_du_43e_bataillon_de_tirailleurs_s%C3%A9n%C3%A9galais_d%C3%A9cor%C3%A9_de_ka_fourrag%C3%A8re.jpg/640px-Le_fanion_du_43e_bataillon_de_tirailleurs_s%C3%A9n%C3%A9galais_d%C3%A9cor%C3%A9_de_ka_fourrag%C3%A8re.jpg)
