Whilst in 1915 only 2,500 out of a total of 14,500 new recruits in Algeria were conscripts, this ratio changed dramatically in the second half of the war.
In 1917, the army enlisted 6,261 volunteers and 25,925 conscripts, in the following year there were 13,942 volunteers and 34,173 conscripts.
During the 1915/16 recruiting campaign in West Africa, only 7,000 out of 53,000 recruits were volunteers.
The customary procedure was to ask local chiefs to provide potential recruits. Most often, young men from lower social strata,especially from the group of domestic slaves, were presented to French recruitment officers.
French recruitment in West Africa met all sorts of resistance, ranging from malingering and self-mutilation to flight into the bush or to Liberia, Gambia, Portuguese Guinea and the Gold Coast. In Senegal alone, some 15,000 men avoided conscription by hiding in the bush or flight. In some cases, as in Bélédougou in 1915, there was even armed resistance against French colonial administration and recruitment officers.
Other rebellions such as the big uprising in Western Volta in 1915/16 and several revolts in the north of Dahomey in 1916 and 1917 were at least partially caused by French recruitment policies.
In North Africa, there was resistance against forced recruitment as well.
As early as the autumn of 1914, young Arabs threatened by conscription and their relatives protested against French recruitment practices in several parts of Algeria.
In the winter of 1916/17, Algerian resistance against conscription climaxed in a big uprising in the southern parts of Constantinois.
In Tunisia, too, there were several smaller rebellions in the years 1915 and 1916.
Only Morocco, where there was no conscription, remained quiet.