A gendarmerie () is a military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term gendarme () is derived from the medieval French expression "", which translates to "men-at-arms" (literally, "armed people"). In France and some Francophone nations, the gendarmerie is a branch of the armed forces responsible for internal security in parts of the territory (primarily in rural areas and small towns in the case of France) with additional duties as military police for the armed forces. It was introduced to several other Western European countries during the Napoleonic conquests. In the mid-twentieth century, a number of former French mandates or colonial possessions such as Lebanon, Syria, the Ivory Coast, and the Republic of the Congo adopted a gendarmerie after independence. A similar concept was introduced in Eastern Europe by establishing Internal Troops, that exist in many countries of the former Soviet Union and their former allied countries.