The Modele 1890 Berthier Cavalry Carbine addressed this issue by combining a modified Lebel action with an en-bloc clip magazine.

The Lebel, a revolutionary concept at the time of its introduction because of its smokeless high-velocity, small-caliber cartridge, still used a tube-fed magazine and other details carried over from black-powder designs.

With its tube-fed magazine, the Lebel was long, ungainly and distinctly muzzle-heavy when loaded, difficult to manufacture, and overly complex in construction.

France employed large numbers of colonial troops with limited technological experience, and since colonial combat conditions in North Africa and Indochina were extremely hard on service weapons, carrying with an empty chamber was considered superior to reliance on a mechanical safety, since a rifle with no round in the chamber could never go off, unlike a rifle whose safety was not properly engaged or had malfunctioned due to grit or wear.

During World War I, it was quickly recognized that the Berthier's three-shot magazine was simply too small in comparison to foreign weapons, requiring too-frequent reloading.

In response to changing combat situations at the front, which had evolved from a war of maneuever into static trench warfare and frequent night raids, many Berthier rifles were also fitted with sights designed specifically for close range or night combat, using radium paint to improve visibility in poor light or darkness.

In September 1938, the French Army also introduced the corps franc, special formations of infiltration and deep reconnaissance soldiers formed into l'equipe or assault teams.

These elite reconnaissance and infiltration troops were equipped with a variety of small arms, including a combat knife, a handgun, grenades, and Berthier Mle 1892/M16 carbines.

Mdle 1916 and later versions of Berthier carbines were retained in some French law enforcement units, e.g. the Compagnies Republicaines de Securite (CRS) as late as the 1980s.

The Berthier used a simplified and smoother version of the Lebel bolt, but the main differences were a great reduction in weight, moving parts, tooling and an increase in operating speed.

This is due in no small part to the magazine system, which was redesigned more similar to a Mannlicher-type design, where it was loaded with 3-round (later 5-round) clips, chargers, or packets.

Though the Lebel's original capacity of 8 rounds was reduced, the Berthier was more popular due to the efficiency of operation and the increased speed of reloading, which more closely matched the capabilities of foreign rifles such as the Mauser and the Lee-Enfield.

Prior experiments with several carbine versions of the Lebel action proved unacceptably heavy and slow to load while on horseback.

While retaining most of the action's strong points, the Berthier carbine improved on the earlier Mle 1886 rifle by using a one-piece stock and a Mannlicher-style, charger-loaded en bloc 3 shot clip.

A prototype carbine was created by simply shortening the existing barrel, forearm, and magazine tube of the Mle 1886 rifle.

One of the prototypes submitted was designed by André Virgile Paul Marie Berthier, a mechanical engineer in the Compagnie Bône-Guelma (one of the five subsidiary companies of the Algerian Railway System).

The search for a suitable small arm for mounted troops was given greater urgency by the Germans' development of the Karabiner Modell 1888, a carbine variant of the Gewehr 1888.

Like their shorter carbine counterparts, these Berthier rifles also featured a Mannlicher-type 3-round en bloc clip-loaded magazine and used 8 mm Lebel ammunition.

During World War I, a modified version of the 3-round clip Mle 1907 rifle called Fusil Mle 1907/15 was manufactured in large numbers (altogether 435,000 rifles) and issued to colonial troops, to the French Foreign Legion and to many minor allies (e.g. Russian Legion in France, Serbia, Greece, American Expeditionary Force African-American regiments detached to the French Army).

French civilian contractors (Automobiles Delaunay-Belleville, Établissement Continsouza and Manufacture Parisienne d'Armes et de Mecanique Generale) also participated massively in the industrial production of the Mle 1907/15 rifle.

In combat service, most infantrymen found the Berthier rifles and carbines, with their one-piece stocks and fast-loading en bloc magazine, to be an improvement.

However, the limited ammunition capacity of the Berthier Mle 1907/15's magazine (3 rounds) was viewed as a great disadvantage by troops in close contact with the enemy or participating in assaults or trench raids.

With its greater cartridge capacity, it was better received than the Mle 1907/15 rifle and later became widely issued to infantry troops during the post-war years after their production had intensified.

After World War I, the French military sought to replace the 8mm Lebel cartridge, which was poorly suited to large-capacity rifle magazines and to automatic or semi-automatic weapons.

After considerable delay, a modern 7.5mm mle 1929 rimless cartridge was finally introduced for the FM 24/29 light machine gun.

In 1949, The Turkish Forest Service began issuing three-shot Berthier carbines, full-length rifles were altered to utilize a Mannlicher-style stock.