by Fabrique Nationale d’Armes de Guerre was formed on July 3, 1889 to make military rifles for the Belgian government. Formed in Herstel, Belgium, their first rifle was the Model 1889 Mauser.
The rifle was chambered in 7.65×53. It was not until New Year’s Eve in 1891 that the first of 150,000 of these rifles were delivered to the Belgian Army.
According to their history, the company diversified into making ammunition and later bicycles to get them through slow times. It was this last endeavor that led to a fortuitous partnership with none other than John Moses Browning.
In 1897, FN sales manager Hart O. Berg traveled to America to learn about bicycle technology developments. While in Hartford, Connecticut, he ran into a past coworker, one John Moses Browning, who was still working with Colt, and wanted help manufacturing a new self-loading pistol.
As I said, a fortuitous partnership without which we would not have such classics as the Auto-5 shotgun, the Model 1900 semi-auto pistol, and the Browning Hi-Power as perfected by Browning’s protege Dieudonné Saive.
