Abstract
Tunisia became a French protectorate when the Treaty of Bardo was concluded on 12 May 1881. This treaty allowed France to control certain geographical areas under the guise of re-establishing order and protecting the Bey from internal opposition, and also allowed French diplomatic agents to protect Tunisian interests in foreign countries. Then the Convention of Marsa of 8 June 1883 gave France a right to intervene in Tunisia’s domestic affairs. Now Tunisia was placed under the control of the French Resident-General. Morocco became a protectorate as a result of the conclusion of the Treaty of Fez on 30 March 1912, whereas the coast area along the Strait of Gibraltar was ceded to Spain with the exception of the Tangier zone in November 1912. The Treaty of Fez gave France the right to occupy certain parts of Morocco with the same pretext as in Tunisia, that is, the protection of the sovereig from internal opposition, and to hold actual reins of power while preserving the mask of indirect rule consisted of the Sultan and the Sharifian government. 1 The Treaty also provided that only the French Resident-General was capable of representing Morocco in foreign countries. Thus subject to the Resident-General’s absolute power, the two countries lost almost all autonomy not only in external but also internal affairs. The Resident-Generals had strong powers to formulate specific plans, the outline of which was decided by Paris, and to make decisions on the methods by which to negotiate with local representatives.
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Notes
Susan Gilson Miller, A History of Modern Morocco (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), pp. 88–92.
Despite French rule, however, the Italian population much outnumbered the French in Tunisia until around the turn of the century. Kenneth J. Perkins, A History of Modern Tunisia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 44.
However, it must be emphasised that under the so-called Berber Policy, the French authorities in Morocco tried to separate the two ethnic groups rather artificially in order to ensure the permanence of French rule. This was under the assumption that the Berbers were easily drawn into the orbit of French law and culture. Robin Bidwell, Morocco under Colonial Rule; French Administration of Tribal Areas 1912–1956 (London: Frank Cass, 1973), chapter IV.
Dwight L. Ling, Tunisia: From Protectorate to Republic (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966), pp. 50–55.
Roger Stéphane, La Tunisie de Bourguiba (Paris: Plon, 1958), p. 72. ‘Destour’ means constitution.
ZZ Bourguiba, Ma Vie, Mon Oeuvre, 1952–1956 (Paris: Plon, 1987), p. 327.
Mary Dewhurst Lewis, Divided Rule: Sovereignty and Empire in French Tunisia, 1881–1938 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013), pp. 159–160.
Charles-André Julien, L’Afrique du Nord en Marche: nationalismes musulmans et souveraineté français (Paris: René Julliard, 1972), pp. 74–76. Ling, Tunisia, pp. 139–144.
Gavin Maxwell, Lords of the Atlas: The Rise and Fall of the House of Glaoua, 1896–1956 (London: Century Publishing Co. Ltd, 1983), p. 136, 155. The pashas were almost independent tribal chiefs while the caids were local governors whose task was to act as a link between the people and the central Maghzen. Bidwell, Morocco under Colonial Rule, chapter VI.
Susan Gilson Miller, A History of Modern Morocco (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), pp. 104–111.
Charles-Robert Ageron, France coloniale ou parti colonial? (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1978), p. 276.
Irwin M. Wall, The United States and the Making of Postwar France, 1945–1954 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 32–33.
Bernard, The Franco-Moroccan Conflict (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968), translated by Marianna Oliver et al., p. 15.
Charles de Gaulle, War Memoirs, Vol. II, Unity, 1942–1944 (Paris: Plon, 1956), quoted in Charles-Robert Ageron, France coloniale ou parti colonial?, p. 276.
La Conférence Africaine Française, Algiers 1944, quoted in Edward Mortimer, France and the Africans 1944–1960: A Political History (London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1969), p. 51.
Raymond F. Betts, Assimilation and Association in French Colonial Theory, 1890–1914 (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2005), pp. 8–9.
Tony Chafer, The End of Empire in French West Africa: France’s Successful Decolonization? (Oxford: Berg, 2002), pp. 56–61. However, as Segalla emphasises in his book, there was much overlap and ambiguity among the theories and policies associated with ‘assimilationism’ and ‘associationism’.
Spencer D. Segalla, The Moroccan Soul: French Education, Colonial Ethnology, and Muslim Resistance, 1912–1956 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009), p. 9.
Goronwy J. Jones, The United Nations and the Domestic Jurisdiction of States: Interpretations and Applications of the Non-intervention Principle (Cardiff, 1979), p. 68.
Ronald Hyam, ed., British Documents on the End of Empire, The Labour Government and the End of Empire 1945–1951 (London: HMSO, 1992), ‘Introduction’, xxiv.
Martin Thomas, Bob Moore and L.J. Butler, The Crises of Empire: Decolonization and Europe’s Imperial States, 1918–1975 (London: Hodder Education, 2008), chapters 12, 13.
In May 1945, the UGTT (Union Générale du Travail Tunisien) was created and attracted almost all Tunisian workers. Under its leader, Ferhat Hached, the UGTT was to succeed in getting the Neo-Destour to take into consideration social problems. Louis Périllier, La Conquête de L’Indépendance Tunisienne (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1979), pp. 55–56.
El Mechat, Samya, Tunisie: Les chemins vers l’indépendance (1945–1956) (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1992), pp. 15–54.
Tawfig Y. Hasou, The Struggle for the Arab World: Egypt’s Nasser and the Arab League (London: KPI Limited, 1985), ‘Introduction’.
Habib Bourguiba, Ma Vie, Mon Œuvre, 1944–1951 (Paris: Plon, 1987), p. 261.
MAE, Tunisie 1944–1955, vol. 369, aide-mémoire, 3 October 1952. This aide-memoire recalled the Lyttleton–Pflimlin colonial talks held on 31 March 1952, where ‘both governments would strenuously resist any further attempts by the UN to intervene in the political affairs of non–self-governing territories.’ See also John Kent, The Internationalization of Colonialism, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), p. 295.
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© 2015 Ryo Ikeda
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Ikeda, R. (2015). Tunisia and Morocco under French Protectorates. In: The Imperialism of French Decolonisation. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137368959_2
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