History of modern Tunisia, from Ferry to Bourguiba 1881-1956

Published on 19/04/2014

Jean-François MARTIN

TUNISIA AND COLONIZATION

History of Modern Tunisia, from Ferry to Bourguiba 1881-1956
Tunisia is a land of ancient civilization. It is defined by its belonging to the Maghreb: the island of the setting sun, Djaziret-Al-Maghrib, an island encircled by water and desert. The Maghreb, as Ibn Khaldoun already indicated, is populated by Arabs and Berbers. The first term is culturally dominant to the point that the countries of the Maghreb are characterized today by their belonging to the "Arab nation." The second is largely predominant on the ethnic level, even though the Berbers have maintained a real distinctiveness only in the mountainous regions where they were able to find refuge. But the invasions from Arabia in the Middle Ages represented only a small proportion of the population already in place. Like the rest of North Africa, Tunisia is further defined by Islam, which leaves its mark on religious, cultural, social, and political history. The experience of the Prophet was twofold, and the idea of secularism penetrates with difficulty a civilization that considers nothing to be profane. However, Tunisia more than others shows originality in having been able to adapt teachings clearly linked to historical contingencies. This is the case with many aspects of the current Tunisian Republic concerning, for example, the status of women, education, the organization of justice, and the evolution of forms of property.

The history of peoples, countries, and nations is guided, like the conduct of the individuals who compose them, by a mixture of passions and interests as much as by reason, moral, philosophical, or religious rules. The colonial phenomenon, recent and often experienced in a personal way, falls more than others within the realm of passion, partisan spirit, feelings of frustration, or nostalgia. This is what makes its approach difficult, as it may offend sensitivities and even more so feelings. One must therefore try to de-dramatize it at the risk of appearing indifferent, to place it in its context at the risk of deducing it, and to avoid the "partisan spirit" according to the advice of the great Tunisian historian of the century, Ibn Khaldoun.

The following work has as its essential subject the period of the French protectorate in Tunisia (1881-1956), but it is rooted in a heritage and opens onto transformations indispensable to its understanding. This recent phase lasted for three-quarters of a century. This is both little and much. Little on the scale of the life of a people and a country, much on the scale of a man's life. But duration is not a sufficient element of explanation, for the impact of an event is not solely linked to its dimension in time. After all, the Revolution and the First Empire in France together cover only one generation. It is therefore necessary to also consider the changes that the protectorate introduced in Tunisia. Direct transformations with the establishment of new institutions completely different from those that traditionally functioned there. Direct changes again through partial entry into a new economic and technical framework, that of the industrial revolution. Induced evolution through the reaction of the traditional system in the face of this "foreign body," a reaction that varied according to the time and the people: submission, total rejection, accommodation, amalgamation, mutation... All in all, a turbulent era, marked by innumerable episodes, and in which the wisdom of a certain number of men made it possible, all things considered, to limit the cost of "necessary evolutions."