When was tunisia colonised

The link was not copied. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. Get Permissions. The British consul also managed to secure a concession to create a private bank with the right to issue paper money. This bank was founded in p. Eventually, however, none of these initiatives were successful, and by most of them were bankrupt or in the hands of French capital groups.

In , Hayreddin Pasha, who was supportive of a European style reform programme and worked in harmony with the French consul, became the Prime Minister. His extensive reform programme increased the government revenue for the first time since and the demands of creditors were met on time Ganiage, , pp. From onwards, however, the system started showing its first signs of weakness. First, the Ottoman government defaulted on its outstanding debt shaking major final financial centres in Europe in October Despite the default of the Ottoman government, The Tunisian correspondent of the Times was still optimistic:.

Our international finance commission has proved an excellent institution, and it is a great pity the foreign governments have not persuaded the Turks to follow our example. It would have saved the creditors and saved the Porte from the disgraceful necessity of repudiation, with all the political disadvantages accruing from it.

The commentary continued with a suggestion to induce the Egyptian Khedive to adopt a similar system of administration. The press viewed the effectiveness of the system on two grounds: the Tunisian government was unable to raise new loans without the approval of the international financial control, and all tax revenues were used for the payment of interest on the existing debt. A turning point in the diplomatic history of the region was the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish Wars of —78, which resulted in the convening of the Congress of Berlin and determined the fate of Tunisia Langer, , This shift led Britain to dissociate itself more or less entirely from Tunisian affairs and p.

From this point onwards, the French military takeover of Tunisia was simply a matter of time. Only in the spring of , France decided to send a military expedition to Tunisia as a response to raids over the Algerian border by the desert tribes. Despite opposition by Italy, this process eventually gave way to the establishment of the French protectorate over Tunisia in May when the Tunisian and French governments signed the Treaty of Bardo McKay, ; Perkins, Initially, the British government expressed its concerns at this move of France, given that the invasion contradicted its stated position to maintain the integrity of the Ottoman Empire to counter Russian ambitions in the region Lewis, , p.

Yet, gradually the British view towards the French intervention became more neutral given its interests in Egypt. In April , right after the French expedition, The Economist noted that:.

Her trade will not be diminished, or her influence lowered, while her direct power over France, which consists in her power of separating France from her colonies, will be materially increased. Overall, the British press did not see supporting Italy or protecting the Ottoman Empire as valid arguments to interfere with French interests in Tunisia. Moreover, as seen from Figure 3.

Sources and notes : See Figure 3. Bond spreads are difference between current yields of Egyptian bonds and British consols for Egypt, and Tunisian bonds and French rentes for Tunisia. It took several years for France to negotiate a settlement with the European powers to bring their subjects under French legal institutions and eliminate legal pluralism. All European powers in the Ottoman Empire enjoyed extraterritoriality thanks to the capitulations granted by the Ottoman government recognizing the mixed courts.

In Egypt, since the mixed courts under the oversight of fourteen European powers concluded civil and commercial disputes. Although initially this system was not supported by France, by the time it came up for renewal in , the French government viewed it as a way of checking British influence over Egypt and perpetuating capitulations.

Similarly, following the Treaty of Bardo, the French government proposed a judicial reform to establish p. Eventually, this was also agreed by Britain and later by other European powers. As a result of this agreement between the Bey and the French government, France also agreed to guarantee the Tunisian debt, thus rendering the international financial commission irrelevant.

Moreover, the Bey of Tunis accepted not to contract any future loans unless approved by the French government. The handover of the functions of the international financial commission to the newly created Ministry of Finance under French control took place in As the initial deal for guaranteeing the debt, France insisted on placing key agencies, beginning with the Ministry of Finance, under the leadership of French specialists accountable to the resident general.

Besides modernizing the tax collection, reducing tariffs and poll tax, and supervising government expenditure, the new Ministry of Finance also reformed the monetary system and undertook three successive debt conversions in , , and which led to additional inflow of funds to the treasury, replacement of the old non-guaranteed debts with guaranteed p. As for Egypt, while the debt conversions and new dual-control were being implemented, an exceptionally bad harvest and the Russo-Turkish Wars —78 aggravated the financial situation.

In March , a new commission of inquiry was assembled to reassess the whole financial situation of Egypt. Implicitly, the fiscal reform was linked to a reform of the state. The Khedive accepted the report of the committee and therefore agreed to establish a constitutional government, which included a British-headed Ministry of Finance and a French-headed Ministry of Public Works. This was an extension of the controller system established in , and soon after its establishment, the new government attempted to raise a new loan.

They were to be transferred to the state, and accordingly, an international commission of three members, consisting of one English, one French, and one Egyptian national, would be responsible for administering this property and revenue Feis, , p. The political consequence of all these new regulations was to exclude the Khedive from the administration of Egyptian finances and a transition from the personal government of the Khedive to the government by an executive council whose leading members were foreigners.

This situation led to violent protests, which the Khedive and rich landowners supported, to undermine the new administration. The initial attempt to govern Egypt without the Khedive had failed and a new government was formed consisting entirely of Egyptians. The new government ruled out the possibility of pursuing the fundamental reforms suggested by the commission of inquiry and therefore the debt settlement process was suspended Wynne, , p.

As noted above, the mixed courts of Egypt were a special arrangement for foreign creditors, through which they could sue the Khedive for unpaid debt. Although many foreign creditors succeeded in obtaining judgments in their favour, the Egyptian government, as a rule, refused to implement these decisions based on the claim that the government lacked enough money to pay off the claims.

As far as the creditors were concerned, the existence of mixed courts was seen as an obstacle to reaching a general arrangement, which would benefit all the creditors, because it encouraged individual action for the sake of collective one. Therefore, the Great Powers suggested a new system, which would be binding on p. The new government formed by the Khedive in refused any kind of arrangement involving foreign intervention, and the negotiations came to a dead end.

The new Khedive expressed his willingness to re-establish the system of two controllers-general introduced in By a decree issued on 10 November , it was once again agreed that the entire administration of the country would be supervised by England and France through the controllers-general.

Under this decree, E. Baring and M. The controllers-general, who represented not only the foreign bondholders but also their respective governments, reinstated some of the suspended reforms, yet within a few months, the controllers-general reported that Egypt was not in a position to fulfil its engagements and suggested the appointment of a Commission of Liquidation.

This led to the Law of Liquidation, which consolidated the floating debt and reduced the interest rate on the unified debt. The former would be used for meeting the charges of the debt and would be under the control of the Caisse; the latter was left to the government for administrative expenses.

The members of the commission were recognized as legal representatives of the foreign bondholders and had the right to sue the government before the mixed courts Cromer, , p. However, because of the political implications of the Law of Liquidation, there were signs of nationalist opposition to European control. This movement consisted of a coalition of different interest groups.

Landowners were concerned about the increases of taxes and the amount of land which was being seized for non-payment of debt following the Mortgage Law of The bureaucrats were concerned with the extensive employment of Europeans in the civil service. Military officers were laid off because of attempts of the financial control to reduce military expenditure. Finally, religious notables, or ulama, were concerned by the Christian rule and consequent changes in the law.

These groups turned into an effective force only in when they allied with the nationalist army officers led by Colonel Arabi Owen, French and British governments were in agreement to keep Khedive Tewfik in power against the nationalist movement to protect the interests of the bondholders.

As a result, in English forces launched a military campaign—in which France, the Ottoman Empire, and other powers did not participate. Following the military intervention, the Great Powers assembled a conference in Istanbul in June and a few months later, in September , British forces p. The British Consul-General was given overall authority and English advisers were placed in the Egyptian ministries.

From until , Lord Cromer held the position of Consul-General, and under the Egyptian Constitution of , he was the real governing power of Egypt. However, the power of the British consuls to modify Egyptian financial affairs was restricted by previous agreement with the bondholders and by the powers of the Caisse.

The French government and bondholders refused to permit any reduction in the authority of the Caisse. Moreover, the separate administration of railways, the Daira, and the domains, on all of which France was represented, was maintained Feis, , p. This chapter revisits two decades of the financial history of Egypt and Tunisia from to to explore the links between sovereign debt and the colonization experience of these two polities.

The comparison reveals several parallels between Egypt and Tunisia in their involvement of borrowing from international financial markets, default, and international financial control.

The great power rivalry, especially between Britain and France, became a defining context for their ability to borrow in London and Paris. Combined with ambitious and costly Western-style reform programmes initiated by Egyptian and Tunisian rulers in the first half of the nineteenth century, this process gave way to an increase in their demand for foreign funding and made them vulnerable to European influence.

To convince their creditworthiness to British and French bondholders and secure foreign funds, both the Tunisian Bey and the Egyptian Khedive hypothecated revenues from several tax sources as well as their private sources of wealth.

Together with the Ottoman capitulations which recognized legal pluralism and extraterritoriality for European powers, the guarantees offered in bond contracts later turned into a justification for the creation of international financial commissions. The emergence of international financial commissions was a multilateral solution to a range of private financial claims against the Egyptian and Tunisian governments.

This was p. In other words, administratively they did not turn out to be sustainable, as their structure did not sufficiently address the conflicts of interests among different creditor groups. Only following the establishment of the formal French protectorate of Tunisia in and the veiled British protectorate of Egypt in , the legal pluralism and multilateral nature of the financial control organizations came to an end, and the creditworthiness of Egypt and Tunisia started to recover in international financial markets.

The Barbary coast: 16th - 20th century. With the decline of the local Berber dynasties in the 15th and 16th centuries, the valuable coastal strip of north Africa known because of the Berbers as the Barbary coast attracts the attention of the two most powerful Mediterranean states of the time - Spain in the west, Turkey in the east.

The Spanish-Turkish rivalry lasts for much of the 16th century, but it is gradually won - in a somewhat unorthodox manner - by the Turks. Their successful device is to allow Turkish pirates, or corsairs, to establish themselves along the coast.

The territories seized by the corsairs are then given a formal status as protectorates of the Ottoman empire. The first such pirate establishes himself on the coast of Algeria in Two others are firmly based in Libya by Tunisia is briefly taken in by the most famous corsair of them all, Khair ed-Din known to the Europeans as Barbarossa.

Recovered for Spain in , Tunisia is finally brought under Ottoman control in Piracy remains the chief purpose and main source of income of all these Turkish settlements along the Barbary coast.

And the depredations of piracy, after three centuries, at last prompt French intervention in Algeria. This, at any rate, is stated by the French at the time to be the cause of their intervention. The reality is somewhat less glorious. Algiers is occupied by the French in , but it is not until that the French conquest of Algeria is complete - after prolonged resistance from the Berber hinterland, which has never been effectively controlled by the Turks on the coast.

It is in the European interest to police this entire troublesome Barbary region. Tunisia becomes a French protectorate in , and Morocco which has maintained a shaky independence, under its own local sultans, since the end of the Marinid dynasty follows in Italy takes Libya from the Turks in The regions of the Barbary coast thus enter their last colonial phase before independence.

Tunisia as a French Protectorate: French control over Tunisia, achieved in , brings to an end several decades of diplomatic jockeying between three colonials powers, France, Britain and Italy. All three are officially involved in the region from The local dynasty of beys technically subordinate to the Turkish sultan but in practice independent have in recent decades spent lavishly to modernize their country, using funds borrowed in Europe.

Tunisian nationalists attacked and killed two individuals in Sousse on August 2, Tunisian nationalists attacked the police station in Hamma on December 7, , resulting in the death of one Tunisian.

French government policemen and Tunisian nationalists clashed in Tunis on March 15, , resulting in the death of one individual. Habib Bourguiba was sent into exile in France on May 20, French troops and Tunisian nationalists clashed near Bizerte on May 23, , resulting in the deaths of five Tunisian nationalists and two French government soldiers. French government troops and Tunisian nationalists clashed near Jebel Orvata on July 5, , resulting in the deaths of seven Tunisian nationalists and three French government soldiers.

Some 74 Tunisians and 21 French government police were killed as a result of political violence between March and July Tahar ben Ammar formed a government as prime minister on August 8, French government troops and Tunisian nationalists clashed near Sidi Bou Zid on October 2, , resulting in the deaths or wounding of 65 nationalists.

French government troops and Tunisian nationalists clashed near Kasserine on October 20, , resulting in the deaths of 17 individuals. Some 3, individuals were killed during the conflict. Tunisia formally achieved its independence from France on March 20, Lewis, Mary Dewhurst.