The next area for French expansion at…
1880 CE
Tunisia, with an area of one hundred and fifty five thousand square kilometers, is a small prize, but it occupies strategic importance, across the Algerian frontier and only one hundred and fifty kilometers from Sicily; Tunisia offers good port facilities, especially at Bizerte.
France and Italy, as well as Britain, count significant expatriate communities in Tunisia and maintain consulates here.
Ties are also commercial; France had advanced a major loan to Tunisia in the mid-nineteenth century and has trading interests.
Paris had not acted immediately: parliament remains in an anti-colonial mood and no groundswell of popular opinion mandates a takeover of Tunisia, but several developments spur France to action.
In 1880, the British owners of the railway linking Tunis with the coast put their company up for sale.
An Italian concern successfully bids for the enterprise, leaving France worried about possible Italian intervention.
Another incident, also in 1880, concerns the sale of a one hundred thousand-hectare property by a former Tunisian prime minister.
Negotiations involve complicated arrangements to forestall preemption of the sale by the Bey's government or by proprietors of adjacent tracts of land.
A French consortium buying the property believes the deal has been completed, but a British citizen, ostensibly representing neighboring landholders, preempts the sale and occupies the land (though without paying for it).
A judge sent by London to investigate discovers that the British purchaser is acting on behalf of the Bey's government and Italian businessmen; moreover, he discovers that the Briton had used fraud to stake his claim.
The sale is canceled, and French buyers get the property.
Paris moves to protect French claims, as London and Berlin gently warn that if France does not act, they might reconsider their go-ahead for French occupation.
Locations
People
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Ottoman Empire
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Tunis, Beylik of
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Russian Empire
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Britain (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland)
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Egypt, Khedivate of
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France (French republic); the Third Republic
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German Empire (“Second Reich”)
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Italy, Kingdom of
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Cyprus, Ottoman viyalet of
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Tunis, French protectorate of
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North Africa
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