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Tunisia
Neo-Destour and trade-union pressure and fellagha guerrilla resistance won internal autonomy in 1955 and full independence by the protocol of 20 March 1956, as France concentrated on the war in Algeria.
- Independence
- March 20, 1956
- Before
- French Protectorate of Tunisia
- Metropole
- France
- Leader
- Habib Bourguiba
- Transition
- Negotiated
- Movement
- Neo-Destour Party; Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail (UGTT)
“France solemnly recognises the independence of Tunisia.”
— Franco-Tunisian Protocol of Agreement, signed by Christian Pineau and Tahar Ben Ammar, March 20, 1956
The French Protectorate, 1881–1934
France imposed a protectorate on Tunisia with the Treaty of Bardo of May 12, 1881, reinforced by the La Marsa Convention of 1883, leaving the Husainid beys on the throne while French officials held real power. A large European settler population, French and Italian, grew up under it. Organised nationalism began with the Destour party in 1920; in 1934 a younger generation led by Habib Bourguiba broke away at the Ksar Hellal congress to found the Neo-Destour, which built a disciplined mass party.
Repression and Armed Resistance, 1938–1954
Bourguiba was repeatedly imprisoned or exiled, notably after the Tunis riots of April 1938. The UGTT, founded by Farhat Hached in 1946, gave nationalism a powerful labour base. When France arrested Bourguiba again in January 1952, fellagha guerrilla bands took up arms, and Hached's assassination in December 1952 by the settler terrorist group La Main Rouge provoked outrage. On July 31, 1954, French Prime Minister Pierre Mendès France went to Carthage to announce internal autonomy.
Autonomy and Independence, 1955–1956
Bourguiba returned to a triumphant welcome in Tunis on June 1, 1955, and conventions granting internal autonomy were signed on June 3. The settlement split the nationalists: Salah Ben Youssef denounced it as a step backwards and was expelled from the Neo-Destour. With Morocco's independence agreed and the Algerian war escalating, France signed a protocol recognising Tunisia's independence on March 20, 1956. Bourguiba became prime minister in April.
Chronology
- May 12, 1881 — Treaty of Bardo establishes the French protectorate
- March 2, 1934 — Neo-Destour founded at the Ksar Hellal congress
- December 5, 1952 — UGTT leader Farhat Hached assassinated
- July 31, 1954 — Mendès France's Carthage declaration on internal autonomy
- June 3, 1955 — Franco-Tunisian conventions on internal autonomy signed
- March 20, 1956 — Protocol recognising Tunisian independence signed in Paris
- July 25, 1957 — Monarchy abolished; Bourguiba becomes president
Aftermath
Bourguiba's government promulgated the Code of Personal Status on August 13, 1956, abolishing polygamy and giving women new rights in marriage and divorce. France kept its naval base at Bizerte until October 1963, after a deadly confrontation there in July 1961. Bourguiba was proclaimed president for life in 1975 and was removed by his prime minister, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, on November 7, 1987.
Legacy
Tunisia developed a secular, reformist republic, most visibly in the Code of Personal Status, though under an increasingly authoritarian single-party system. The trade-union and civic traditions formed during the national movement resurfaced in the 2010–2011 revolution that began the Arab Spring, in which the UGTT played a prominent part.