THE CHALLENGES TO FRENCH COLONIAL RULE IN TUNISIA: REALPOLITIK IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

Abstract

This research posits the dynamics behind impediments over the French colonial rule over Tunisia in the context of International Relations discipline. In doing so, anarchy notion will be beneficial for explaining the dynamics in the area; main assumptions of this research regard actors that pursues their self-interests in order to maintain their security, and gain power under the anarchic structure. This structure “acts as a constraining and disposing force” in the relations among states. On the other hand, under these circumstances, competition or rivalry among states is inevitable. The process of the collapsing Pax Ottomana replaced hierarchy with anarchy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in the course of time, which resulted in the arising “Eastern Question” and power competition among European powers in the area. Under French rule, the Tunisian case constituted power rivalry between France, Italy, and British Empire. While their main interests differed in the area, those interests also were conflicting in the time-space bound. The French Empire sought to establish Francophone Empire in Maghreb; on the other hand, Britain’s core interests originated from maintaining the strategic holds and preserving her global status via Mediterranean access. For Italy, which had already prominent settler colonies in Tunisia, it was essential to participate in the colonial race. Indeed, policies in Tunisia were geographically enabling to increase power roles in the Mediterranean, where Britain and especially Italy prevented France from gaining dominant power in the area by benefiting from their subjects there. Especially prominent existence of the Italian settlers and acknowledgment of their national identity by France in 1896 brought forth more challenges to French rule in which was soon troubled by Tunisian nationalism as well.

Keywords

• Tunisia
• Realpolitik
• French Colonial Rule
• Decline of Pax Ottomana
• Mediterranean

TUNUS’TAKİ FRANSIZ SÖMÜRGECİ YÖNETİMİN KARŞILAŞTIĞI ZORLUKLAR: AKDENİZ’DEKİ REELPOLİTİK

Abstract

Bu araştırma, Tunus üzerindeki Fransız sömürge yönetimin karşılaştığı engellerin ardındaki dinamikleri Uluslararası İlişkiler disiplini bağlamında ortaya koymaktadır. Bu süreçte, bölgedeki dinamikleri açıklamak için anarşi kavramı, yararlı olacaktır; bu araştırmanın temel varsayımları, aktörlerin, anarşik yapı altında güvenliklerini sürdürebilmek ve güç kazanmak için kendi çıkarlarını gözeten oyuncular olduklarıdır. Bahis konusu yapı, devletler arasındaki ilişkilerde “kısıtlayıcı ve kontrol altında tutan bir güç işlevi görmektedir”. Diğer yandan, böylesi koşullar altında, devletler arasında rekabet veya çekişme kaçınılmazdır. Osmanlı Barışının yıkılma süreciyle beraber, zaman içinde Orta Doğu ve Kuzey Afrika (ODKA) bölgesinde hiyerarşinin yerini anarşi almış, “Doğu Sorunu”nun ortaya çıkması ve Avrupalı kuvvetlerin bölge içinde güç rekabetine girmeleri ile sonuçlanmıştır. Fransız yönetimi altındaki Tunus örneği, Fransa, İtalya ile İngiliz İmparatorluğu arasında bir güç rekabeti yaratmıştır. Bölgedeki temel çıkarları farklılık gösterirken, söz konusu çıkarlar zaman-mekân olarak da çakışmıştır. Fransız İmparatorluğu Mağrip’te bir Frankofon İmparatorluğu kurmaya çalışmış; diğer yandan, İngiltere’nin temel çıkarları, Akdeniz’e erişim yoluyla stratejik kalelerini korumak ve küresel statüsünü sürdürmek şeklinde ortaya çıkmıştır. Tunus’ta zaten önemli yerleşim kolonileri olan İtalya için sömürge yarışına katılmak gerekliydi. Nitekim Tunus’a ilişkin politikalar, coğrafi olarak Britanya ve özellikle İtalya’nın buradaki tebaalarından yararlanarak, Akdeniz’de güç olma rollerini artırmaya olanak sağlamış, Fransa’nın bölgede egemen güç konumu elde etmesini engellemiştir. Özellikle bölgedeki İtalyan yerleşimcilerin göze çarpan varlığı ve 1896 yılında Fransa tarafından ulusal kimliklerinin kabulü, çok geçmeden Tunus milliyetçiliği tarafından da rahatsız edilen Fransız yönetimi için daha fazla meydan okumalara yol açmıştır.

Keywords

• Tunus
• Reel politik
• Fransız Sömürge Yönetimi
• Osmanlı Barışının Çöküşü
• Akdeniz

References

1. Albrecht-Carrie, Rene. The Concert of Europe. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1968.
2. Armaoğlu, Fahir. 19. Yüzyıl Siyasi Tarihi. Istanbul: Alkım, 1997.
3. Balch, Thomas Willing. “French Colonization in North Africa”. The American Political Science Review 3, No. 4 (Nov., 1909): 539-551.
4. Ben-Ghiat, Ruth, and Mia Puller. “Introduction” in Italian Colonialism, edited by Ruth Ben-Ghiat, and Mia Puller, 1-12. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Bew, John. Realpolitik: A History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
5. Blais, Hélène. “An intra-imperial conflict: the mapping of the border between Algeria and Tunisia, 1881-1914”. Journal of Historical Geography 37 (2011): 178-190.
6. Borutta, Manuel & Gekas, Sakis. “A Colonial Sea: the Mediterranean, 1798–1956”. European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire 19, No.1 (2012): 1-13, DOI: 10.1080/13507486.2012.643609.
7. Brown, L. Carl. International Politics and the Middle East, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.
8. Brown, L. Carl. “The many faces of colonial rule in French North Africa”. Revue de l'Occident musulman et de la Méditerranée, No. 13-14 (1973): 171-191.

9. Burçak, R. Salim. "İtalya'nın Dış Politikası (1882 - 1915)". Ankara Üniversitesi SBF Dergisi 1 (1943): 703-742.
10. Chabod, Federico. Italian Foreign Policy: The Statecraft of the Founders, Translated from Italian into English by William Mccuaig. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1996.
11. Choate, Mark I. “Identity Politics and Political Perception in the European Settlement of Tunisia: The French Colony versus the Italian Colony”. French Colonial History 8, (2007): 97-109.
12. Choate, Mark I. “The Tunisia Paradox: Italy ’s Strategic Aims, French Imperial Rule, and Migration in the Mediterranean Basin”. California Italian Studies 1 (2010): 1-20. http://escholarship.org/uc/ item/8k97g1nc
13. Clancy-Smith, Julia. “A view from the water’s edge: Greater Tunisia, France and the Mediterranean before colonialism”. French History 29, No. 1 (2015): 24-30.
14. Clancy-Smith, Julia A. Mediterraneans: North Africa and Europe in an Age of Migration C. 1800-1900, E-book. California: University of California Press, 2011.
15. Coller, Ian. “Barbary and Revolution: France and North Africa, 1789– 1798” in French Mediterraneans Transnational and Imperial Histories, edited by Patricia M. E. Lorcin and Todd Shepard, 52-75. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2016.
16. Darwin, John. The Empire Project: The Rise and Fall of the British World-System, 1830–1970, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
17. Djuvara, Trandafir G., Türk İmparatorluğunun Paylaşılması Hakkında Yüz Proje (1281-1913). 419-421. Translated from French into Turkish by Pulat Tacar, 4th Edition. İstanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2020.
18. Donnelly, Jack. Realism and International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
19. El Houssi, Leila. “The History and Evolution of Independence Movements in Tunisia”. Oriente Moderno 97, No.1 (2017): 67-88.
20. Elrod, Richard B., “The Concert of Europe: A Fresh Look at an International System”. World Politics 28, No. 2 (Jan., 1976): 159-174.
21. Emery, Henry C. “What is Realpolitik?”. International Journal of Ethics 25, No. 4 (Jul., 1915): 448-468.
22. Gochman, Charles S., and Russell J. Leng, “Realpolitik and the Road to War: An Analysis of Attributes and Behavior”. International Studies Quarterly 27, No.1 (Mar., 1983): 97-120.
23. Greer, Kirsten, “Geopolitics and the Avian Imperial Archive: The Zoogeography of Region-Making in the Nineteenth-Century British Mediterranean”. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 103, No. 6 (2013): 1317-1331.
24. Hinsley, F. H., Power and the Pursuit of Peace: Theory and Practice in the History of Relations Between States, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963.
25. Hoffmann, Stanley. Janus and Minerva: Essays in the Theory and Practice of International Politics. Colorado: Westview Press, 1987.
26. Holbraad, Carsten. “The concert of Europe”. Australian Outlook 25, No.1 (1971): 29-44.
27. Hollis, Rosemary. “Europe in the Middle East” in International Relations of the Middle East, edited by Louise Fawcett, 344-362. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
28. İnalcık, Halil. Devlet-i ‘Aliyye, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu Üzerine Araştırmalar-IV, Ayanlar Tanzimat, Meşrutiyet, 10th Edition. 272-293. İstanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2021.
29. Kissinger, Henry. Diplomacy. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.
30. Lawson, Fred H. “International Relations Theory and the Middle East” in International Relations of the Middle East, edited by Louise Fawcett, 19-36. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
31. Lewis, Mary Dewhurst. Divided Rule: Sovereignty and Empire in French Tunisia, 1881– 1938, California: University of California Press, 2014. Ling, Dwight L. “The French Invasion of Tunisia, 1881”. The Historian 22, No. 4 (August, 1960): 396-412.
32. Lowe, C. J. and F. Marzari. Italian Foreign Policy 1870-1940. Vols. VIII, in Foreign Policies of the Great Powers, London: Routledge.
33. Marrone, Stephanie. “Whither the Nation State?”. Origins 1, No. 4 (November 1993): 17-22.
34. McKay, Donald Vernon. “Colonialism in the French Geographical Movement 1871-1881”. Geographical Review 33, No. 2 (Apr., 1943): 214-232
35. Mckay, Donald Vernon. “The French in Tunisia”. Geographical Review 3 (Jul., 1945): 368-390.
36. Mearsheimer, John J. “Structural Realism” in International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity, edited by Tim Dunne, Milja Kurki, and Steve Smith, 77-93. 3rd Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
37. Medlicott, W. N. “The Mediterranean Agreements of 1887”. The Slavonic Review 5, No. 13 (Jun., 1926): 66-88.
38. Nexon, Daniel H. “Review: The Balance of Power in the Balance”. World Politics 61, No. 2 (Apr., 2009):330-359.
39. Oualdi, M’hamed. “Provincializing and Forgetting Ottoman Administrative Legacies: Sons and Grandsons of Beys’ Mamluks Facing French Administrators of Tunisia (1890s–1930s)”. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 34, No. 2 (2014): 418-431.
40. Owen, Roger. State, Power and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East. 3rd Edition. New York: Routledge, 2004.
41. Pierson, Christopher. The Modern State, 2nd Edition. London: Routledge, 1996.
42. Prochaska, David. Making Algeria French: Colonialism in Bòne, 1870 -1920. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
43. Reinhard, Wolfgang. “Empires, Modern States, and Colonialism(s): A Preface” in Shifting Forms of Continental Colonialism: Unfinished Struggles and Tensions, edited by Dittmar Schorkowitz, John R. Chávez, and Ingo W. Schröder, 1-22. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.
44. Roucek, Joseph S., “The Geopolitics of the Mediterranean, I”, The American Journal of Economics and Sociology 12, No. 4 (Jul., 1953): 347-354.
45. Roucek, Joseph S., “The Geopolitics of the Mediterranean, II”, The American Journal of Economics and Sociology 13, No. 1 (Oct., 1953): 71-86.
46. Sander, Oral. Siyasi Tarih: İlkçağlardan 1918’e, 242-247. 22nd Edition. Ankara: İmge, 2011.
47. Schmitt, Carl. “Somut ve Çağa Bağlı bir Kavram Olarak Devlet” in Devlet Kuramı, edited by Cemal Bali Akal, 245-256. 4th Edition. Ankara: Dost Kitabevi, 2013.
48. The Eastern Question and the Paris Treaty of 1856. Pamphlets. Williams and Norgate, 1871. https://jstor.org/stable/10.2307/60235878.
49. Türel, Oktar. Küresel Tarihçe, 1945-79. İstanbul: Yordam, 2017.
50. Walt, Stephen M. The Origins of Alliances. New York: Cornell University Press, 1987.
51. Waltz, Kenneth N. Man, the State and War: A Theoretical Analysis. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.
52. Waltz, Kenneth N. “Reflections on Theory of International Politics: A Response to My Critics” in Neorealism and Its Critics, edited by Robert O. Keohane, 322-346. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.
53. Waltz, Kenneth N. “Structural Realism after the Cold War.” International Security 25, no. 1 (Summer 2000): 5–41. doi:10.1162/016228800560372.
54. Waltz, Kenneth N. Theory of International Politics. Philippines: Addison-Wesley, 1979.
55. Williams, Michael C., “Reason and Realpolitik: Kant's "Critique of International Politics"”, Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue canadienne de science politique 25, No. 1 (Mar., 1992): 99-119.
56. Wimmer, Andreas, and Brian Min. “From Empire to Nation-State: Explaining Wars in the Modern World”, American Sociological Review 71, No. 6 (Dec., 2006): 867-897.
57. Wright, Owain. “Concert of Europe” in The Encyclopedia of Diplomacy, edited by Gordon Martel, JohnWiley & Sons, 2018. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118885154.dipl0058.
58. Yurdusev, Nuri. International Relations and the Philosophy of History: A Civilizational Approach. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.