Hegemonic power from colonisation to colonial liberation: A historical-analytical narrative of French colonial dominance over Tunisia from 1881-1956 and how it resulted in the Bizerte crisis of 1961 Leïla Inès Soukni European Studies – Politics, Societies and Cultures Bachelor´s Degree 15 credits Spring 2020 Supervisor: Inge Eriksson Leïla Inès Soukni Abstract This thesis studies how the colonial implementations of foreign rule in Tunisia by France between 1881-1956 caused and resulted in the Bizerte crisis of 1961 taking place. In 1881, Tunisia was invaded by France as a part of France’s colonial policy to expand its territory and power. The initial purpose was for France to gain the military-strategic geographical point in the middle of the Mediterranean sea; the city of Bizerte. This thesis follows the trajectory of France’s colonial dominance through a combination of descriptive research design and a historical-analytical narrative using the theoretical and epistemological concepts of hegemonic power, neo-gramscianism, post structuralism and world system theory to research the problem of how France’s colonial, hegemonic power affected their postcolonial relations and eventually consequenced in the Bizerte crisis of 1961. France’s colonial dominance gained them the position of hegemon and Tunisia the position of the subordinate. Through its colonial rule, France would implement its power over Tunisia that would result in the division of power between the states to be established. Once Tunisian independence was gained the distance of power between France and Tunisia would come to decrease as France’s direct rule had been removed. The transition to postcolonial relations would affect how France would influence its former colony and how the power over Tunisia by its former coloniser would change the hegemonic power dynamics between the state resulting in the Bizerte crisis of 1961. Key words: Tunisia, France, colonialism, hegemony, world system theory, neo- gramscianism, poststructuralism, power 2 Leïla Inès Soukni Table of contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………..2 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………4 Chapter one: Previous research, aim, research problem and the structure of the thesis…4 1.1 Previous research………………………………………………………...4 1.2 Aim………………………………………………………………………8 1.3 Research problem………………………………………………………..8 1.4 Structure of the thesis and delimitations…………………………………9 Chapter two: Theoretical and epistemological discussion………………………………10 2.1 Hegemonic power………………………………………………………10 2.2 Explaining colonialism and imperialism………………………………..12 2.3 World system theory……………………………………………………13 2.4 Neo-gramscianism……………………………………………………...13 2.5 Poststructuralism……………………………………………………….14 2.6 Defining and combining the analytical tools……………………………15 2.7 Methods and materials………………………………………………….16 Chapter three: An analytical narrative of the historical process of French colonial dominance over Tunisia and how it sequences in the Bizerte crisis of 1961……………18 3.1 Establishing colonial dominance……………………………………….18 3.2 Upholding the power……………………………………………………23 3.3 National liberation in the presence of a fading hegemonic power………26 3.4 Upholding forms of dominance in a post-colonial era…………………29 Chapter five: The remnants of France’s colonial hegemonic power & influence in postcolonial Tunisia……………………………………………………………………..33 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………35 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………….39 3 Leïla Inès Soukni Introduction Since the early 15th century, a handful of European states established colonies across the other continents in order to expand their empires. The expansion began as a financial policy with the aim to increase the respective European state’s economy. Towards the mid 1800s, the colonial policies grew to be more than financial. The European authorities present in the colonies imposed their language, culture, beliefs and power, among other things upon the local and indigenous population (McKay et. al., 2015). On the African continent, France was one of the European states to colonise several different territories. Among them Tunisia, which was previously under Ottoman rule as the Beylical Regency of Tunisia. Tunisia was from 1881 under the colonial rule of the French until its independence in 1956 (Boularès, 2011, p. 674-679). After Tunisian independence, France still remained in control over the naval city of Bizerte, using it as a strategic point to continue control colonial Algeria. Bizerte remained important to France. In July, 1961 Tunisia were provoked by the French military organising a blockade on the naval port which triggered a four day long battle killing over 1000 Tunisians. In this thesis, I will conduct a combination of descriptive research and historical analytical study on the French and Tunisian colonial relations resulting in the Bizerte crisis. I will be researching how can we understand how France’s colonial, hegemonic power affected their postcolonial relations and eventually consequenced in the Bizerte crisis of 1961? The problem area is is related to the colonial hegemony that shaped France and Tunisia’s bilateral relations. During France’s colonial rule in Tunisia, the French colonial authorities changed the names of several villages and cities throughout Tunisia. The new names were implemented to facilitate the preexisting names for French pronunciation, as another way of presenting their power over Tunisia, rather than integrating with the local population. (Khlifi, 2001, p. 11; Boularès, 2011, p. 499-503) In this thesis, the Tunisian names for the cities mentioned will be used as those are the names of the cities, as of the date of this thesis being written. 1.1 Previous research Using a qualitative and descriptive research design to conduct this research on the historical, colonial relations between France and Tunisia leading up to the Bizerte crisis, 4 Leïla Inès Soukni I have chosen a collection of historical, political and biographical articles, journals and books by a collection of both Franco-European authors as well as Afro-Tunisian authors. There has been quite a large amount of research regarding the colonial relations between Tunisia and France. It focuses on the historical implications of colonialism and the trajectory of its transition to postcolonial international relations. Most of the research and documentations have been made in France or Tunisia, the countries which the relations concern. The majority of the research that could be found is mainly in French and has been published in Tunisia and/or France. It is possible to access the material that is in French through international research databases compared to the few sources that are in Arabic which are only accessible through libraries in Tunisia. The research and documentation conducted and published in Tunisia is mostly in French, understandable as French is the second official language in Tunisia and has been since Tunisian independence. When Tunisia was a French protectorate, French was the first official language and was imposed on all bureaucratic levels, most often banning Tunisian Arabic to be used (Chadli, 2018). The French language has continuously been a language widely used in academia in Tunisia which is why the majority of the Tunisian research are also mainly published in French. This can make it difficult for non-French speakers to be able to conduct research about Franco-Tunisian relations. However, it offers place in academia for the French and Tunisian perspectives to be highlighted, it offers information in the original languages, that the original documents do not have to be translated which can cause information to possibly be lost in translation. Other than the fact that most material regarding the colonial relations between Tunisia and France is in French, another fact is that the specific event of the Bizerte crisis is not widely known. Although it is a turning point in the relations between France and Tunisia as well as a turning point in the Algerian war of independence (1954-1962), there is a very small collection of books and biographies that are solely about what lead up to and what caused the Bizerte crisis. Some biographies and history books mention the event and the consequences, and how Tunisia’s colonial history and the Bizerte crisis often lands in the shadows of Algeria’s colonial history (Essebsi, 2017, p. 119-124; Boularès 2011). The fact that this event is not widely known internationally is why I believe that conducting this study is important. It will possibly be the first step to future research about the Bizerte crisis and the impact of French colonialism in one of France’s smaller colonies. 5 Leïla Inès Soukni Many of these biographies that have been published in Tunisia, could only be published after the Jasmine Revolution in 2011. Most history books that are about Tunisia’s colonial history and the fight for independence that were written before 1987, the year Ben Ali performed a coup d’état, were banned from being sold. The books that were written about documenting Tunisia’s history and certain events during Ben Ali’s rule (1987-2011) had to be approved by his government (Boularès, 2011, p. 694-697; Chadli, 2018, p. 594-574). This is one of the reasons why the majority of the biographies about the Franco-Tunisian colonial relations that are being used in this thesis have either been published before 1987 or after 2011, or published through publishers in other Francophone countries. Those that have been published under Ben Ali’s rule (1987-2011)