ITALIANS IN COLONIAL FRENCH MAGHREB (TUNISIA/ALGERIA/MOROCCO)

Here it is a brief summary of the history of the three Italian communities in the French Maghreb (Tunisia-Algeria-Morocco), with emphasis in the Italian Tunisians.
They had common features, but also many differences due to the duration of the Italian presence, to the typology and intensity of the French colonization in the different territories and to the interest that the Italian governments (above all the fascist one) had for the landing country. Algeria became an integral part of the French territory since 1848 and was divided into three departments; on Tunisia a protectorate was established in 1881, while Morocco became it in 1912 following the "entente cordiale" of 1904. Italians in La Goulette -near Tunis- in the late 1890s
Historian F. Cresti wrote that the Italians were: in Algeria 16498 in 1871 and 37000 in 1924, in Tunisia 5889 in 1871 and 91000 in 1924, while in Morocco only 102 in 1871 and 12258 in 1924 (read: http://www.storiamediterranea.it/public/md1_dir/r1001.pdf ).

The Italian community in the XX century was concentrated mainly in Tunisia, where there were groups from the peninsula that were ancient settlements, when the Italian pre-unification states maintained relations with the Ottoman lands. Furthermore, Tunisia became a haven for refugees from the "Risorgimento" during the nineteenth century, as well as for the victims of the Crispi repression and, under the Mussolini regime, was often used as a place of transit for fleeing anti-fascists.  According to the French census of 1921 the Italians in Tunisian territory were 84,799, while in the 1930s more than 90,000 presences were counted. However, the sources are conflicting and in contrast with each other. Given the Italian claims on the territory, while the fascist authorities played upward in the count, the French authorities "presumably" provided lower figures. Probably, in the thirties, we can estimate the presence of Italians in about 175,000 individuals out of an approximate total of 250,000 European residents. The Italian community was not homogeneous, but presented social, economic, regional and seniority differences on arrival. The most numerous groups were those of the Tuscans, mostly Jews from Livorno who lived mainly in the capital, and the Sicilians, mostly of proletarian extraction, who arrived beyond the Mediterranean starting from the end of the nineteenth century encouraged by the employment opportunities offered by the French Protectorate. Jews from Livorno in those decades belonged to the Tunisian bourgeoisie and were mainly doctors, lawyers and merchants. The Sicilians were numerous in building and in related industries, in the mining industry (many had worked in the Sicilian sulphates) and in the countryside, especially in the north of the Tunisian country. On the border with Algeria, the presence of Sardinians, also employed in mines, was strong. A role that was not undervalued was seasonal emigration, linked above all to fishing and which probably already existed before the Great emigration in the "Ottocento" (XIX century). The presence of Italians was therefore consistent and they enjoyed a certain prestige that led Fascism to consider Tunisia as a natural appendix to Italy and to claim its territories. The Italians also benefited from some privileges decreed by the Treaty signed in 1868 by the two countries (Italy & France), including the possibility of maintaining native citizenship, of continuing to enjoy the "capitulations" and to acquire and own land and other real estate without any restrictions

Photo of the famous French actor J.P. Belmondo. Jean Paul Belmondo's 'nonni' (grandfathers ) were "Pied-Noirs" in Algeria of Italian origins,  because born in Sicily and Piedmont.
The settlement in Algeria was less numerous, but just as the same interesting. This community was probably older and was consolidated before the Unity of Italy. The Italians in Algeria were mainly engaged in fishing and agricultural work. When the French arrived, they already found Italians engaged in various sectors, but colonization only increased their presence. As with the other two Maghreb countries, in fact, the increase in public works following the arrival of the French encouraged a substantial increase in Italian labor, with many concerns on the part of the French authorities that feared for maintaining the social balance. Until the unification of Algeria, and especially the capital Algiers, the Algerian cities were also destinations for Italian patriots fleeing due to the failure of some Risorgimento revolts. This phenomenon then recurred in the fascist period, even if the numbers were lower. If in fact in 1886 the Italians in Algeria were almost 45,000, while in 1936 their presence dropped to about 21,000. The reasons for this significant contraction were different and are not easily identifiable. Among these we can mention the increase in naturalizations following changes in French legislation and frequent mobility to other countries. As already mentioned, many went to France or overseas, many others to Tunisia, where in those years the demand for labor increased. The areas of Algeria most populated by Italians were undoubtedly the capital and its region, as well as the area of ​​Constantine. The latter, due to geographical continuity with Tunisia, became an area of ​​expansion for the Italian-Tunisian community. Compared to the other two countries, Italians came later in Morocco (read for further information: https://web.archive.org/web/20090322023445/http://www.comites.ma/pages/ggcomitesinformaitalianiin.htm.) Their arrival was linked to the French presence. In 1911, the year of the beginning of the "French Regency", the Italians were about 1225, while in 1940 they reached 17,000. At the beginning of the century it was done mainly by qualified individuals who dealt particularly with commerce and had no obvious links with the great migratory movements of the time. The subsequent increase in attendance was due to the demand for construction and land workers to be used in large public works promoted by the French. The Italians who arrived in Morocco had ties with other French North African countries or with France, and often moved within this macro-territory following transalpine companies. However, their small presence did not make the Morocco country one of the points of interest of foreign policy and fascist claims. ITALIANS in TUNISIA The Italian community in Tunisia has always been more numerous than the French, even after the establishment of the Protectorate in 1881, signed with the Treaty of Bardo, a historical moment known as "the slap of Tunis" ('Schiaffo di Tunisi' in Italian language) for the humiliation suffered by Italy that lost opportunity to colonize Tunisia. So much so that a French economist at the time coined a definition passed into history: "Tunisia is an Italian colony administered by French officials".
There was talk of more than 120 thousand Italians in Tunisia at the turn of the 1930s, but unofficial figures indicate a higher figure, 190 thousand people, which caused another expression to remain in the history books: "Tunisia is a piece of Italy thrown away in the desert". Three great migratory waves can be summarized from the italian peninsula to Tunisia: 1) that of political, liberal, Masonic, Carbonari and Mazzinian exiles, including many Jews from Livorno, who sought refuge in the Maghreb country until the 1860s (Giuseppe Garibaldi landed for the first time in 1836 with the false name of Giuseppe Pane); 2) that of the peasants, mostly Sicilians, victims of the agrarian crisis who took advantage of the Treaty of Goulette stipulated in 1868 between Vittorio Emanuele II and the bey Mohammed es-Sadok which facilitated the consolidation of the Italian community; and 3)that of seasonal workers, workers and miners mainly from Sardinia and headed to Sfax and Gafsa, with some anarchists, which began in the first post-war period and continued throughout the fascist era. The Italian one, therefore, has been a multiform and heterogeneous migration characterized both by a strong regional character and a close link with the homeland, both by a great predisposition to openness and curiosity towards the Tunisians so much as to trigger significant linguistic and culinary syncretisms and the birth of a cultural mosaic that still has its reflections today.
The cosmopolitanism of the first half of the 20th century in Tunisia can be well summarized by the way of telling the country of the time as "a place where people worked only from Monday to Thursday" because Friday was a holiday for the Arabs, Saturday for the Jews and Sunday for Christians.

Claudia Cardinale,  an international famous actress, was born  in La Goulette, a neighborhood of Tunis (capital of Tunisia). Her father was born in Sicily and her mother was an italo-tunisian (whose fathers emigrated from southern Italy in the xIX century). Since 1821 (please read "Italian-speaking communities in early nineteenth century Tunis", written by Alessandro Triulzi https://www.persee.fr/doc/remmm_0035-1474_1971_num_9_1_1104 ) the Italian community has enjoyed its own high level institutions, including schools and hospitals, the Chamber of Commerce, an orphanage, the Dante Alighieri society and newspaper offices. Thanks to which it has maintained its linguistic and cultural affiliation up to May 1943 when, in the middle of the Second World War, with the arrival of the Allied troops who entered Tunis, these institutions were closed causing the dispersion of an enormous wealth of experiences.
Italian labor in the building sector was very much appreciated in Tunisia thanks to the work of painters, plasterers, furniture makers and master ironworkers. The most important construction site at the beginning of the twentieth century, that of the prestigious municipal ensemble on avenue Bourghiba, the Tunisian art nouveau masterpiece of which only the theater remains today, was "Italian" (the adjoining Plamarium and the Tunisia Palace hotel have been demolished). The Italian creative contribution in Tunisian architecture can be found in Tunis in a group of buildings on avenue de Londres, but also in the palaces of Piazza della Borsa, in many houses in the European quarter, in rue de la Commission, on rue Sidi Bou Mendil and rue dell'Eglise, and in the large building that stands at the center of the Goulette, opposite the church, the well-known port district also known as "Little Sicily" because of the large number of Sicilians who lived there.

With the rise of Benito Mussolini, the contrasts between Rome and Paris were sharpened also because the Italians of Tunisia showed themselves to be very sensitive to the fascist propaganda and many of them joined in compact form the nationalistic ideals of the Fascism of the "Duce". Indeed, the Italians of Tunisia showed "to be defiantly nationalistic and robustly resistant to amalgamation" and many of them refused - in many cases vehemently - to be naturalized by the French authorities.  The fact that the French government promoted actively the French citizenship between the Italians in Tunisia was one of the main reasons of the direct intervention of Mussolini in the Tunisian problems.

From 1910 to 1926, the Italians were reduced by this French policy of assimilation from 105,000 to less than 90,000. Consequently during the 1920s and mainly in the 1930s, Rome's Fascism promoted the defense of the national and social rights of the Italians of Tunisia against the tentative of amalgamation done by France. Mussolini also opened some financial institutions and Italian Banks (like the Banca siciliana) and some Italian newspapers (like L'Unione), but even Italian hospitals, teachers, cinemas, schools (primary and secondary) and health assistance organizations.

In 1940, Mussolini requested France to give Tunisia (along with Djibouti, Corsica and Nice) to Italy, when World War II was just beginning. When Italy attacked southern France in June 1940, 25000 Italians of Tunisia were interned in concentration camps (read https://www.academia.edu/31081889/La_CALDA_ESTATE_del_1940._La_COMUNITA_ITALIANA_in_TUNISIA_dalla_GUERRA_ITALO-FRANCESE_all_ARMISTIZIO). Three of them died (before all the Italians were released n the next summer) and huge demonstrations happened in July 1940 in the city of Tunis, complaining the French harrassments and requesting the Italian control of Tunisia. However it was only in November 1942 that Italian troops occupied (with Rommel's help) Tunisia and seized it from the Vichy regime.

Tunisia was added administratively to the existing northern Italian Libya "Quarta Sponda" ( Fourth Shore), in Mussolini's last attempt to accomplish the fascist project of Imperial Italy. In the first months of 1943 were opened Italian schools in Tunis and Biserta, while 4000 Italian Tunisians volunteered in the Italian Army(https://books.google.com/books?id=_qG6CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA56&lpg=PA56&dq=4000+Italian+Tunisians+volunteered+in+the+Italian+Army&source=bl&ots=0z6kxUwKfb&sig=sNRjc96H09f7qc8y2vggEkWdOKc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjn5aSf2dvdAhVN2FMKHcmbCT8Q6AEwCHoECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=4000%20Italian%20Tunisians%20volunteered%20in%20the%20Italian%20Army&f=false.) Also were reopened some Italian newspapers and magazines, that have been closed by the French government in the late 1930s.

Italians of Tunisia battalion (January 1943). From the end of 1942 to spring 1943 Tunisia was added, and was administered as part of the "Fourth Shore" ("Quarta Sponda") of Italy. Military units of Italians of Tunisia were created, because 4000 Italo-Tunisians volunteered to fight in the Italian Army. One was called "Reggimento Volontari Tunisini dell'Africa Settentrionale Italiana"

In the last months of 1942 some Tunisians and local Italians did even join the "National Fascist Party" in Tunis. From December 1942 until February 1943 Tunisia and Italian Libya were under Italian control and administered as "Africa Settentrionale Italiana", but later the Allies conquered all Italian Tripolitania and Italian control was reduced to the Tunisian area west of the Mareth Line (where was fought a last Axis stand).

Collar patch of the "Tunisia Battalion" of the Italian royal Army.

Some Tunisian Italians participated in the Italian Army, and a special trained group named "Battaglione Tunisino" (the "T" battalion) fought bravely against the Allies. When the "T" Battalion arrived at the front on January 25, 1943 it clashed with US forces in the area of Kasserine, suffering 22 killed, 43 wounded and 36 missing out of a total force of about 500 men and at the beginning of April collided, in the area of Ousseltia, with the forces of "Free France", losing the entire 2nd Company. The rest of the Battalion forces, devoid of mechanized vehicles and pack animals, had to face a long march to the Zares Mountains, where it brilliantly supported another clash with the French, under the command of Major Leo Cataldo, finally surrendering to the French Foreign Legion. They suffered imprisonment like everyone else, but with the aggravating circumstance that they and their families suffered harassment and violence from the French, as they were considered traitors because born in Tunisia. All legally established territory of Italian North Africa was dissolved by early 1943, but Tunisia remained the last de facto Italian administered territory until all Tunisia fell to American and British forces. Indeed in April/May 1943.
In mid May 1943, the Allies conquered all Tunisia and the French authorities closed all the Italian schools and newspapers. From that moment the Italians were harassed by the French regime and so started a process of disappearance of the Italian community in Tunisia. 

Indeed Tunisia was under the French Protectorate until 1956, for 75 years, and the Italian industrious community has always found itself in a particular position, belonging neither to the colonized nor to the colonizers. For its size and its influence in several sectors, the Italian community was perceived by France as a "danger" so much that it started a "Frenchization" operation to solve the so-called in French "Peril Italien" (Italian problem), that is to change the quantitative relationship between the two communities.

This operation ended in 1943 when, after the liberation from the Axis troops that occupied in November 1942 all Tunisia, France seized the opportunity to impose the closure of all Italian institutions, from schools to associations to newspaper offices. The leadership of the hospitals passed to French doctors, many intellectuals were expelled and new provisions were issued concerning citizenship that required the naturalization of those born in Tunisia. Therefore, those born in the 40s were victims of a real cultural amnesia that put an end to the long and troubled defense of Italianness carried out since the 19th century by the Italian community, in particular by the Sicilians who as long as they could kept their traditions alive, like the procession of the "Madonna of Trapani" celebrated every August 15th in the streets of Goulette.

The main Italian newspaper of Tunisia in the late 1930s (L'Unione") celebrating the commemoration of the "Italian Victory in WW1", that had a presence of nearly 50000 Italians of Tunisia -according to the editors.

One of the most widely used tools for defending one's Italian character was the periodical press whose introduction also helped to create an environment of openness and renewal in the Tunisian world. Since the early "Ottocento" (XIX century) the Italian community had equipped itself with its own newspapers, from the first example dated 1838, "The Newspaper of Tunis and Carthage", up to the intensification after the French conquest (which in turn opened newspapers in French language to support its presence). In this confrontation between Italian and French newspapers, the Tunisian press was also included, which founded the first official newspaper "Le riad", written in Arabic, and continued with other lively examples that were published together with numerous Italian newspapers, both as an expression of the bourgeoisie ( "L' Unione", "The New Carthage", "La Voce di Tunisi"), both of social dispute. The best known was "L'Operaio" founded in 1887 by Niccolò Converti, followed by "Il proletario", "The miner", "The voice of the mason", "The voice of the worker", as the historian Michele Brondino documented.
When the nationalist (and Fascist) myth arrived on the southern shore of the Mediterranean, other newspapers were born, including "Il risveglio", "La nuova Italia", "La Patria", "The Tunisian people". With fascism, many newspapers were eliminated or fascistized as "L' Unione", while other new ones were printed as "The Action", "The Gathering", "Youth". Only in the 1930s an anti-fascist press was born with "Il Corriere di Tunisi", "The new voice" and "Il Giornale".
Since the outbreak of World War II all these newspapers were closed and reopened only after the proclamation of Independence in 1956, a year when "Il Corriere di Tunisi" was still widespread. However Tunisia "officially" was added administratively to Italy's Fourth Shore (in Italian Quarta Sponda), in the last tentative attempt to realize Mussolini's project of Imperial Italy and in those months (November 1942-May 1943) a few Italian newspapers (like "L'Unione") were temporarily reopened.

The Italian community present today in Tunisia is composed of about 5 thousand people. "Only a thousand people are part of the historical group of Italians in Tunisia, those born and raised here, the others are part of a new community of bi-nationals formed also following the great changes experienced by Tunisia in the last six years," explains Silvia Finzi , current director of "Il Corriere di Tunisi".