Treaty of Bardo

The Treaty of Bardo (also contract of Al -Qasr as- Sa'id or Treaty of Kasser Said ( English), Treaty of Ksar Said ( French) ) was born on May 12, 1881 between representatives of the French Republic and the Tunisian Bey Muhammad III. al -Husayn, Sadiq Bey, completed. With the agreement, the Bey assumed a French protectorate, which was to last until the independence of Tunisia from France on 20 March 1956. With the protectorate of the Bey gave his independence in foreign and defense policy and in relation to the ongoing administrative reform, such decisions could only be taken in consultation with the respective French minister resident. The rules governing the management were revised on June 5, 1883 in the agreement of La Marsa.

History

The raid by members of the Tunisian tribe of Kroumer on the territory of the French colony of Algeria gave the French Prime Minister Jules Ferry occasion for a French military action against Tunisia, was landed in April and May 1881 expeditionary force of about 36,000 soldiers and used against the Kroumer. The troops met little resistance, even from the government.

The Treaty of Bardo was General Jules Aimé Breart, who had landed with part of the force of about 8,000 men between the 3rd and 6 May 1881 in the Tunisian port city of Bizerte, related in his from 11 to May 12, 1881 Store at Manouba telegram sent by the French Government. Accompanied by an armed escort Breart who together with General Pierre Léon Maurand and the French Consul General Theodore Roustan Sadiq Bey on May 11 around 13:00 clock in his palace in Ksar Saïd at Bardo, and laid him there the contract in a short meeting before. Sadiq Bey asked for a few hours to think for consultation with his cabinet. Some ministers advised to flee to Kairouan to organize the resistance from there. Also, the presence of French troops in the immediate vicinity of his palace was ultimately up to the fact that he refused and that the agreement, which began the French protectorate over Tunisia, was signed by both sides.

After consultation with his government Breart looked at the request of the Beys from to avoid disturbances of the occupation of the nearby city of Tunis. On May 15, Roustan was appointed by 10 clock in the presence of Breart and an armed escort at the Maison de France in Tunis for the first French minister resident and Ministre plénipotentiaire his government in Tunisia. At 16 clock Breart arrived back in camp Manouba.