Informal empire and international law in Tunisia after the French Revolution

Bibliographic Data

ID5007481
AuthorsDzavid Dzanic (0000-0002-9368-7790, Austin Peay State University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume25
Issue3
Pages386-414
Publication date2020-05-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of North African Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1362-9387 • E-ISSN: 1743-9345
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13629387.2019.1611427
OpenAlexW2943239922
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited28

The French Revolution has often been described as the beginning of a new era of French imperialism, when France began nesting its imperial endeavours around the Mediterranean and recovering from the colonial losses it had incurred around the Atlantic during the Seven Years' War (1756–1763). The existing literature largely considers this general shift from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean from the perspective of formal imperialism, or the imposition of direct French rule. This article argues that consular imperialism, as an informal imperial strategy unsupported by a direct use of military force, emerged in Tunisia between 1789 and 1815, before the rise of formal imperialism and the establishment of a French protectorate there in 1881. Moreover, in contrast to the economic integration that underpinned the British form of informal imperialism, which led to the establishment of a global market, French diplomats relied on rumoured threats of a possible Napoleonic invasion in their attempts to force Ḥammūda Pasha, the Tunisian bey, to accept a new system of international law in the Mediterranean. Through this legal integration, French diplomats succeeded in remoulding Tunisia into an informal appendage of the growing French Mediterranean Empire during the height of Napoleonic expansion, when the threat of an invasion appeared credible. This study thus shows that an extended focus on informal methods of projecting power through the spread of international legal norms could throw new light on the longue durée factors that framed the realignment of French imperial ambitions around the Mediterranean after 1789

Colonialism · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Empire · Imperial unit system · Political economy · Political science · Power (physics · Protectorate · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · European Political History Analysis · History · Law · Political Theory and Influence

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