User:Mrg19g/Tunisia

Struggle for independence (1943-1956)
After the liberation of Tunisia from the Germans, the French regained control over the government and made participation in a nationalist party illegal once more. Moncef Bey, who was popular amongst Tunisians, was deposed by the French. The French claimed that his removal was due to him being sympathetic to the Axis countries during German occupation, but the real reason is up for debate.

In 1945 after escaping French surveillance, Tunisian nationalist Habib Bourguiba arrived in Cairo. While there, he was able to make contact with the Arab League. Later in 1946, after traveling to other Middle Eastern countries, he made his way to the United States to speak to both the United Nations at their headquarters at Lake Success and U.S. State Department officials in Washington D.C., pleading the case of the Tunisian nationalists.

As part of postwar Tunisia, a new all-Tunisian labor organization was formed, the Union Générale des Travailleurs (UGTT). This was one of the stronger components of the nationalist group Neo-Destour.

Habib Bourguiba made his way to the United States on 13 September 1949. He attended the American Federation of Labor meeting in San Francisco, California. The French were opposed to his presence there, and the US feared political change in North Africa due to the looming presence of possible Soviet Union communist expansion.

Bourguiba continued to plead to foreign leaders when he traveled to Italy on 6 November 1951. His contacts included Alberto Mellini Ponce De León, Mario Toscano, and Licinio Vestri. De León was an old friend of Bourguiba who had helped free him from German captivity, Toscano was the head of the Ufficio Studi e Documentazione in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Vestri was an Africanist scholar. Despite his best efforts, the Italians remained neutral as they did not want to ruin relations with NATO ally France, nor did they want to hamper any possibility of future relations with Tunisia as it served as a key part of the Mediterranean.

The French Resident General in Tunisia, Jean de Hautecloque left Tunis to go to Paris on August 25, 1953, when he was replaced by Pierre Voizard. Voizard had previously been the French Minister to Monaco. A month after his arrival in Tunis on 26 September 1953, Voizard made many changes to ease tensions in Tunisia. He lifted press censorship and freed several political prisoners. He also restored the full powers of civil authorities and raised the state of siege in the Sahel.

On 26 January 1954, Voizard announced that there would soon be new reforms in favor of granting more sovereignty to Tunisians while insuring the interests of the French and French citizens in Tunisia, at the Cercle Republicain d'outre Mer in Paris. The Neo-Destour group was not in favor of these reforms if they themselves were not involved in their creation. They also demanded the freedom of leader Bourguiba from where he was imprisoned on the Isle of Galete.