Abandoning the Algerian Model
Tunisia and Morocco came under French control much later than Algeria, in 1883 and 1912 respectively, as part of the great “scramble for Africa” at the end of the nineteenth century.*
From the French perspective, the imperial experience in Tunisia and Morocco was very different than that in Algeria.** In both states, French investors became concerned about the security of their investments under the rule of what they perceived as a weak Muslim government. In both states an internal crisis combined with imperial rivalries with Britain in Tunisia and Germany in Morocco triggered occupation by French troops and a “now what?” response by French administrators.
Fifty years of rule in Algeria had taught French politicians that direct rule by French administrators and colonization by European settlers was expensive. Instead of being integrated into French territory as colonies, first Tunisia and then Morocco were placed under protectorate status: a ambiguous term that suggests a stronger power protecting a weaker power. The reality was the stronger power protecting its own interests in the weaker power.*** In theory, the Bey of Tunisia and the Sultan of Morocco remained the rulers of their respective states with the support of a French civil service and the French military. In fact, both rulers were puppets under the control of their French advisers--a position that was soon made clear in Morocco. When Sultan Mulay Hafid refused to cooperate with French plans for administrative, legal, educational and military reforms, he was forced to abdicate and replaced by his brother.
The bottom line: Tunisia and Morocco were possessions, but they never became part of the French identity. François Mitterand once claimed “Algeria is France.” No one ever said “Morocco is France”. As a result, in the unraveling of European empires that followed the end of the Second World War, Tunisia and Morocco were relatively easy to let go. (The key word there is relative.)
Algeria? That was another story.
*If you’re interested in the big picture on this, I strongly recommend Thomas Pakenham’s The Scramble for Africa: The White Man’s Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912: a Big Fat History Book that's well worth the time.
**My guess is that the experience from the perspective of the colonized looked much the same.
***The phrase "protection racket" comes to mind. Or is that just me?
In These Times: Living in Britain Through Napoleon’s Wars
Even the most eclectic history buff has periods that draw her back time and time again. if you've spent much time here at the Margins you know the late eighteenth century is one of those times for me. Regency England and Revolutionary France, colonial expansion in India and losses in North American, Enlightenment thought and the roots of Romanticism--all call my name.
Since this is the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, I'll be spending more time than usual thinking/reading/talking about the long eighteenth century.* I suspect I won't be the only one. In fact, I'll bet the on-line discussion this July will equal that surrounding last year's centennial anniversary of the assassination of the Grand Duke Ferdinand at Sarajevo.**
Jenny Uglow's In These Times: Living in Britain Through Napoleon's Wars, 1793-1815 is a good place to start the discussion.
Uglow describes In These Times as "a crowd biography". For much of her career, Uglow has looked at the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries through the lens of individual lives. With In These Times, she expands her talent for biography into a broader account of how the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars affected those who remained at home. The big names of British history--William Pitt and Willaim Cobbett, Nelson and Wellington, Sir Walter Scott and Jane Austen--appear in their proper places. But Uglow focuses on less celebrated lives from all levels of society, from factory boy to aristocratic lady, as recorded in letters, memoirs, diaries, and parish records.
In This Times is not another version of "daily life in the time of".*** Instead Uglow looks at how twenty-two years of constant warfare shaped society in fundamental ways. She not only describes direct effects of war such as enlistment practices and the economic impact of government military contracts; she also places events that are normally described in terms of their domestic impact, such as the social disruptions caused by the Industrial Revolution, within the context of war. She looks at newspaper distribution, shoe manufacturing, the impact of war loans on private banking and the ethical dilemmas of Quaker gun manufacturers,
Depicting a society in which war is as pervasive as permanent bad weather, In These Times combines social and military history in a manner that will appeal to readers of both.
*Roughly 1688 to 1815, or 1832 depending on which historian you talk to. Sometimes centuries are an awkward time division when you’re talking about historical events instead of the calendar. .
** Normally I'd link to my own post on the subject. But this one is much better: Two Bullets, Eight Million Dead.
*** If that's what you're looking for, may I recommend Jane Austen's England?
The heart of this post previously appeared in Shelf Awareness for Readers.
Rabindranath Tagore: Poet, Nobel Laureate, Indian Nationalist
Few people in the modern world attain the degree of celebrity that allows them to be known by a single name: Napoleon, Gandhi, Madonna. Even those who reach single-name celebrity in their own country may be largely unknown to the rest of the world. Take the example of Bengali poet, novelist and composer Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) who is known in India simply as Kabi, the Poet. Every Bengali language speaker, all 250 million of them, knows a line or two of his poetry. By contrast, most westerners know Tagore only (if at all) as the recipient of the Nobel Prize, but have no sense of either the poetry for which he won the award or his broader career.
Born in 1861, to a prominent Calcutta family, Tagore was a leading member of the late nineteenth century literary, cultural and religious reform movement known as the Bengali Renaissance. He is generally considered the father of the modern Indian short story, he pioneered the use of colloquial Bengali in literature, and created a new genre of popular contemporary music known as rabindra-sangeet that draws on traditional Bengali folk and devotional music as well as Western folk melodies. (After independence, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh all chose songs by Tagore as their national anthems.) He is often compared to Tolstoy, and seen as a precursor to Gandhi,
Tagore became famous as a writer when he published his first novel in 1880, at the age of nineteen. In 1905, he became involved in nationalist politics after the British Viceroy, Lord Curzon, divided Bengal province in two, effectively cutting the power base of the Bengali elite who headed the early Indian nationalist movement. In response, Indian nationalists boycotted British goods and institutions, a protest known as the Swadeshi (of our own country) movement. At first Tagore threw himself into the Swadeshi cause, leading protest meetings, writing political pamphlets and composing patriotic songs. His initial enthusiasm for the movement failed when the Bengali population was torn by increasing communal violence between Hindus and Muslims. Despite bitter criticism from nationalist activists., he withdrew from the movement in 1907, concentrating instead on experiments in economic development and education in the villages on his estate.
Tagore made the leap from national to international fame in a single year with the help of one important admirer. He traveled to London in 1912 with a collection of English translations of 100 of his poems, which became the collection known as Gitanjali. While he was in London, he met William Butler Yeats, who became a passionate advocate of his poetry. In part as a result of Yeats’ championship, Tagore received the Nobel Prize for literature on November 13, 1913. Tagore’s Nobel Prize sparked a brief, but intense, period of popular and critical interest in his work in the west. It was soon translated into many languages, including a French translation by André Gide and a Russian translation by Boris Pasternak. Tagore himself became an international literary celebrity, traveling around the world on lecture tours and revered as the embodiment of the mystical east. His critics accused him of collaboration with the enemy, especially after he was knighted by King George V in 1915.
Accusations that Tagore was an imperial collaborator ended in 1919. On April 13, Brigadier General Reginald Dwyer ordered soldiers under his command to fire on an unarmed crowd of 10,000 Indians who had assembled in an enclosed public park in the Punjabi city of Amritsar to celebrate a Hindu religious festival--an event that became known as the Amritsar Massacre. The soldiers fired 1650 rounds in ten minutes, killing 400 and wounding more than 1000. Tagore resigned his knighthood in protest.
For the rest of his life, Tagore criticized British rule in India while refusing to reject Western civilization, a position that often placed him in opposition to Gandhi.