British Newspapers and the Rhetoric on Colonization: The Case of Tunis (1881–1900)

This article adds to the literature on French and British imperial rivalry in the second half of the nineteenth century, specifically the perceptions and presentations of French imperialism in the British press. It offers a study of some British newspapers’ coverage of the French occupation of Tunis. This essay reveals that while the newspaper under study did not depict French colonial violence in detail, it often described the French occupation in war terms and mobilized a vocabulary of colonization, expansionism, and subjugation. This article argues that the same newspapers challenged their government’s silence regarding the French establishing ports in Tunis, which they perceived as a direct threat to British supremacy in the Mediterranean and commercial interests. This was clear mainly in the letters to the editor sections, which challenged the Anglo-French entente on Tunis and called for action to stop French expansion.