The Mystery of Italian Tunisia

Some maps claim Italy officially possessed Tunisia during World War II as a part of its empire. But there doesn't seem to be any evidence of that.

Music used: "George Street Shuffle" by Kevin MacLeod

Sources:
Technically this video is me trying to find sources confirming Italian controlled Tunisia, but here are several interesting and useful sources I looked at for this video otherwise:
- Brondino, Michele. La stampa italiana in Tunisia: storia e società, 1838-1956. Italy: Jaca Book, 1998.
- Knox, M. (1986). Mussolini Unleashed, 1939-1941: Politics and Strategy in Fascist Italy's Last War. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

[EmperorTigerstar]

Sometimes I just have the weirdest gripes to talk about, huh?

[therealjay]

>"Did Italian Tunisia exist?"

Only 146 BC bois will remember.

[duckling]

There is a massive problem with this question, the civilian administration of Tunisia was always Tunisian. While the Resident General could dictate the government from above, it wasn't really France administering it. As such, who controlled Tunisia was always a question of who had the bigger army to tell the Bey what to do. Technically speaking the Vichy model of government probably never collapsed, as far as Moncef Bey had any real control in an active war zone, he was still acting as the real civilian administrative authority, not the Italian North African colony. So if we wanna ask, who owned Tunisia, the answer is "who replaced the Resident General", as the answer is no one, Jean-Pierre Esteva remained the technical leader of the colony. So in de jure terms, Tunisia was probably still a French colony under Estava who followed Petain, a person representing no government anymore(so maybe a rogue French colony???), it was never annexed on any level by the Italians, in practical terms, it was under occupation of the German-lead Axis forces.

[Stoneworks]

They just forgot to sign the lease to the country huh

[deleetiusproductions]

I had never heard anything about Italy actually getting control of Tunisia, it was always brought up as just a hypothetical.

[francescomagherini]

The oldest brother of my grandpa served in the Italian army under Rommel in the african campaign and he came back from Tunisia. He used to tell a story where he hit a palm tree with a cannon so they gave him 2 free days. Kinda pointless because they were in the middle of the desert

[agonistadenoche]

7:46 All those Ballon D'Or weren't enough, mfers gave Messi an entire German division 💀

[Gustavo_Agosto]

Fun fact: in the italian wikipedia page for the italian invasion of France is stated that Hitler himself gave his approval to hand over tunisia to Italy. However, Mussolini immediately changed idea on the harsh conditions that he wanted to impose to France and didn't continued with any claim on vichy territories. The reasons on why he changed idea so abruptly are kinda still debated. A book from Denis Mack Smith is cited as one of the sources.

[gavindominico]

Hopefully the wiki does remove those sources as they aren’t viable in the context of an Italian Tunisia

[LucaPrre]

7:47 Amazing video, but there is one small mistake: He is Giovanni Messe, not Messi

[chinerpeton]

00:20 Wasn't the governor of Gabon pro-vichy? IIRC the Battle of Gabon inloved the Free French having to invade the place.

[Ifoundnohappinesshere]

this is like a court hearing where both parents (France and Italy) wanted to claim caretaker of a child (Tunisia)

[lucasgomez]

As I understand it, Italy had colonial ambitions over Tunisia and wanted to obtain it but the French got it first, so they had to settle for Eritrea and Somalia. They would later fulfill their desire to have colonies in North Africa after acquiring Libya from the Ottomans.

[khalilmokhtar]

I'm a subscriber from Tunisia and Thank you for this video!

There's something else you didn't mention, Tunisia was technically a kingdom and the Tunisian monarchs remained as nominal rulers/governors during the French rule, Even during the Axis invasion and occupation the monarchy stayed and the Tunisian monarch, aka the Bey, declared neutrality during the war.

[yougoslavia]

This was less than 100 years ago and they already forgot who it belonged to?

[klammersiebter]

So according to Wikipedia (I know, I know...) both in English and french the french governor of Tunisia at the time was a man called Jean-Pierre Esteva. It is said that he stayed in office due to orders from Petain and Laval until May 1943. So if this is true Tunisia was under Vichy administration to the end of the African campaign. They name a french book about french persons in Tunisia 1930-1950 as a source.

[curtiswilson]

This is a good lesson on being skeptical about sources, rather than just assuming that a statement with a cited source must have a good source

[Yksssy]

Maybe the Tunisian national archives will give something ? or it could also be in the french ones.

[Szchmekelo]

Emperor Tigerstar: Did Italy ever have Tunisia?
Rome: Do you even have to ask this question?

[umang]

4:26 "Russians take Stalino, Slash Vital Rail Lines In Drive For Mariupol". Damn, that paper was legendary.