Algeria, Tunisia

TN 103

19 photos on 3 album pages from a French soldier based in Algeria. Nice artwork, c1950.

Price: $200.00

TN 102

Diary of a male nurse based at a military hospital in Miliana, Algeria in 1903. Titled “Melancholic Stories of a Soldier (nurse) in Miliana in 1903. Precious Observations”. His name was Marcel Pering and his rank was Nurse 2nd class. The diary is written in the form of a book, with four chapters. It is 48 pages and complete. It appears that he was intending to publish it, but never did. A rare insight from a male nurse based in Algeria. B

Price: $800.00

TN 100

1914 postcard of the Bey of Tunis. B

Price: $30.00

TN 099TN 099

16 colonial period postcards of Algerian scenes and types. B

Price: $320.00

TN 097

Three illustrations from French periodicals on Tunisian and colonial life under the French, 1899-1912. EH B

Price: $180.00

Note: In the nineteenth century, Tunisia became mostly autonomous, although officially still an Ottoman province. In 1861, Tunisia enacted the first constitution in the Arab world, but a move toward a republic was hampered by the poor economy and political unrest. In 1869, Tunisia declared itself bankrupt, and an international financial commission with representatives from France, Great Britain and Italy took control over the economy.TN 097

Following the defeat of France by Prussia in 1870, German diplomacy with France had been centered around encouraging France to expand its colonies, as a form of catharsis for the national humiliation of losing the provinces of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany. Britain also encouraged this in return for French support in giving Britain a freer hand in sorting out its problems in Egypt.

TN 097In the spring of 1881, France invaded Tunisia, claiming that Tunisian troops had crossed the border to Algeria, France's main colony in Northern Africa. Italy, also interested in Tunisia, protested, but did not risk a war with France. On May 12 of that year, Tunisia was officially made a French protectorate. The French progressively assumed the most responsible administrative positions, and by 1884 they supervised all Tunisian government bureaus dealing with finance, post, education, telegraph, public works and agriculture. They abolished the international finance commission and guaranteed the Tunisian debt, establishing a new judicial system for Europeans while keeping the sharia courts available for cases involving Tunisians, and developed roads, ports, railroads, and mines. In rural areas they strengthened the local officials (qa'ids) and weakened independent tribes. They actively encouraged French settlements in the country - the number of French colonists grew from 34,000 in 1906 to 144,000 in 1945, and the French occupied approximately one-fifth of the cultivable land.

TN 096

Early colonial French postcard of a Tunisian sorcerer. M

Price: $25.00

TN 094

1961 French childrens cut outs of French parachutists in Algeria. B

Price: $30.00

WW 366Archive belonging to a French Lieutenant (then later Captain) with the 2nd Colonial Infantry Regiment named Jean Bernard Escard. He served in Germany during WW2, then transferred to Tonkin and Cambodia and later Algeria, Madagascar and Senegal. Included is a full diary covering his time in Indochina in 1945-1946, with artwork, loose news clippings, a menu, etc. Also two small notebooks dated 1939 and 1941 where he made notes. Numerous documents from his assignments in Senegal, Madagascar, Algeria. Over 50 pages of documents, some marked SECRET, 3 photo albums containing over 230 real photos. Most prolific is his time in Indochina. M