Chapter IX – Tunis gets Cracking
In 1889, yet another war broke out between Mediterranean nations, and Tunis, though still financially very insecure, could not help but notice the opportunity presented to it. The Ottoman Empire invaded Egypt, to reclaim some land in Syria. The Ottoman reconquest was spreading around Lebanon and putting off the latter’s Tunisian ‘liberation’ any longer would carry a great risk of the former claiming it in their next war. So, in May 1889 a Tunisian army landed in Beirut, starting the Tunisian-Egyptian war.
During the next year, that army met little resistance and was able to be reinforced as it conquered its way southwards through Palestine. By April 1890, most of Palestine and Lebanon were occupied and an increasingly expanding industry and prestige ranked Tunis 13th among the civilized nations. The country was still poor, and the treasury had decreased by half during the last year of fighting, but at least Tunis was beginning to acquire the flair of a multi-cultural colonial metropolis.
On that month, the first serious Egyptian resistance was met, as Egyptian armies had assembled in Suez and threatened to put an end to the Tunisian advance, or even turn it into a rout.
In the past years, the army of Tunis had seen consecutive upgrades to its small arms, placing them on par with many European armies, but with no corresponding advances in organization and tactics. The lack of modern training showed in the Battle of Suez where, even though the Egyptian attack was repelled, the Tunisians were in no shape to pursue the enemy or to keep up the fight for much longer, should enemy reinforcements arrive. With the treasury expected to run out after another half a year of war, it was deemed prudent to limit the nation’s wargoals, and so in May a peace treaty was signed, ceding Lebanon to Tunis.
The integration of Lebanon brought much excitement to the Neo-Carthaginian elements in Tunis, and the joy was spread to Mogadishu, which was made a state on 1 June 1890. However, all was not well for Tunisian geopolitics. In October 1890, Catalonia had an anarcho-liberal revolution, breaking off its alliance with Tunis and shaking off all French influence.
It still had a truce with Spain, so there was no immediate danger to that new country, but Tunis was short on allies (the old alliance with France having been dissolved some time ago) and losing one to rebels was not seen in a good light.
What was seen in a good light was the invention of cracking, a week later.
The Tunisian government immediately started constructing refineries in all states, placing the country 3000 pounds in debt by December. The investment was deemed to be worth it however, and the loans had been paid back within a few months after some stringent economic measures.
By the spring of 1891, Tunisian society had been steeped in nationalism and imperialism, and an archaeological expedition was sent to Luxor, to search for Phoenician influences on ancient Egyptian art and architecture.
1891 was to be the last year of economic austerity, since in early 1892 the first refineries became operational and generated abundant petrodollars for the Tunisian economy.
The increased industrial importance of Tunis, coupled with its rising prestige and the recent addition of guards brigades to its army, put the country on a rising trajectory among nations. Ranked 11th in early 1892, it then became 10th in April of that same year. Meanwhile, the anarcho-liberal plague spread across much of the world, causing a massive revolution in the Ottoman Empire and even enforcing its doctrine on distant and barbaric Zululand.
Instability within the Ottoman Empire was a matter of close observation for the Tunisian government and its armed forces, which became restructured in the summer of 1892 into three ‘Poeni Corps’, consisting of mostly infantry and guards. However, the Empire was still guaranteed by Russia and Austria, so unless the rebels were successful there was little hope of an opportunity to take Tripoli. The rebels, disappointingly, seemed to be losing ground, but they were winning ground in another country of interest, Spain, which could still be reached by Tunisian troops via France.
Spain was already entangled in a war against Egypt, but the Tunisian government waited until they would be at their weakest before acting. While brigades were gradually being transported to France, news came that Cyprus declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire. The island, lying between Crete and Lebanon, could be of future strategic importance, so better relations with it were pursued once diplomatic relations were established.
In March 1893 it seemed like any further delay in a war against Spain would be to the latter’s advantage, so a declaration of war was delivered, claiming the region of Valencia, which included the city of Cartagena (once Carthago Nova and before that Qart Hadasht, a second Carthage in Iberia) and also bordered Catalonia. Its conquest would serve both Neo-Carthaginian nationalist goals and the policy of securing Catalonian independence, as a check on Spanish power.
The border with France was swarming with Spanish rebels, which were bypassed in Huerca with a minimum of fuss. The Spanish mobilized their reserves, but 16 of their brigades were encircled in the Battle of Siguenza, in May, and forced to surrender.
After that, the Spanish became more defensive, while the Tunisian army equipped its infantry brigades with machineguns, and proceeded to occupy multiple provinces around Madrid.
Spanish forces were regrouping in the north and south-west of the country and some of them were attacked by Tunisian armies, to prevent them from linking up and presenting a threat to the Tunisian war effort.
The year ended with a single Spanish brigade landing in Bizerte in November, which necessitated the mobilization of Tunis’ reserves, since there were no armies stationed in the homeland. The threat was eventually neutralized and the conscripts were demobilized.
1894 brought a moralist resurgence in the, already quite moralist, country, the formation of a Neo-Carthaginian Gentlemen’s Club in Crete and the sighting of a comet on the 30th of May. Tunis was scientifically literate enough to see the latter as merely a good opportunity for some pleasant astronomy, but many of the people saw in it a sign of changing times. It can only be speculated if people in Spain thought the same, but during the pass of the comet, the last significant battle of the war raged in Jaen.
With the neutralization of Spain’s last threatening army in the south and with Valencia occupied, the former agreed to accept Tunis’ peace terms in June.
Not long after that, Tunis’ first stage of colonial expansion, in Somaliland around Mogadishu, was completed, while research was yielding its first fruits on new industrial and farming methods.
In May 1895, Spain was integrated in France’s sphere of influence, thus protecting Tunis from any revanchist tendencies of the former. There was some concern on the vulnerability of Catalonia, however, which was not afforded the same protection.
A quarter of a century after its westernization, Tunis is steadily 10th in the world rankings, right beneath the Ottoman Empire, but its industrial output is rising fast. Ali Bey, reluctant to clash with the popular Neo-Carthaginian parliament, had a smaller role in decision making than his predecessors, but this did not result in an expansion of political liberty. The cunning head of state was well acquainted with the process of letting others seemingly get their way in things that the Bey would have agreed to anyway, in order to reap advantages elsewhere. So far, Neo-Carthaginianism had not threatened the monarchy, and Ali intended to see to it that it never would in the future.