Architetti, ingegneri, decoratori e costruttori italiani in Tunisia

France of the Third Republic (1870 -1940) - by that time distant from the uncertain and patchy colonial beginnings of the Grand Siècle (mainly oriented towards America and the Indian ocean) and from the discontinuous and loser policy of acquisitions of vast territories overseas of the XVIII century - in the fifty years after the occupation of Tunisia (1881) renews the intentions of the Second Republic and of the Second Empire to expand the dominoes in Africa, Asia and Oceania. Officially denominated Second Empire Colonial Français and endowed with a specific motto ("Trois couleurs, une drapeaus, un empire") the "French World" of overseas at the beginning of the second decade of the XX century was become a territorial entity of thirteen million square kilometers with more than one hundred million inhabitants. It was, therefore, an extraordinary intercontinental dominion, second only to the much larger British colonial empire (whose extension, in the same period, was of around 36 million square kilometers with almost half a billion people). Already in the mature stage of the Belle Èpoque, once crushed the last pockets of resistance, the French colonial policy’s goals were: a more efficient organization of the economic exploitation (including the reemploy of resources in the single possessions for infrastructural improvements and in order to reach higher life standards); an incentive to the immigration of French citizens (aimed to an expansion of the metropolitan presence); a more careful treatment of the natives; and a better administrative and institutional organization of the territories. At this point, the Third Republic not only arrogated the role of global power but also claimed the primogeniture of the modern idea itself of colonial empire (actually realized only in truth a small part of its dominoes). The new course of its colonial policy was aimed to make the "Douce France" the leading nation in the process of modernization of the subdued populations. No more by proclaiming itself as the executor of a civilizing task (in the name of which the Europeans, in the second half of the XIX century, claimed the right to impose their order to the local realities), but by respecting their cultures and peculiarities. No wonder, then, if, during the mature phase of the Belle époque (and later between the two world wars), in the Europeanized cities of the Maghreb (and namely in the colony of Algeria and in the protectorates of Tunisia and Morocco), the most representative French building production, both public and private, abandoned the classicist Beaux Arts - a clearly imposed architectural culture - to adopt the new style arabisance, rather adaptable and well related to the context. Before in Tunisia, with the foundations of the French Villes Neuves conceived as conspicuous additions juxtaposed to the ancient nucleuses of Tunisi, Sousse, Biserta and Sfax, then in Morocco, with the enlargements of Casablanca, Fez, Marrakech, Meknes and Rabat promoted by the marshal Louis Hubert Gonzalve Lyautey, the management of the French protectorate sharpen methodologies and operational strategies creating a complex urbanistic story, passing from a coercive behavior (also in terms of formal choices, of systems of planning and building production) to conscious interventions careful to the contexts. It is mainly Lyautey the one who inaugurated this new course, also engaging himself in the safeguard of the historical architecture (not necessarily "monumental") and the urban order of the medinas; an intention pursued along with the attempt to control the European penetration (in the business and in the development of the new districts) and with the creation of a fundamental document of urbanistic legislation. Even associating his farsighted administrative action to the excellent activity of Henri Prost, as co-opted planner by the gubernatorial authority for the planning of the urban amplifications promoted by the protectorate, Lyautey would have promoted a modern development (but compatible with the local traditions), of the principal historical cities of French Morocco in the full respect of the preexisting installations.