Tunisi spagnola tra violenza e coesistenza (1573-74)

In October 1573, the Spanish army carried out the bloodless conquest of Tunis with a carefully planned operation. The direct government of the city was an unprecedented experiment in the long traditional rule of the Spanish Crown. Having to ensure the power of a heavily armed minority over a larger group of people prone to rebellion, John of Austria (the Younger) experimented with a hybrid type of domination, which while it retained its "African" characteristics needed to be guided by the experiences of American colonization and the way large Italian and Flemish cities were occupied by foreign powers. To prevent tensions, crime or a possible outbreak of fighting, the spaces devoted to each religious group were strictly defined, nearly producing a ghettoisation of the entire urban space. The predisposed solutions, however, failed to ensure the peaceful coexistence between people and the occupying forces; the arrival of the Turkish fleet in 1574 put a bloody end to this experience. The analysis of the ephemeral experiment of Spanish rule in Tunisia leads to a re-discussion of Braudel's paradigm of "limited occupation" and a renewed reflection on the peculiar condition of Spanish presidios in Africa.