text: Italy, faced with overpopulation, wanted a colonial policy in Tunisia, where the European minority were Italians. The French and Italian consuls tried to take advantage of the Bey's financial difficulties, with France counting on the neutrality of England (unwilling to see Italy take control of the Suez Canal route) and benefiting from Bismarck, who wanted divert it from the question of Alsace-Lorraine. After the Congress of Berlin from 13 June to 13 July 1878, Germany and England allowed France to put Tunisia under protectorate and this to the detriment of Italy, which saw this country as its reserved domain.
  The incursions of Khroumir "looters" into Algerian territory provided a pretext for Jules Ferry, supported by Léon Gambetta in the face of a hostile parliament, to stress the need to seize Tunisia.
  In April 1881, French troops entered without major resistance and managed to occupy Tunis in three weeks, without a fight. On 12 May 1881, the protectorate was formalized when Sadok Bey, threatened with being dismissed and replaced by his brother Taïeb Bey, signed the Bardo Treaty at the Ksar Saïd Palace. Prime Minister Mustapha Ben Ismail encouraged him also to sign the treaty. This allowed, a few months later, the French troops to face uprisings in Kairouan and Sfax.