Could Italy (or its predecessor countries) have colonized and held Tunisia?

[JJohnson]

My question is, could Italy or its predecessor countries (Sicily, Naples, Venice, et al) have joined in the colonialism and conquered Tunisia to the point that it is today a part of Italy, and majority Italian to the point that it's considered again as 'Carthage' and tourists flock to it, and it's again a breadbasket for Italy?

 

[fhaessig]

It did.

In it's previous form as the Roman empire...

 

[MrNumbahOne]

I think its fairly implausible. For that, you'd have to prevent Rome or Byzantine's decline so that the Muslims can't successfully invade it. After the Muslim conquest is ASB, I think.

 

[Deleted member 67076]

I think its fairly implausible. For that, you'd have to prevent Rome or Byzantine's decline so that the Muslims can't successfully invade it. After the Muslim conquest is ASB, I think.

The Normans in Sicily held parts of Tunis for a few decades IIRC. I think they can hold it for a while should they decide to consolidate instead of wasting their time attacking Greece.

 

[Fabius Maximus]

My question is, could Italy or its predecessor countries (Sicily, Naples, Venice, et al) have joined in the colonialism and conquered Tunisia to the point that it is today a part of Italy, and majority Italian to the point that it's considered again as 'Carthage' and tourists flock to it, and it's again a breadbasket for Italy?

IIRC there were strong ties between Italy and Tunisia before the latter's annexation by France. Have Italy decide to take over the country first, and it's eminently plausible for Tunisia to become an Italian colony. Getting a majority Italian population would probably require an official resettlement policy a la British Ireland, and I'm not sure how plausible such an idea might be.

 

[Urcea]

Couldn't Venice take the place at their peak?

 

[Simreeve]

The Normans in Sicily held parts of Tunis for a few decades IIRC.

Didn't Spain have a go at some point, when in control of Sicily & Naples, as well?

 

[profxyz]

Italy is difficult because France called dibs on it by the 19th Century.

Sicily-Naples is your best bet. Perhaps Spain manages to hold on to Tunis throughout the 16th Century (a stronger Persia which distracts the Ottomans from North Africa, perhaps, or a stronger Morocco which the Ottomans would want to weaken by keeping Spain in North Africa) - and then transfers the territories of Tunisia under the Kingdom of Naples. Ergo, when Naples breaks free of Spain in the War of the Polish Succession and later becomes the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Tunisia would follow as well.

This gives you c. 200 years to establish majority Italian presence, which shouldn't be that difficult considering Naples was the largest Mediterranean city for most of this period.

 

[BryanIII]

Merchant Republics like Genoa or Venice could set up trading post/coloniae type stuff, making Tunisia fall under 'Italian' sphere of influence during late medieval and Renaissance times.... but eventually they would fall under French colonial rule by the 19th century.

Another possibility is a Spanish reconquista into Tunisia, which then where governed from Naples (because of proximity) when the Kingdom of Napels became Spanish domain ; and then eventually breaking away and make up a part of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies.

As for Italy, maybe via a Treaty which was forced onto Vichy France by Hitler to hand over Tunisia to Italy during WOII... other times be impossible as the French had already claimed Tunisia by the 19Th century and Italy was never in shape to fight the French

I can not see it still being a part of Italy now, surely a French Algiers-type scenario.... at most a few cities remained Italian, much like OTL Spanish Ceuta and Melilla.

 

[Falecius]

It is theoretically possible in the 19th century.
Tunisia hosted a fairly significant immigrant community of Italians (mostly but not exclusively from Sicily) back then.
An earlier Italian unification could easily do the trick.
A different Italian policy after OTL-ish unification may also do, if France is kept out long enough.
Indeed, an easy POD would be something to the effect that the Bitish don't get Malta in the Napoleonic Wars, or don't keep it after Vienna (maybe a more succesful Kingdom of Naples in that timeframe).
Assume little butterlies into Risorgimento, and Tunisia would become a relatively easy target for Italian puppetization/expansionism in the 1870s.
The problem is that, of course, so soon after a struggle of national liberation, there would be very strong objections to the subjugation of other "nations" (as it was the case with East Africa IOTL) even if said nations will be widely regarded as "barbaric" (regardless that the Tunisian Constitution at the time, IOTL, was more progressive than the Italian one).
The progressive public opinion in the 1880s in Italy nourished a very principled opposition to colonialism. In the end, it did not work, but it was active, and argued very convincingly that colonies were against the notion of everything Italy stood for in the first place.
It took the coming to power a new, more nationalistic generation in the 1890s to get the whole colonial thing fly, and the "loss" of Tunisia (i.e., French takeover) was a major factor in that change of mind.