Beylik of Tunis

The Beylik of Tunis, the Husainid beylik, was the Tunisian state between Ottoman rule and French rule, lasting from 1705 to 1881. Husayn ibn Ali, a Greek-origin cavalry officer, seized power in 1705 and founded a dynasty that would reign for two and a half centuries. The beys stayed formally loyal to Istanbul while ruling as sovereigns: they coined money, kept an army, flew from 1831 the red-and-white flag Tunisia still flies, and in 1861 gave Africa its first constitution, a charter of rights decades ahead of its neighbours. Reform cost money the beys did not have; European loans, bankruptcy and a French invasion manufactured over a border incident ended independence in 1881. The protectorate kept the Husainid beys as gilded figureheads all the way to independence in 1956, when the last bey gave way to the republic in 1957. The beylik's century and three-quarters made Tunisia a state before it became a colony.