The Grand Monarch determined to rid the Mediterranean of the "Barbary pirates," with which it was infested, and so they were pursued and traced to their lairs in Algiers and Tunis.
From this time on attempts were made at intervals to establish a French control over this African colony.

During the reign of Louis Philippe the French occupation became more assured, and under the Republic a formal protectorate was declared.
In 1881 Tunis also became a dependency of France; a treaty to that effect being signed bestowing authority upon a resident-general throughout the so-called dominions of the bey.
The fact that in 1878 France participated in the negotiations of the Congress at Berlin, shows how quickly national wounds heal at _the top_! And further proof that normal conditions were restored, is given by the Universal Exposition, to which Paris bravely invited the world in that same year.
In 1879 M.Grevy succeeded Marshal MacMahon.

It was during M.Grevy's administration that England and France combined in a dual financial control over Egypt, in behalf of the interests of the citizens of those two countries who were holders of Egyptian bonds.
But the event of profoundest effect at this period was the death of Gambetta in 1882.

The removal of the only man in France whom they feared, was the signal for renewed activity among the monarchists, which found expression in a violent manifesto, immediately issued by Prince Napoleon.

This awoke the apparently dormant republican sentiment.