Independence Movement Day in Tunisia (03/09)

After World War II, an active independence movement developed in Tunisia — in honor of it, the country established the Independence Movement Day in Tunisia holiday, celebrated annually on September 3.

Despite the repression that French colonial authorities unleashed on the national independence movement in 1951, military resistance to the colonialists was growing in the country. Fellah troops burned the estates of French planters, blew up bridges, and killed French officers. In 1952 and 1953, crops in large latifundia were harvested under the protection of tanks.

France sent regular troops of 70 thousand people into the country, and yet the liberation movement expanded everywhere: the organized Tunisian proletariat entered the fight. In June 1955, France was forced to make concessions; it agreed to grant Tunisia independence, but without the right to determine the country's foreign policy.

On March 20, 1956, a new agreement was signed granting Tunisia full independence. Since then, this day has been celebrated in the country as a national holiday — Independence Day.

In April 1956, Habib Burgiba was elected Prime Minister, and in July 1957 — President of the country. He was the recognized leader of a party that, compared to other bourgeois parties, was more firmly connected with the broad masses of the people and had indisputable merits in the national liberation movement.

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