The Vespers Marseillaises
This name refers to the "Sicilian Vespers" when in 1282 the French settled in Sicily were massacred and driven from the island.
In 1860 Italy was an emerging kingdom lacking cohesion. His unity took shape under the impulse of Victor Emmanuel II at the time at the head of the Piedmont-Sardaigne Kingdom and Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian politician and patriot born in Nice in 1807.
In 1866, the economic situation on the peninsula was complicated. The financial crises follow, the Italians then migrate to this France whose power and dynamism embody for them the hope of a better life
Thus, in 1881 Marseilles had more than 60,000 Italian workers with a population of 400,000; Unfortunately, as is often the case in the face of immigration, Italians have a reputation for accepting hard work without disposing of hard work by lowering wages; moreover, the instability of the country in the future has a strong anarchist movement and it is feared that they will take refuge in France.
The trigger
We have been in full conquest of the Maghreb countries since France colonized Algeria in 1830 and colonial competition is raging between the European powers, Italy wishing to participate. Tunisia is subject to competition between Italian and French imperialism.
The Treaty of the Bardo of 12 May 1881 brought Tunisia under the tutelage of France while Italy had views on that country and the Bey of Tunis refused to allow Garibaldi to land on Tunisian soil. On 17 June 1881 the French troops, returning from Africa, were acclaimed by the Marseillais, whistles which the crowd attributed to the Italians were heard. No more is needed to set fire to the powders in a climate of nationalist exacerbation, for three days a real « hunting Italians » is organized and translates into three dead and twenty-one wounded.
Some political commentators, the most representative of which is liberal economist Paul Leroy-Beaulieu openly encourage xenophobia towards Italians.
However, relations between the workers' communities were generally good, the workers' unions called for solidarity between French and Italian workers and reason eventually prevailed.
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