Looking Backwards and Forwards: Archaeology and Agricultural Colonisation at Tunisia’s 1889 Universal Exposition Pavilion (Paris)

Tunisia’s pavilion at the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition was more than just an Orientalist set piece on the Seine. Its components, by French architect and archaeologist Henri Saladin, incorporated recognisable elements drawn from several Tunisian monuments, while its functional market (souk) staffed by Tunisian merchants and craftsmen attracted considerable attention. Transcending the spectacle, the complex also had didactic aims. Its main building housed three distinct sections that featured exhibitions on agriculture, industry, and art and archaeology, reflecting the priorities of the relatively new French colonial administration (1881–1956). The pavilion’s evocation of Tunisia’s noteworthy Roman history in its central space celebrated ancient productivity while substantiating contemporary narratives that claimed the Roman Empire as precedent for France’s North African interventions. This article situates Saladin’s pavilion within the context of late nineteenth-century agricultural settlement policies in Tunisia and parses components of the pavilion’s structure and displays in light of developing colonialist rhetoric that was both retrospective and opportunistic in its support of emigration at a time of intense demographic competition with Italy in occupied Tunisia.