Conventions of La Marsa

The Conventions of La Marsa (Arabic: اتفاقية المرسى) supplementing the Treaty of Bardo were signed by the Bey of Tunis Ali III ibn al-Husayn and the French Resident General Paul Cambon in the Dar al-Taj Palace on 8 June 1883. They provided for France to repay Tunisia's international debt so it could abolish the International Debt Commission and thereby remove any obstacles to a French protectorate in Tunisia. It was in the Conventions of La Marsa that the term 'protectorate' was first employed to describe the relationship between France and the Regency of Tunis. As the first protectorate to be established, Tunisia provided a working model for later French interventions in Morocco and Syria.