1940s–1956: (Moroccan and Tunisian Independence — Sultan Sidi Muhammad Leading the Nationalist Struggle, the French Suppressing Istiqlal but Forced to Withdr…

1940s–1956: (Moroccan and Tunisian Independence — Sultan Sidi Muhammad Leading the Nationalist Struggle, the French Suppressing Istiqlal but Forced to Withdraw by 1956, Bourguiba’s Neo-Destour Achieving Tunisian Independence the Same Year Despite Internal Factional Fighting with Ben Yusuf, and North African Nationalism Finding Cogency Through Islam and Emergent Pan-Arabism): Elsewhere in North Africa, the forces of change were gaining momentum. The vigor of Moroccan protest, led by Sultan Sidi Muhammad, and the increasingly violent struggle in the Spanish portion of the territory compelled the French to withdraw by 1956. Tunisian nationalism reached irresistible proportions in the same decade, though in the early 1950s Neo-Destour was paralyzed by factional fighting between the relatively moderate Bourguiba and the more radical Ben Yusuf, while the French briefly attempted to crush protest and strong-arm Tunisian politicians into conciliation. Bourguiba’s faction prevailed and achieved full independence under Neo-Destour in 1956. North African nationalism found cogency through older patterns of Islamic protest and political thought, facilitated by more easily accessible historical and territorial identities — increasingly, North African nations in the making could appeal to an emergent pan-Arabism reaching beyond the continent into the Middle East. Nationalists further south found greater obstacles, lacking the centuries-deep territorial identities and established religious-political traditions that gave North African movements their particular coherence and force.