Aiming to modernise Egypt, Khedive Isma’il (1863–79) invested heavily in education and public works. He established mixed courts governed by the French civil code for cases involving foreigners and abolished consular jurisdiction. Under his rule, Egypt plunged into debt, verging on bankruptcy in 1876, and he was forced to agree to British and French supervision of Egyptian public expenditures.

As ruler of Egypt (1805–48), Mohammad \'Ali Pasha carried out an intense modernisation policy. His government hired European professionals and technicians and removed obstacles to the activities of European immigrants.

The Tunis Catholic community had been served by the Sainte Croix Catholic church since 1837. In the last decade of the 19th century, a new Roman Catholic cathedral dedicated to St Vincent de Paul was erected. Between 1897 and 1913, four further churches were built in Tunis for the expanding Catholic community.

Christian communities had been present in Tunisia since the early Christian era, with Carthage the seat of their archbishop. In 1884, Carthage was re-established as an archdiocese, and work started on building a new cathedral. The archdiocese comprised all the parish churches of Tunisia, amounting to 50 in 1912.

The Roman Catholic Church of Enfidha, Tunisia, was inaugurated in 1907. It catered for a large Catholic community of European settlers, which included many peasants and sharecroppers. After 1964, when land belonging to foreigners was nationalised, most Catholics living in that area moved to Europe and the church was transformed into a museum.

Built in 1897 with the goal of catering for the needs of the growing French population in Tunisia, this hospital was initially known as the Hôpital Civil Français. It superceded a smaller community hospital (Hôpital Saint Louis), founded in 1843 by François Bourgade.

After World War II, the French authorities changed the name of the Italian hospital in Tunis, Ospedale Giuseppe Garibaldi, into Hospital de la Libération. After independence, it took the name of Hôpital Habib Thameur.

By the mid-19th century, the Jewish community in Tunisia had 25,000–30,000 members. Traditionally, the most important centre of Jewish religious life and studies in Tunisia was the island of Jerba, considered the home of one the oldest Jewish communities in North Africa. The synagogue of Ghirba, on Jerba, was and still is a centre of pilgrimage.

This treaty amended a 1822 treaty between Tunisia and Tuscany. It decreed that while the “Grana”, Jews who had migrated to Tunisia from Livorno (Tuscany, Italy) in the 17th century, remained under the jurisdiction of the Bey; those who moved to Tunisia from Tuscany after 1822 and registered at the Tuscan Consulate were placed under Tuscan jurisdiction and protection.

In Tunisia, the 1857 Fundamental Pact proclaimed the equality of all subjects regardless of religion. The Jewish communities now acquired rights previously denied to them and other non-Muslims, including the right to own land and serve as civil servants.

In 1845, in Cairo, Italian political exile Giacomo Castelnuovo founded the biweekly paper Spettatore Egiziano, the first Italian-language newspaper to be published in Egypt. He later also founded Il Progresso d’Egitto, a bulletin aimed at keeping the Italians in Egypt informed about Italian political news.

In 1857, the Bey of Tunisia charged a committee, headed by his prime minister, with the task of drafting a constitution. It was ratified in April 1861 – the first constitution in an Arab country. The Constitution reasserted the rights of foreigners, which had already been granted under the Fundamental Pact of 1857.

After the establishment of the protectorate, France created a system of French courts in Tunisia. Consular jurisdiction was abolished and only two sets of judicial systems remained: French courts for all the Europeans, and Tunisian courts for all the Tunisians, Muslims and Jews.

In 1881, French military intervention in Tunisia forced the local ruler, the Bey of Tunis, to sign the Treaty of Bardo, granting France a protectorate over the country. Nominally, the Tunisian government remained in place, but it operated under French supervision. The Bey’s decrees required the approval of the French authorities. The Treaty also gave France the power to run foreign policy on behalf of Tunisia.

Under Khedive Tawfiq (1879–92), 60 per cent of Egypt’s annual revenues went to pay public debts. Discontent in the country rose. In 1881, Ahmad Urabi, an army colonel of peasant origins, led a protest movement against European domination of Egypt’s affairs and in order to place constitutional limits on the Khedive’s power. In 1882, he was appointed minister of war and began working for the creation of a national assembly.

In May 1882 the UK and France, concerned about access to the Suez Canal and their financial investments in Egypt, sent a fleet to Alexandria, hoping to weaken Urabi’s nationalist movement. The presence of the fleet only worsened tensions. In June, anti-foreigner rioting erupted in Alexandria and left several hundreds dead, including about 50 foreigners.

Following extensive anti-foreigner rioting, the British fleet bombed Alexandria on 11 July 1882, and two days later British troops occupied the city. Fearing for the security of the Suez Canal, the British government sent over 30,000 soldiers and a total of 40 warships to Egypt. Although formally independent, Egypt effectively became a British protectorate.

Urabi positioned modern cannons to strengthen the defence of Alexandria. On 10 July the British admiral demanded that Egypt remove them. Urabi did not comply, and on 11 July the British fleet started bombing the city (the French government disagreed with the bombing and had withdrawn its ships). British ships bombed Alexandria for ten and a half hours.

Urabi positioned modern cannons to strengthen the defence of Alexandria. On 10 July the British admiral demanded that Egypt remove them. Urabi did not comply, and on 11 July the British fleet started bombing the city (the French government disagreed with the bombing and had withdrawn its ships). British ships bombed Alexandria for ten and a half hours.

Urabi positioned modern cannons to strengthen the defence of Alexandria. On 10 July the British admiral demanded that Egypt remove them. Urabi did not comply, and on 11 July the British fleet started bombing the city (the French government disagreed with the bombing and had withdrawn its ships). British ships bombed Alexandria for ten and a half hours.