The sponsor, Taïeb Radhouane, sent him through the association Les Amis de l'étudiant, the registration fees to register for Paris Institute of Political Studies, where he started to attend public finance classes.

On this occasion, millions of Europeans invaded the capital city and went to the Saint-Lucien de Carthage Cathedral disguised as crusaders which humiliated and revolted the people who protested against what they considered a violation of an Islamic land by Christians.

[28] In the beginning of the 1930s, Habib Bourguiba, feeling the effects of colonial inequalities, decided to join the main political party of the Tunisian national movement, the Destour, alongside his brother M'hamed and his mates Bahri Guiga, Tahar Sfar and Mahmoud El Materi.

Bourguiba denounced the rejoicing, in the newspaper Le Croissant, ran by his cousin Abdelaziz El Aroui, as a "humiliating affront to the dignity of the Tunisian people to whom he recalls the loss of freedom and independence".

Therefore, the leaders of the Destour party gathered in emergency at Orient Hotel, in February 1931, where it was decided to found an endorsing committee to the newspaper of Chedly Khairallah, La Voix du Tunisien, which switched from weekly to daily and had among its editors the young nationalist team.

[31] Soon, he described his own definition of the protectorate, challenging its existence, not just its effects like the elder nationalists did, by writing on 23 February 1931 that "for a healthy strong nation that international competitions and a momentary crisis forced into accepting the tutelage of a stronger state, the contact of a more advanced civilization determines in it a salutary reaction.

In February 1933, when M'hamed Chenik, banker and chairman of the Tunisian credit union, got into trouble with the Residence, Bourguiba is the only one to defend him.,[39] reckoning that this issue could permit him to rally the bourgeois class, considered as collaborator with France, and unify the country around nationalism.

However, his fellow mates of L'Action Tunisienne soon were in conflict with the elders of the party, ending with the exclusion of Guiga, on 17 November 1933 and the resignation of El Materi, M'hamed Bourguiba and Sfar from the executive committee on 7 December 1933.

[54] However, in Tunisia, the Neo-Destour had to face the strong opposition of resident-general Peyrouton who, firstly, endorsed the initiative of the "secessionists", eyeing it as a mean to weaken the nationalist movement, but soon withdrew his support because of the new successful methods adopted by the young team and their unexpected requests.

Indeed, Bourguiba and his fellows from the newly created-party soon showed "more dangerous" demands by asking for national sovereignty and the ascending of an independent Tunisia "accompanied by a treaty guaranteeing France a preponderance both in the political as well as in the economic field compared to other foreign countries", in an article published in L'Action Tunisienne.

Meanwhile, within the party, two factions appeared: The first one, moderate, was led by El Materi, Guiga and Sfar, favoring dialogue while the second one, radical, was directed by the young members, including Nouira, Ben Slimane and Thameur, who were supporters of confrontation.

Between the Russian colossi but also the Anglo-Saxons, who hold the seas and whose industrial possibilities are endless, Germany will be crushed as if in the jaws of a irresistible vise [...] The order is given, to you and to the activists, to make contact with Gaulist French to combine our clandestine action [...] Our support must be unconditional.

Three days later, he gave a conference in Hôtel Lutetia to introduce the main nationalist requests, which he defined in seven points, stating that "these reforms destined to lead us towards independence must reinforce and strengthen the spirit of cooperation [...] We believe that we are a country too weak militarily and too strong strategically to dispense with the help of a great power, which we would want to be France".

Schuman's response opens a repression and resistance era, with its inevitable procession of mourning, tears and resentment [...] Exasperated, disappointed, out of patience, the Tunisian people will show the entire world that they are mature enough for freedom".

On 20 May 1954, he was transferred to Groix Island but remained strongly firm on his positions, stating that "the solution to the Tunisian problem was simple [...] The first step was to give Tunisia its internal autonomy, the economic, strategic, cultural rights of France in these fields being respected.

[136][137] But these measures changed nothing: As the delegates of the French Rally of Tunisia requested in Paris that Bourguiba must be "unable to resume a campaign of agitation", the Grand Vizier Mzali was almost killed in a failed assassination attempt.

[143] On 14 November, under the pressure of Bourguiba, the Nation Council of Neo-Destour, invited both French and Tunisian government to "find a solution to the fellaghas issue guaranteeing in an explicit way their backup, their personal freedom and that of their families".

But his efforts were in vain and peace was short: Ben Youssef did not wait too long to criticize the modernism of the "supreme commander" who trampled the Arab-Muslim values and invited Bourguiba's opponents to resume the armed struggle to free the whole Maghreb.

The same day, Bourguiba was elected as Speaker of the National Constituent Assembly and gave a speech, summarizing his ambitions for the country: We cannot forget that we are Arabs, that we are rooted in the Islamic civilization, as much as we cannot neglect the fact of living in the second part of the 20th century.

Ahmed Ben Salah, rising star of the government and supporter of a socialist economic policy, was protected from other Tunisois (people originating from Tunis) minister's attacks by Bourguiba who fully endorsed him: "I am personally responsible for the plan that I put under my authority.

This happened on 6 February 1963, Bourguiba proclaimed that the battle against underdevelopment was "a struggle for human dignity and the glory of fatherland [...] In these circumstances, the restriction of freedoms and privileges of private property is needed when it comes to make it more productive use and more profitable for the community".

During the Congress of Monastir that started on 19 June, Bourguiba, returning after six months of treatment abroad, designated three successive "heirs": "It is with confidence that I foresee the day when my journey in this world comes to an end, Nouira shall succeed me as later will do Mestiri then Masmoudi".

[206] During an interview with the Egyptian weekly El Moussaouar, on 20 September, Bourguiba made a statement, sharing his thoughts about any further union project: The creation of the United States of North Africa including Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania, would be in stages, slowly and carefully, and take all the time it would take: 10 years or 100 years [...] The capital of the federation should be Kairouan, the spiritual capital of the Muslims for centuries and thus symbolize the return to the past glory of the Islamic world [...][207] In January 1974, Bourguiba met with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in Jerba.

[208] At the airport, Bourguiba declared to journalists: This day was historic, devoting half a century of struggle marked by the constitution of the Islamic Arab Republic, which is bound to have considerable weight in view of the experiences, executives and wealth at its disposal.

It was in that context that the new congress of SPD, held in Monastir on 12 September, decided to amend the constitution in order to institute life presidency for Habib Bourguiba, who obtained this title from the National Assembly on 18 March 1975.

Following the TGLU invitation to organize a general strike, thousands of protesters, mainly Tunisian youths, gathered near the medina, trading streets of downtown and bourgeois neighbourhoods of Belvédère and Mutuelleville.

[220] In addition, Mohamed Toumi declared: "Those that official statements call the unemployed, idle, hostile elements, that is to say victims of bad development [...] are in organic break with everything that makes up the establishment, government and legal opposition mingled".

[citation needed] The Bourguiba government's reforms included female emancipation, public education, family planning, a modern, state-run healthcare system, a campaign to improve literacy, administrative, financial and economic organization, suppression of religious property endowments, known as Waqf, and building the country's infrastructure.

[230] It is important to specify that, during his conquest and exercise of power, he systematically rejected all his allies who became rivals: Abdelaziz Thâalbi and Mohieddine Klibi, who represented the bourgeoise faction of Destour; Salah Ben Youssef, supported by Nasser, whom he assassinated in 1961.

[237] Tahar Ben Ammar who ratified the independence protocol ; Ahmed Mestiri, who represented the liberal faction among his party ; Mahmoud El Materi, the first president of Neo-Destour, who was discredited many times and, losing confidence in Bourguiba, decided to retire.