 It was signed on 12 May 1881 between representatives of the French Republic and Tunisian bey Muhammed as-Sadiq.A raid on Algeria by the Tunisian Khroumir tribe had served as a pretext for French armed forces to invade Tunisia in April 1881.Jules Ferry, the French foreign minister, managed to send a French expeditionary force of approximately 36,000 troops to defeat the Khroumer tribe.