What exactly possessed the French to commit such atrocities in Tunisia in the 19th century?

The French had the reputation of being cultural imperialists for the most part and for their empire to be much more benevolent than those of the British, Germans, Portuguese and Spanish in Africa. But it seems like they actually fully committed to the genocidal and brutal actions of European colonialism in Tunisia when it was under their control. The French violently suppressed the Tunisian people whenever they resisted French rule and had a scorched earth policy in many parts of the country when the people resisted, things that seemed to happen very frequently. They also committed mass killings of Tunisians in response to resistance to rule. <br><br>Nowhere is this more apparent than in 1881. When Tunisians in the north of the country resisted French rule, the French launched a scorched earth campaign which killed an estimated five thousand people. They then killed eight hundred more when the city of Kairouan resisted, which is especially notable because Kairouan is a very important city for Muslims. But the worst was yet to come. The French consul in Tunisia, Adrien Paul Léthaye, along with the French general Joseph Albert Léon Rolland, had the city of Sfax razed and killed hundreds while wounding thousands more. And this was just in 1881. When the French actually fully established their rule over the country in 1883, things got much, much worse. The French committed widespread atrocities such as massacres, torture and rape. Women and children were killed, schools were destroyed, cities were destroyed, etc. And even after the French officially took control of the country, they continued to brutally crack down on any attempts the Tunisians made at gaining their freedom. They killed five thousand people in 1911 when Tunisians in the capital city of Tunis resisted French rule and killed three thousand people in 1945 when the Tunisians once again resisted. And that does not even take into account all of the smaller atrocities that the French committed on a regular basis. <br><br>This was not the only place in Africa where the French committed awful atrocities at this time however. When the French conquered Algeria, they committed atrocities such as rounding up Algerians into death camps where many died due to disease and malnutrition. They also used the previously mentioned method of scorched earth, burning cities, crops and homes down and butchering livestock. These atrocities caused the death of 300,000 Algerians between 1830 and 1847, while some even estimate that up to a million Algerians were killed from 1830 to 1872. This was a full 1/3 of the Algerian population.<br><br>So I guess what my question is is why the French were so incredibly brutal to the Algerians and Tunisians. Was it not true that the French were supposedly more benevolent in their imperial ventures than other empires?