Source: MAPS IN MINUTES™ © RH Publications (1997)

A country on the North African coast, sandwiched between Algeria and Libya, which has its southern part in the Sahara.

Physical

In the north‐west of the country are hills, mostly covered in scrub though containing forests of cork oak. Salt marshes cover the central belt, where there are also large phosphate deposits. The south is sandy but contains oases.

Economy

The principal industries include crude oil production, mining of phosphate and iron ore, tourism, textiles, and footwear. Agriculture produces olives and olive oil, grain, fruit, and sugar beet. Exports include oil and oil products, textiles and clothing, food products, electronic equipment, chemicals, fertilizers, and phosphates. The important tourist industry was damaged by the revolution of 2011 and then, more severely, by terrorist attacks directly on tourists in 2015.

History

Tunisia has been the strategic centre of the Mediterranean. Phoenicians came first c.1000 bc; and, traditionally, Carthage, seat of a sea‐borne empire, was founded here in 814 bc. Berber caravans came north to exchange produce for imports. Carthage fell in 146 bc, and, despite Berber resistance, Rome made the province of Africa Proconsularis rich in corn, olives, and vines. Vandals from Spain took it in 429, but Byzantium recovered it in 533. The Berbers, nevertheless, held the interior, giving way only when the Arabs built Kairouan as an inland base to control Africa. The caliphate was replaced by an independent local dynasty, the Aghlabids, in 800, until 909, when the Fatimids took Kairouan. Another local dynasty, the Zirids, replaced them when they moved to Cairo in 969. In revenge, the Fatimids sent thousands of Arab tribesmen to lay waste the country. In the 12th century the Normans from Sicily held some towns, until the Almohads expelled them. Then another local dynasty, the Hafsids (1228–1574) emerged, taking Algiers (1235) and Tlemcen (1242). In 1270 they repulsed the Crusaders under St Louis IX. From 1574 until 1881 the Regency of Tunis owed nominal allegiance to the Ottomans, but after 1612 a dynasty of Beys established itself. The Bey of Tunis became increasingly independent and corsairs operated from Tunis, leading to the Tripolitan War with the USA. A period of great prosperity ended when the corsairs and the slave trade were suppressed (1819). During the 19th century, the Bey’s control weakened and, in 1881, France declared Tunisia a protectorate. The rise of nationalist activity led to fighting between the nationalists and the colonial government in the 1950s. Habib Bourguiba, the nationalist leader, was imprisoned, but was released (1955) when the country achieved independence. The Bey of Tunis abdicated (1956) and the country became a republic led by Bourguiba and the neo‐Destour Party. In the 1970s the government’s refusal to allow the formation of other political parties caused serious unrest, while subsequent attempts at liberalization were interrupted by fresh outbreaks of rioting in 1984–85. Bourguiba was deposed (1987) and succeeded by President Zine el‐Abidine Ben Ali, who introduced a multiparty system in 1988 and was re‐elected in 1994, 1999, 2004, and 2009. However, the Islamic fundamentalist party al‐Nahdah was suppressed in 1990, and there were recurring concerns over the country’s human rights record. Popular discontent with poverty, high unemployment, and increasing government repression found a focus at the end of 2010: the public suicide of Mohammed Bouazizi, an unemployed fruit seller, on 17 December inspired mass protests. Attempts to suppress these only caused them to escalate, Ben Ali resigned as President in January 2011, and an interim unity government was formed. In October a Constituent Assembly was elected, which appointed the former dissident Moncef Marzouki as interim President; he was victorious in presidential elections held in early 2012. Tensions between Islamist and secular factions increased over the role of Islam in a new constitution, but agreement was reached in 2014. The presidential election of that year was won by Mohamed Beji Caid Essebsi of the secularist Nidaa Tounes party. In 2015 the stability that was returning to the country was disrupted when groups linked to so-called Islamic State mounted a series of terror attacks: 21 people were killed at the Tunis Museum in March; 38 holidaymakers on the beach at Sousse in June; and 13 people on a bus belonging to the presidential guard in November. The last attack led to the imposition of a state of emergency and a police crackdown on potential terrorists.