Claim: Phoenicians immigrated to Tunisia beginning in the 12th century BC.

Tunisia -LRB- تونس ; ⵜⵓⵏⴻⵙ Tunisie -RRB- , officially the Tunisian Republic is a country in North Africa , covering 165,000 km2 . Its northernmost point , Cape Angela , is the northernmost point on the African continent . It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest , Libya to the southeast , and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east . Tunisia 's population was estimated to be just under 11 million in 2014 . Tunisia 's name is derived from its capital city , Tunis , which is located on Tunisia 's northeast coast .   Geographically , Tunisia contains the eastern end of the Atlas Mountains and the northern reaches of the Sahara desert . Much of the rest of the country 's land is fertile soil . Its 1,300 km of coastline includes the African conjunction of the western and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Basin and , by means of the Sicilian Strait and Sardinian Channel , features the African mainland 's second and third nearest points to Europe after Gibraltar .   Tunisia is a unitary semi-presidential representative democratic republic . It is considered to be the only full democracy in the Arab World . It has a high human development index . It has an association agreement with the European Union ; is a member of La Francophonie , the Union for the Mediterranean , the Arab Maghreb Union , the Arab League , the OIC , the Greater Arab Free Trade Area , the Community of Sahel-Saharan States , the African Union , the Non-Aligned Movement , the Group of 77 ; and has obtained the status of major non-NATO ally of the United States . In addition , Tunisia is also a member state of the United Nations and a state party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court . Close relations with Europe in particular with France and with Italy have been forged through economic cooperation , privatisation and industrial modernization .   In ancient times , Tunisia was primarily inhabited by Berbers . Phoenician immigration began in the 12th century BC ; these immigrants founded Carthage . A major mercantile power and a military rival of the Roman Republic , Carthage was defeated by the Romans in 146 BC . The Romans , who would occupy Tunisia for most of the next eight hundred years , introduced Christianity and left architectural legacies like the El Djem amphitheater . After several attempts starting in 647 , the Arabs conquered the whole of Tunisia by 697 , followed by the Ottomans between 1534 and 1574 . The Ottomans held sway for over three hundred years . The French colonization of Tunisia occurred in 1881 . Tunisia gained independence with Habib Bourguiba and declared the Tunisian Republic in 1957 . In 2011 , the Tunisian Revolution resulted in the overthrow of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali , followed by parliamentary elections . The country voted for parliament again on 26 October 2014 , and for President on 23 November 2014 .