Tunisia

**Tunisia**, officially the **Tunisian Republic**, is a country in the Arab Maghreb in North Africa. It shares its borders with two countries including Algeria to the west, and Libya to the southeast. Tunis is the capital and largest city.

## Ancient history

Since history has been recorded, there were Berber tribes living in what is now Tunisia. Most of them built little towns and ports along the coastline so they could trade with different travelers from everywhere in the Mediterranean Sea. Most of the travelers were Phoenicians who started to settle on the Tunisian coast during the 10th Century BC. Later, in the 8th Century BC, settlers that came from Phoenicia and regions abroad built Carthage. After many wars against Greece in 6th Century BC, Carthage dominated the Mediterranean Sea.

In the 3rd and 2nd Centuries BC, in the Punic Wars, Carthage fought against the Roman Empire. The Romans destroyed Carthage and made its territory part of the Africa Province of the Roman Empire. In later centuries the people learned Latin and became Christians.

When the Roman Empire became weak, the Vandals occupied that region. Some of them learned to sail and became pirates. This was in the 5th Century AD, and one hundred years after that, it became under the control of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I.

## Islamic Tunisia

In the 7th Century, it was conquered by the Arab Muslims who built a city which they called Kairouan. This was the first Arab Muslim city in Tunisia. Many Muslim dynasties (monarchies) ruled Tunisia. One of the best known dynasties was the Zirids dynasty. The Zirids were Berber people and followed the rules of the Fatimides, a bigger dynasty in Cairo.
When the Zirids angered the Fatimides, the Fatimides sent some tribes known as Banu Hilal who ravaged (destroyed and vandalized) Tunisia.

After a brief occupation of Tunisia by the Normans of Sicily in the 12th Century, the Almohad re-conquered it. After that came the Hafsids.
In the last years of their reign, the Hafsids became weak and Spain took control of many cities on the coast until they were finally occupied by the Ottoman Empire.

In 1705, Tunisia became virtually independent during the Hussein dynasty, but still had to follow orders from the Ottoman Empire.

### French Occupation

Some controversial financial decisions (money-lending) taken by the Bey in mid-1800s in an attempt to repair the country led Tunisia to become under the control of France.
Tunisia became officially a French protectorate in on May 12, 1881, but with the strong opposition of the kingdom of Italy because there was a huge Italian community in Tunisia.

### World War II

Important parts of the North African Campaign of World War II were fought in Tunisia from 1941 to 1943.

General Erwin Rommel, the German commander in Africa, wished to defeat the Allies in Tunisia, as the Germans had done in the Battle of France when the Allies were inexperienced against the German Blitzkrieg. On February 19, 1943, Rommel used his German and Italian troops in western Tunisia in an attack against the U.S. Forces who had recently arrived from Algeria. That was a disaster for the United States.

After that, the Allies understood the importance of tank warfare. With better supplies than the Germans, they easily broke into the German lines in southern Tunisia on March 20, 1943. On May 11, 1943 the last German troops surrendered, followed two days later by the Italian troops.

### Independence and revolution

Tunisia became independent in 1956 with the former Bey of Tunis as King. Prime Minister Habib Bourguiba became the first president in 1957 when it became a republic. Bourguiba focused on education and economic development. He was supportive of women's rights. However, he had a cult of personality around him and most of the power in the country was held by Bourguiba.

In 1987, Bourguiba was removed from power by Zine el Abidine Ben Ali. Ben Ali ruled as dictator of the country until 2011, when he was overthrown in a revolution. The revolution was the first major revolution of the Arab Spring. Tunisia began becoming more democratic, and in 2014, the country held its first free presidential election. The election was won by Beji Caid Essebsi, a secular, liberal candidate.

## Geography

Tunisia is in the northern part of Africa. The Mediterranean Sea joins Tunisia in the north and east; the coastline of Tunisia on the Mediterranean Sea is about 1,300 km. Tunisia is also bordered by Algeria to the west and Libya to the south-east.

The Sahara Desert covers 40% of Tunisia. The other 60% is a fertile area.

## Demographics

Standard Arabic is the official language by the Tunisian constitution. But Tunisians speak Tunisian Arabic.
Tunisian Arabic is a mix of many languages of people that live or lived in Tunisia. It is called Darija or Tunsi.

A small number of people living in Tunisia still speak a Berber dialect, known as Shelha.

Most people now living Tunisia are Maghrebin Arab. However, small groups of Berbers and Jews live in Tunisia.

The constitution says that Islam is the official state religion. It also requires the President to be Muslim.

## Governorates

Tunisia is divided into 24 governorates. They are:

## Cities

The largest cities in Tunisia are:
|style="width:50px;"|Nr.|style="width:150px;"|City|style="width:170px;"|Population|style="width:150px;"|Governatorate|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||**Tunis**||Tunis|||||
||**Sfax**||Sfax|||||
||**Kairouan**||Kairouan|||||
||**Sousse**||Sousse|||||
||**Ettadhamen**||Ariana|||||
||**Gabès**||Gabès|||||
||**Bizerte**||Bizerte|||||
||**Aryanah**||Ariana|||||
||**Gafsa**||Gafsa|||||
||**El Mourouj**||Ben Arous|||||

## Economy

Tunisia's economy has many sectors: agriculture (fruit, vegetable oil and vegetables), tourism (when people come from other countries to visit), mining (extracting goods from under the ground), and petroleum (fuel and gas oil).
The government used to control the economy, but now it has sold some public companies. This is called privatization.

Tunisia was also the first Mediterranean country to make an agreement with the European Union. This association agreement was signed on March 1, 1995.

Tunisia has plans for two nuclear power stations, to be working by 2019.

## References

**Notes**

### Government

- Tunisia Government official site
- Tunisia Chamber of Deputies  official site

### News

- The North Africa Journal  business news
- Tunisia Media Online  government-sourced
- News and Views of the Maghreb
- AllAfrica.com—_Tunisia_ news headline links

### Overviews

- BBC News Country Profile—_Tunisia_
- Encyclopedia Britannica, _Tunisia_—Country Page
- _Tunisia_ on arab.net
- CIA World Factbook—_Tunisia_
- Open Directory Project—_Tunisia_ directory category
- country info & who's who

### Other

- Tunisland The Biggest Video Website For Everything Tunisian
- Everything about Tunisia
- Nawaat
- Tunisian online demonstration as protest against dictatorship
- For the liberation of Political Prisoners in Tunisia
- TunisiaOnline
- The Tunisian law  from Jurispedia
- Tunisia Daily
- List of catholic marriages in Tunisia 1801–1949
- Tunisia Today
- Tunisian Community Center (the Organization of Tunisian-Americans)
- Tunisia Postcards
- Tunisia -Citizendium

## Infobox (country)

- **conventional long name**: Tunisian Republic
- **common name**: Tunisia
- **image flag**: Flag of Tunisia.svg
- **image coat**: Coat of arms of Tunisia.svg
- **symbol type**: Coat of arms
- **national motto**:
""
"Freedom, Dignity, Justice, Order"
- **national anthem**:
"Humat al-Hima"
()

- **image map**: Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg
- **map caption**: Location of Tunisia in northern Africa
- **capital**: Tunis
- **largest city**: capital
- **official languages**: Arabic
- **religion**: Islam (State religion, official)
- **languages type**: Languages of Tunisia, Spoken languages
- **ethnic groups**: Arab-Berber 98%, European 1%, Jewish and other 1%
- **demonym**: Tunisian
- **government type**: Unitary state, Unitary Semi-presidential system, semi-presidential republic
- **leader title1**: President of Tunisia, President
- **leader name1**: Kais Saied
- **leader title2**: Prime Minister of Tunisia, Prime Minister
- **leader name2**: Kamel Madouri
- **leader title3**: Speaker of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People, Assembly Speaker
- **leader name3**: Ibrahim Bouderbala
- **legislature**: Assembly of the Representatives of the People
- **sovereignty type**: History of Tunisia, Establishment
- **established event1**: Ancient Carthage inaugurated
- **established date1**: 814 BC
- **established event2**: Vandal Kingdom inaugurated
- **established date2**: 435
- **established event3**: Aghlabids inaugurated
- **established date3**: 800
- **established event4**: Fatimid Caliphate inaugurated
- **established date4**: 909
- **established event5**: Zirid dynasty inaugurated
- **established date5**: 972
- **established event6**: Hafsid dynasty inaugurated
- **established date6**: 1207
- **established event7**: Husainid Dynasty inaugurated
- **established date7**: 15 July 1705
- **established event8**: Independence from French Fourth Republic, France
- **established date8**: 20 March 1956
- **established event9**: History of modern Tunisia, Republic declared
- **established date9**: 25 July 1957
- **established event10**: 1987 Tunisian coup d'état
- **established date10**: 7 November 1987
- **established event11**: Tunisian Revolution, Revolution Day
- **established date11**: 14 January 2011
- **established event12**: Tunisian Constitution of 2014, 2nd republic declared
- **established date12**: 10 February 2014
- **area km2**: 163610
- **area rank**: 91st
- **area sq mi**: 63170
- **percent water**: 5.04
- **population estimate**: 11,708,370
- **population estimate year**: 2020
- **population estimate rank**: 81st
- **population density km2**: 71.65
- **population density sq mi**: 186
- **population density rank**: 110th
- **gdp ppp**: $159.707 billion
- **gdp ppp year**: 2020
- **gdp ppp per capita**: $13,417
- **gdp nominal**: $44.192 billion
- **gdp nominal year**: 2020
- **gdp nominal per capita**: $3,713
- **gini**: 35.8
- **gini year**: 2017
- **hdi**: 0.740
- **hdi year**: 2019
- **hdi change**: increase
- **hdi rank**: 95th
- **currency**: Tunisian dinar
- **currency code**: TND
- **time zone**: Central European Time, CET
- **utc offset**: +1
- **drives on**: right
- **calling code**: +216