History of modern Tunisia

History of modern Tunisia

In its modern history, Tunisia has become a sovereign republic, called the al-Jumhuriyyah at-Tunisiyyah. Tunisia has over ten million citizens, almost all of Arab-Berber descent. The Mediterranean Sea is to the north and east, Libya to the southeast, and Algeria to the west. Tunis is the capital and the largest city (over 800,000); it is located near the ancient site of the city of Carthage. During this time, it has been led by two presidents, who have had a significant impact on Tunisian society.
Its first modern leader, President Habib Bourguiba brought to the office hard-won political experience, after many decades of service among the leadership of the independence movement. As the major figure of the Neo-Destour Party, he was instrumental in obtaining full independence for Tunisia in 1956. He dominated the government until his removal in 1987. During his years in office, his accomplishments included: a law reform, economic policies which detoured briefly in a socialist direction, a moderate but steady improvement in standard of living, and a foreign policy which retained an independent approach while maintaining trade and economic connections to the west.

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History of French era Tunisia

The History of French era Tunisia commenced in 1881 with the French Protectorate and ended in 1956 with Tunisian independence. The French presence in Tunisia came five decades after their occupation of neighboring Algeria. Both of these lands had been possessions of the Ottoman Empire for three centuries, yet each had long since attained political autonomy. Before the French arrived, Tunisia had begun a process of modern reforms, but financial difficulties mounted, resulting in a commission of European creditors. After their occupation the French government assumed Tunisia's international obligations. Major developments and improvements were undertaken by the French in several areas, including transport and infrastructure, industry, the financial system, public health, administration, and education. Although these developments were welcome, nonetheless French businesses and citizens were clearly being favored over Tunisians. Their ancient national sense was early expressed in speech and in print; political organization followed. The independence movement was already active before World War I, and continued to gain strength against mixed French opposition. Its ultimate aim was achieved in 1956.

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History of Ottoman era Tunisia

The History of Ottoman era Tunisia presents the Turkish presence in Ifriqiya during the course of three centuries. Eventually including all of the Maghrib except Morocco, the Ottoman Empire began with the takeover of Algiers in 1516 by a Turkish corsair and ally. Not until 1574 did it permanently acquire its last country, the former Hafsid Tunisia. Initially under Turkish rule from Algiers, soon the Ottoman Porte appointed directly for Tunis a governor called the Pasha supported by janissary forces. Before long, however, Tunisia became in effect an autonomous province, under the local Bey. This evolution of status was from time to time challenged without success by Algiers. During this era the governing councils controlling Tunisia remained largely composed of a foreign elite who continued to conduct state business in the Turkish language. Attacks on European shipping were made by corsairs, primarily from Algiers, but also from Tunis and Tripoli, yet after a long period of declining raids the growing power of the European states finally forced its termination. Under the Ottoman Empire, the boundaries of Tunisia contracted; it lost territory to the west (Constantine) and to the east (Tarabulus). In the 19th century, the rulers of Tunisia became aware of the ongoing efforts at political and social reform in the Ottoman capital. The Bey of Tunis then, by his own lights but informed by the Turkish example, attempted to effect a modernizing reform of institutions and the economy. Unfortunately Tunisian international debt grew unmanageable. This was the reason or pretext for French forces to establish a Protectorate in 1881.

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History of medieval Tunisia

History of medieval Tunisia

The medieval era opens with the commencement of a process that would return Ifriqiya, i.e., Tunisia, and the entire Maghrib to local Berber rule. The precipitating cause was the departure of the Shia Fatimid Caliphate to their newly conquered territories in Egypt. To govern Ifriqiya in their stead, the Fatimids left the Zirid dynasty. Yet the Zirids would eventually break all ties to the Fatimids, even to the point of formally embracing Sunni doctrines (rivals to the Shi'a).
At this period there arose in the Maghrib two strong local movements dedicated to Muslim purity and practice, one following the other. First, the Almoravids emerged in the far west, i.e., in al-Maghrib al-Aksa (Morocco); although establishing a large empire running from modern Spain to southern Mauretania, Almoravid rule did not reach to the east as far as Ifriqiya. Later another Berber religious leader Ibn Tumart founded the Almohad movement, which supplanted the Almoravids, and grew to unify under its rule all of the west of Islam, al-Andalus as well as al-Maghrib. In Ifriqiya at the city of Tunis, the Hafsids became the eventual successor to Almohad rule. The Hafsids were a local Berber dynasty, whose own rule would continue for centuries with varying success, until the arrival of the Ottomans in the western Mediterranean.

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History of early Islamic Tunisia

The History of early Islamic Tunisia opens with the arrival of the Arabs who brought their language and the religion of Islam, and its calendar. The Arab conquest followed strategy designed by the Umayyad Caliphate regarding ist long-term conflict with the Byzantine Empire. The native Berbers eventually converted to Islam; they apparently saw many similarities between themselves and the Arabs, both in relatively similar languages and a cognate culture, including familiarity with a pastorial way of life. The first local Islamic ruling house, the Aghlabids, consisted primarily of rule by leading members of this Arab tribe. Fundamental elements of Islamic civilization were established. Although accepting Islam, many Berbers nonetheless resisted rule by the Arabs, establishing the Rustamid kingdom following the Kharijite revolt. Next in Ifriqiya (Tunisia) arose the Shia Fatimids, inspired by a few immigrants from the east yet consisting for the most part of Ifriqiya Berbers. The Fatimids later expanded their rule east, through conquest by Berber armies of Egypt, and established their caliphate there which came to include Syria and the Hejaz.

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History of Roman-era Tunisia

History of Roman-era Tunisia describes first the Roman Africa Province. Rome took control of Carthage after the Third Punic War (149-146). There was a period of Berber kings allied with Rome (see prior article). Lands surrounding Carthage were annexed and reorganized, and the city of Carthage rebuilt, becoming the third city of the Empire. A long period of prosperity ensued; a cosmopolitan culture evolved. Trade quickened, the fields yielded their fruits. Settlers from across the Empire migrated here, forming a Latin-speaking ethnic mix. Some Berbers rose in society, e.g., Apuleius, while other Berbers remained rural, unlettered, and poor. Several Emperors from Africa reigned. Christianity became strong, and included Augustine of Hippo; yet it was troubled by the Donatist schism. During the eclipse of the Roman Empire, several prominent Berbers revolted. A generation later the Vandals, a Germanic kingdom, arrived and reigned over the former Africa province for nearly a century. A series of Berbers regimes established self-rule at the periphery. The Byzantine Empire eventually recaptured from the Vandals its dominion in 534, which endured until the Islamic conquest, completed in 705. Then came the final undoing of ancient Carthage

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History of Punic Era Tunisia

The History of Punic era Tunisia, part I introduces the region during its long period under the sway of a Semitic civilization, initiated in the western Mediterranean by the Phoenicians as early as the 12th century BCE. Later they founded here the city-state of Carthage. Eventually this Punic presence displaced the Berbers as the prevailing culture in the region. Legends arose about the beginning of this city, whose wealth and power grew to be great and famous among the ancients.
Although the native Berbers retained their ethnic identity while under the influenced of Carthage, nonetheless they borrowed many of the city's cultural advances. Regarding government and commerce, agriculture and war, they were either mastered or retreated to satellite positions the periphery.
As a transplant from its Phoenician base, Punic culture developed and prospered on African soil, where it underwent its own cultural transformations. The city-state expanded the range of its commercial dominance across the western Mediterranean, incorporating the many other trading outposts, towns and cities, founded by Phoenicians. Searching for trading opportunities, new regions were explored by sea. A rivalry with the Greeks, who followed the Punic expansion westward across the Mediterranean, was inevitable, yet faded. The city and the lands surrounding it rose to new heights; its trading partners and allies also prospered. Yet another rival appeared in the western Mediterranean; after three eventful wars, to Rome in the end Carthage fell.

Most ancient literature concerning Carthage comes from Greek and Roman sources. Considering the rival political-economies of Hellenic Sicily versus Carthage, and of Republican Rome versus Carthage, both Greek and Roman authors generally viewed Carthage as the antagonist. Yet only in this light can we perceive many of the fascets of the Punic city, that is, by the early light given us by various ancient Greek and Roman authors.
Apart from inscriptions, hardly any Punic literature has survived, none in its own language and script. A brief catalogue would include: three short treaties with Rome (Latin translations); several pages of Hanno's log-book on his fifth/forth century maritime exploration of the Atlantic coast of Africa (Greek translation); fragments quoted from Mago's fourth/3rd century treatise on agriculture (Latin translations); the Roman playwright Plautus (d.184 BC) in his Poenulus incorporated a few speeches in Punic, which are transcribed into Latin letters; and the many inscriptions in Punic script, many, but extremely short usually, e.g., a dedication with divine or personal names. Once "the City Archives, the Annals, and the scribal lists of suffets" existed, but evidently these were destroyed in the horrific fires during the Roman capture of the city in 146 BC.
Punic books (Latin: libri punici) reportedly did survive the fires; these works were given by Roman authorities to the newly augmented Berber rulers.Over a century after the fall of Carthage, Gaius Sallustius Crispus or Sallust (86-34) reported seeing volumes written in Punic, which once had been in the possession of the Berber king, Hiempsal II (r.88-81). By way of informants and translators, Sallust used these books to write his brief sketch of Berber affairs.Yet in the end most Punic writings that survived the destruction of Carthage "did not escape the immense wreckage in which so many of Antiquity's literary works perished."Accordingly, the long and continuous interactions between the Punic citizens of Carthage and the Berber communities surrounding the city, their political life, economic arrangements, cultural ties, social interactions, and as kin, are not known to us from Punic accounts.
Regarding Phoenician writings, few remain and these seldom refer to Carthage. Reportedly a Phoenician History by Philo of Byblos (64-141) existed, but only fragments of this work survive.The highly valued works of Sanchuniathon, a Phoenician who wrote on religion and the origins of civilization, are themselves completely lost, but some little content endures twice removed.An explanation proffered for why so few Phoenician works endured: early on (11th century), archives and records began to be kept on papyrus, which does not long survive in a moist coastal climate.Also, both Phoenicians and Carthaginians were well known for their secrecy.
Discussed immediately following is the celebrated ancient work on agriculture written by Mago of Carthage, which survives only via quotations in several later works written in Latin.

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Prehistoric Tunisia

The Berber people (are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley ) in what is now known as the Maghreb emerge during the Iron Age. Ultimately, these populations likely derive from the mesolithic Capsian culture (named after the town of Gafsa in Tunisia, was a Mesolithic culture of the Maghreb, which lasted from about 10,000 to 6,000 BCE. It was concentrated mainly in modern Tunisia, Algeria and Libya ). The earliest historical records concerning Berber people appear during the Roman era.

Stone Age :

Evidence of human habitation in the region stretches back one or two million years. The emergence of the Afroasiatic languages phylum is sometimes connected with the Capsian culture (12,000 to 8,000 BP).
The separation of Berber and Semitic speaking populations in terms of population genetics is dated to the Neolithic.
Dating to the Mesolithic era, North Africa has stone blades and tools, as well as small stone figurines, of the Capsian culture (named after Gafsa, Tunisia) and monuments built of very large rocks (dolmens), found throughout the western Mediterranean.

Saharan rock art, the inscriptions and the paintings that show various design patterns as well as figures of animals and of humans. Dating these art works has proven difficult and unsatisfactory. Egyptian influence is considered very unlikely. Some images infer a terrain much better watered. Among the animals depicted, alone or in staged scenes, are large-horned buffalo (the extinct bubalus antiquus), elephants, donkeys, colts, rams, herds of cattle, a lion and lioness with three cubs, leopards or cheetahs, hogs, jackles, rhinoceroses, giraffes, hippopotamus, a hunting dog, and various antelope. Human hunters may wear animal masks and carry their weapons. Herders are shown with elaborate head ornamentation; a few dance. Other human figures drive chariots, or ride camels. By five kya (thousand years ago) a neolithic culture was evolving in northwest Africa, characterized by agriculture and animal domestication, pottery and finely chipped stone implements including arrowheads. Wheat and barley were sown, beans and chick peas cultivated. Ceramic bowls and basins, goblets, large plates, as well as dishes raised by a central column, were in daily use; these domestic items were hung up on the wall. For clothing findings indicates hooded cloaks, and also cloth woven into stripes of different color. Sheep, goats, and cattle measured wealth. From physical evidence unearthed in Tunisia archaeologists present the Berbers as already "farmers with a strong pastoral element in their economy and fairly elaborate cemeteries", well over a thousand years before the Phoenicians arrived to found Carthage.









Bronze Age :


The Libu were a tribe in what is now Cyrenaica during the 13th century BC. First mentioned as the Tehenou during the pre-dynastic reigns of Scorpion (c. 3050) and of Narmer (on an ivory cylinder), their appearance is later shown in a bas relief of the Fifth Dynasty temple of Sahure. Ramses II (r.1279-1213) placed Libyan contingents in his army.Tombs of the 13th century contain paintings of Libu leaders wearing fine robes, with ostrich feathers in their "dreadlocks", short pointed beards, and tattoos on their shoulders and arms.

Iron Age:

The historical era opens with the advent of traders coming by sea from the eastern Mediterranean. Eventually they were followed by a stream of colonists, landing and settling along the coasts of Africa and Iberia, and on the islands of the western seas.
Technological innovations following economic development in the eastern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, and along the Nile, increased the demand for various metals not found locally in sufficient quantity. Phoenician traders recognized the relative abundance and low cost of the needed metals among the goods offered for trade by local merchants in Hispania, which spurred trade. In the Phoenician city-state of Tyre, much of this Mediterranean commerce, as well as the corresponding trading settlements located at coastal stops along the way to the west, were directed by the kings, e.g., Hiram of Tyre (969-936).
By three thousand years ago the Levant and Hellas had enjoyed remarkable prosperity, resulting in population growth in excess of their economic base. On the other hand, political instability from time to time caused disruption of normal business and resulted in short term economic distress. City-states started organizing their youth to migrate in groups to locations where the land was less densely settled. Importantly, the number of colonists coming from Greece was much larger than those coming from Phoenicia. To these migrants lands in the western Mediterranean presented an opportunity and could be reached relatively easily by ship, without marching through foreign territory. Colonists sailed westward following in the wake of their commercial traders. The Greeks arrived later, coming to (what is now) southern France, southern Italy including Sicily, and Libya. Earlier the Phoenicians had settled in (what is now) Sardinia, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Sicily, and of course, Tunisia.
Prior to written records about them, sedentary rural Berbers apparently lived in semi-independent farming villages, composed of small tribal units under a local leader. Yet seasonally the villagers might have left to find pasture for their herds and flocks. Modern conjecture is that feuding between neighborhood clans at first impeded organized political life among these ancient Berber farmers, so that social coordination did not develop beyond the village level.On the more marginal lands, pastoral Berbers roamed to find grazing for their animals. Tribal authority was strongest among the latter wandering pastoralists, much weaker among the agricultural villagers, and would later attenuate with the advent of cities. By particularly fertile regions, larger villages arose. In the west of the Maghrib, the Berbers reacted to the growing military threat from colonies started by Phoenician traders. Eventually Carthage and its sister city-states would inspire Berber villages to join together in order to marshall large-scale armies, which naturally called forth strong, centralizing leadership. Punic social techniques from the nearby polities were adopted by the Berbers, to be modified for their own use.

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The Magic Desert or Sahara

Well so far Tunisia had been fabulous!! After a lot of more developed countries (Mexico City, New York, London, Greece, Turkey) it was nice to get back to something a bit more exotic and different!! And cheap too!! It's nice when the Aussie dollar stretches a bit more... :)

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