History of Tunisia

Tunisia has been inhabited since the Middle Palaeolithic. The Aterian, Capsian and Neolithic cultures flourished in what was then a verdant region, home to giraffes, elephants and cattle. The Berbers, ancestors of today's population, settled in the region from 4000 BC onwards.

The Phoenicians, merchants from Tyre (Lebanon), founded their first trading posts on the Tunisian coast. Carthage, founded according to tradition by Queen Dido in 814 BC, became within a few centuries the greatest maritime power of the western Mediterranean. Three Punic Wars pitted it against Rome before its total destruction in 146 BC.

After the destruction of Carthage, Tunisia became the Roman province of Africa Proconsularis. Carthage was refounded by Julius Caesar and Augustus in 29 BC and became the empire's 4th city after Rome, Alexandria and Antioch. The region prospered on olive oil and wheat exported to Rome. Christianity took root early here (Saint Cyprian, Saint Augustine, Tertullian).

Gaiseric's Vandals, a Germanic people arriving from Spain, founded in Africa the only stable Germanic kingdom of the western Mediterranean. A century later, Justinian tasked general Belisarius with reconquering Africa for the Byzantine Empire (533). The Byzantines held the province until the Arab conquest of 698.

The Arab conquest radically transformed the region: Islamisation, linguistic Arabisation, and the founding of Kairouan (670) as the first great Muslim city of North Africa. In the 9th century, the independent Aghlabid emirate made Kairouan a radiant capital (the Great Mosque of Okba rebuilt, the conquest of Sicily, coastal ribats).

The Ismaili Shia Fatimid dynasty founded Mahdia in 916 and conquered Egypt in 969 (moving its capital to Cairo). The Zirids, their Berber lieutenants, governed Tunisia in their name before seceding. In 1057 the region suffered the devastating invasion of the Banu Hilal.

The Moroccan Almohads conquered Tunisia in 1159, briefly unifying the Maghreb. In 1229 their governor Abu Zakariya proclaimed independence and founded the Hafsid dynasty, which ruled from Tunis for 345 years. The medina of Tunis took its present shape. Saint Louis died there in 1270. Battles with Spaniards and Ottomans in the 16th century.

Tunisia became a semi-autonomous Ottoman regency. The Turkish pashas quickly gave way to the deys and then the beys (local rulers). The Husainid dynasty (from 1705) ruled for 252 years. Tunis was a Mediterranean hub, at times allied with the Barbary corsairs. In the 19th century the country modernised (the first Constitution in the Arab-Muslim world in 1861) but ran up catastrophic debts.

On 12 May 1881, the Treaty of Bardo established the French protectorate over Tunisia. France controlled diplomacy, the army and finances; the Bey retained his symbolic authority. Rapid modernisation (railways, ports, schools, colonial agriculture) but also the rise of a powerful nationalist movement with Bourguiba as its figurehead. Independence on 20 March 1956.

On 25 July 1957, the Constituent Assembly proclaimed the Republic and deposed Bey Lamine. Habib Bourguiba became the first president. Accelerated modernisation (the Code of Personal Status for women, education, health). Ben Ali's coup in 1987, then the Jasmine Revolution in 2011 (the first uprising of the Arab Spring). The democratic Constitution of 2014. Political crisis 2021–2024 under Kais Saied.