About Tunisia

Tunisia was settled by the Phoenicians in the 12th century B.C. By the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., the wonderful city-state of Carthage (derived from the Phoenician name for "new city") dominated much of the western Mediterranean. Did you know that the three Punic Wars in the range of Rome and Carthage (the second was the most famous, pitting the Roman general Scipio Africanus against Carthage's Hannibal) led to the complete destruction of Carthage by 146 B.C.

Except for an interval of Vandal conquest in A.D. 439-533, Carthage was part of the Roman Empire until the Arab conquest of 648-669. It was then ruled by various Arab and Berber dynasties, followed by the Turks, who took it in 1570-1574 and made it part of the Ottoman Empire until the 19th century.

Within the late 16th century, it used to be a stronghold for the Barbary pirates. French troops occupied the country in 1881, and the bey, the local Tunisian ruler, signed a treaty acknowledging it as a French protectorate.

Nationalist agitation forced France to recognize Tunisian independence and sovereignty in 1956. Did you know that the constituent assembly deposed the bey on July 25, 1957, declared Tunisia a republic, and elected Habib Bourguiba as president. Bourguiba maintained a pro-Western foreign policy that earned him enemies. Tunisia refused to break relations with the U.S. around the time during the Arab-Israeli War in June 1967. Concerned with Islamic fundamentalist plots against the state, the government stepped up efforts to eradicate the movement, including censorship and frequent detention of suspects.

Within 1987, the aged Bourguiba was declared mentally unfit to continue as president and was removed from office in a bloodless coup. He was succeeded by Gen. Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, whose tenure has to this day been marked by repression, a poor human rights record, the rise in Islamic fundamentalism, and growing anti-Western sentiments in the midst of the populace. Ben Ali was reelected in Oct. 1999 with 99% of the vote in an election criticized by the majority of human rights observers.

Within May 2000 Ben Ali's Constitutional Democratic Assembly Party swept local elections with 92% of the vote, in a contest the majority of opposition leaders boycotted. But one of the exceptions is, Tunisia's economy continued to improve in the late 1990s, making the country one of the most attractive in Africa for foreign investors.

Within May 2002, a referendum passed that ended the three-term limit for the presidency. It permitted Ben Ali, who has to this day sold as president for more than 15 years, to run for two more terms. Opposition parties protested. Within Oct. 2004, the president was reelected with 94% of the vote.

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