History of Tunisia

Once known as Ifriqiya - the name that gave rise to that of the African continent - Tunisia is a country with a rich, thousand-year history. Its territory has been shaped by many influences: Carthaginian, Numidian, Roman, Byzantine, Vandal, Umayyad, Aghlabid, Fatimid, Norman-Sicilian, Almohad, Hafsid, Ottoman and French.

Carthage

The best-known civilisation to have flourished in Tunisia is, without doubt, that of Carthage. It grew out of the gradual establishment of Phoenician trading posts: Phoenician settlers from Tyre founded the city of Carthage. According to legend, it was Queen Dido, sister of Pygmalion, king of Tyre, who founded the city. Barely a century and a half after its foundation, the Carthaginians extended their influence across the western Mediterranean basin.

Carthage was, at the time, an exceptionally productive city, with an agricultural output greater than that of Rome and its allies combined.

As both cities grew, the struggle between Rome and Carthage intensified. Three Punic Wars ended in the destruction of Carthage after a three-year siege. Rome settled on the city’s ruins and made Utica the first capital of the Roman province of Africa. A century and a half later, the capital was moved back to Carthage, which became a Roman colony. Once again a major agricultural producer, Carthage earned the nickname ‘the granary of Rome’. Remains from this period are still visible in Tunisia today, notably at the sites of Bulla Regia, Dougga and El Jem.

Christianisation and Islamisation

The early days of Christianity

Merchants brought the new Christian faith to Tunisia, which was quickly Christianised. From the 2nd century it became one of the centres of Christianity, and three Tunisian churchmen even went on to become popes during this period. Remains from this era can be seen at Sbeitla.

Arab expeditions

From 650 onwards, the first Arab expeditions began. The first three saw the Arab army crush the Byzantine forces: the first expedition captured Sbeitla, the second brought down the towns of Sousse and Bizerte, and the third and most significant was led by Uqba ibn Nafi, who founded the city of Kairouan in 670. Kairouan became the base for expeditions to the north and west of the Maghreb. Even so, the Arab armies came close to failure: the Berbers briefly retook Kairouan after Uqba ibn Nafi was killed in an ambush in 683. It was not until 698 that the Arab armies finally took Carthage.

The Arabs set about conquering the interior of the country, and the Berbers converted to the religion of their conquerors. The Umayyads, who had ruled Tunisia since the Arab victory, saw their power challenged by the Abbasids, who prevailed in 750. In 800 the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid delegated his authority in Tunisia to the emir Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab, who founded the Aghlabid dynasty. The Aghlabids enjoyed considerable independence in running their affairs while still recognising Abbasid sovereignty.

In 909, following a major Ismaili revolt, the Aghlabid emirate came to an end. In December of that year, Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi proclaimed himself caliph and founded the Fatimid dynasty. His successor, Ismail al-Mansur, seized Sicily in 948.

Sicilian expeditions

From the 12th century, Tunisia was attacked by the Normans of Sicily and southern Italy. The Sicilian conquest of Tunisia began under the reign of Roger II, and many atrocities were committed against the Muslim population. The Sicilians eventually conquered the entire Tunisian coast and founded the Kingdom of Ifriqiya, or Norman Kingdom of Africa, strengthening economic ties between Sicily and Tunisia.

The Hafsids

In the mid-12th century, the kingdom fell to the Almohad sultan Abd al-Mumin. Trade links were established with the main Mediterranean cities and the economy flourished; the Almohad century is regarded as the golden age of the Maghreb. The Almohads entrusted Tunisia to Abu Muhammad Hafs, whose son founded the Hafsid dynasty, which ruled the country from 1236 until 1574. Little by little, the Hafsids lost control of their territory: from the 1340s the plague struck Tunisia, causing a sharp fall in population. It was around this time, too, that Muslim Moors and Andalusian Jews arrived in Tunisia, fleeing the fall of the Kingdom of Granada in 1492.

Ottoman Tunisia

The Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile captured many North African towns. To resist them, the authorities called on two Greek corsair brothers, Aruj and Khayr ad-Din Barbarossa, who were granted permission to use the port of La Goulette, and later the island of Djerba, as a base. Khayr ad-Din Barbarossa placed himself under the suzerainty of Istanbul and seized the city of Tunis in 1534. The city was retaken by Charles V as early as 1535, and it was not until 1560 that the Ottomans managed to recapture Djerba. Tunis itself was taken back in 1574 by Dragut, an Ottoman navigator and admiral.

Despite their victories, the Ottomans did not settle permanently in Tunisia. Over the course of the 16th century, local rulers gradually freed themselves from the authority of the Sultan in Istanbul. The Turkish administration then decided to place a dey at the head of the state, with a bey under his orders, responsible for controlling the territory and collecting taxes. The bey became the key figure alongside the pasha, who represented the Ottoman sultan in a largely honorary role.

The beys eventually founded a dynasty in 1613. Although officially a province of the Ottoman Empire, Tunisia gained a large degree of autonomy in the 19th century, thanks to the process of modernisation set in motion by Ahmed Bey. In the early 19th century Tunisia saw sweeping reforms: the abolition of slavery and the adoption of a constitution among them. The country nevertheless faced serious financial difficulties, the result of ruinous policies and of loans taken out by the state at extortionate rates from the Erlanger bank.

The French protectorate in Tunisia

In 1869 Tunisia declared bankruptcy. Because of its geographical position, the country was a strategic prize of the first order for the rival French and Italians. In April 1881 French troops landed and reached the outskirts of Tunis within three weeks. In May of the same year, Sadok Bey formalised the protectorate. A series of revolts followed in the regions of Kairouan and Sfax, which the French authorities quickly suppressed. In 1883 the protectorate was strengthened: France gained the right to intervene in Tunisia’s internal affairs and to represent the country on the international stage. It abused its rights and prerogatives as protector to exploit the country like a colony, and the bey was forced to hand over almost all of his powers to the resident-general.

The nationalist struggle

The struggle against French occupation began in the 20th century. In 1907 Bechir Sfar, Ali Bach Hamba and Abdeljelil Zaouche founded the reformist, intellectual Young Tunisians movement. From 1914 the country lived under a state of emergency and the anti-colonial press was banned. At the end of the First World War a new generation emerged around Abdelaziz Thaalbi, and the Destour party was born in 1920. The Destour came into conflict with the protectorate regime. In 1932 the lawyer Habib Bourguiba, together with Tahar Sfar, Mahmoud El Materi and Bahri Guiga, founded the newspaper L’Action tunisienne, which championed independence and secularism. This stance led to the party splitting into two branches: the more Islamist Destour, and the secular Neo-Destour.

Escalating violence

Bloody riots broke out on 9 April 1938, when the French occupiers killed 22 Tunisian demonstrators. The crackdown that followed drove the Neo-Destour underground. In 1942 the Vichy government handed Bourguiba over to Italy at Mussolini’s request, in the hope of weakening French resistance in North Africa. Bourguiba, however, had no wish to endorse the fascist regimes and called instead for support for the Allied troops. Tunisia then became a battleground between the Allies and the Axis, and the Axis forces surrendered on 11 May 1943.

Internationalisation of the Franco-Tunisian conflict

The nationalist leaders now made armed resistance part of their strategy for national liberation. Salah Ben Youssef and Hamadi Badra brought the Franco-Tunisian conflict before the United Nations. The French government declared that the Tunisian request could not be examined by the Security Council, on the grounds that it had been ‘signed by Tunisians who have no right to do so without the agreement of the Bey, the sole repository of Tunisian sovereignty. France is responsible for Tunisia’s foreign affairs; this document should have been submitted to the Resident, who alone is empowered to forward it.’

On 18 January 1952 armed revolt broke out following the arrest of 150 Destour members, including Bourguiba, and the military crackdown intensified. When Lamine Bey refused to dismiss the government that had complained to the UN, the resident-general had Chenik, El Materi, Mohamed Salah Mzali and Mohamed Ben Salem arrested on 26 March 1952. The trade unionist Farhat Hached was assassinated on 5 December by settlers, an act that triggered strikes, demonstrations and riots. As repression grew, the nationalists increasingly turned on the settlers, and nearly 70,000 French soldiers were mobilised to put down the revolts.

Tunisian independence

On 31 January 1954 Pierre Mendes France signed the recognition of Tunisia’s internal autonomy. On 3 June 1955 Tahar Ben Ammar signed the Franco-Tunisian conventions. On 20 March 1956 France finally recognised Tunisia’s independence, while keeping the military base at Bizerte in the north of the country.

On 25 March 1956 the Constituent Assembly was elected. The Neo-Destour won every seat and Bourguiba was made its leader on 8 April. On 11 April 1956 he became prime minister under Lamine Bey. The Code of Personal Status was proclaimed on 13 August. This code is the cornerstone of Tunisian society and was designed to establish equality between men and women, giving women a place unprecedented in Tunisia and in the Arab world: it abolished polygamy, created a judicial procedure for divorce, and allowed marriage only by the mutual consent of both spouses. Bourguiba also placed great emphasis on education, and the share of the state budget allocated to it grew steadily, reaching 32% in 1976.

On 25 July 1957, following the abolition of the monarchy, Tunisia became a republic. Bourguiba became its first president on 8 November 1959. At the height of the Algerian War, France bombed the Tunisian village of Sakiet Sidi Youssef, prompting demands for the return of the Bizerte base. The French were unwilling to give up their military bases, and the clashes left at least 630 Tunisians dead. France finally handed the base back to the Tunisian state in October 1963. At the peak of his popularity, Bourguiba was known as ‘the Supreme Combatant’.

From young independent state to dictatorship

The Tunisian republic gradually turned into a dictatorship, as illustrated most starkly by the assassination of Salah Ben Youssef, a former companion of Bourguiba, and the subsequent banning of the Tunisian Communist Party.

In 1963 Ahmed Ben Salah, dubbed the ‘super-minister’, embarked on a socialist economic policy. The project was sabotaged by local capitalists, and Ben Salah was made the regime’s scapegoat and sentenced to a heavy prison term, part of which he served before escaping thanks to the courage of his brother.

The early 1980s saw Tunisia go through a political and social crisis, with cronyism and nepotism on the rise. As Bourguiba’s health declined, succession struggles emerged, of which the ‘bread riots’ were just one example. Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali was appointed minister of the interior and, officially, introduced a policy of combating Islamism. He was made prime minister in October 1987, and on 7 November Ben Ali removed President Bourguiba from office in a medical coup.

Ben Ali’s presidency: repression, social crisis and corruption

Ben Ali was elected on 2 April 1989 with 99.27% of the vote. The results of the many elections that followed barely changed. The constitution was amended to allow Ben Ali to be re-elected, and he was even granted lifelong legal immunity.

During Ben Ali’s presidency, a stifling atmosphere gradually took hold in Tunisia and freedom of expression was severely curtailed. Families connected to the regime used their closeness to it to seize the best sectors of the economy, very often at the expense of the state or of other private entrepreneurs. A moral and social crisis set in, as these connected families paraded themselves as models of success, turning society’s values on their head.

Education and healthcare, both achievements of the Bourguiba era, were gradually stripped away in favour of the private sector and the regime’s allied families.

Revolution in Tunisia

Faced with this collapse of moral values and the contempt shown towards him, Mohamed Bouazizi, a young street trader selling fruit and vegetables, set himself alight on 17 December 2010. Protests erupted across Tunisia and the crackdown left several people dead. On 14 January 2011 a demonstration was held on Avenue Habib Bourguiba. One of Ben Ali’s closest advisers told him he could no longer guarantee his safety and asked him to leave for a few days. Ben Ali would never return - he would not get the chance. It was the beginning of the Arab revolutions.