Tunisia

According to tradition, Phoenician colonists from Tyre founded Carthage around 814 BCE on a promontory commanding the narrows between the eastern and western Mediterranean. From this harbour the Carthaginians — the Romans called them Poeni, hence 'Punic' — grew into a commercial power whose fleets, colonies and silver trade reached across North Africa, Sicily, Sardinia and into Iberia.

Carthage and the rising Roman Republic clashed in three Punic Wars between 264 and 146 BCE. In the Second War the Carthaginian general Hannibal led an army with war elephants across the Alps into Italy, winning crushing victories at Lake Trasimene and Cannae, before Scipio Africanus carried the war to Africa and defeated him at Zama in 202 BCE.

Half a century later Rome resolved to erase its old rival. In the spring of 146 BCE, after a long siege in the Third Punic War, Roman forces stormed and razed Carthage; survivors were sold into slavery and the territory became the Roman province of Africa. The destruction ended Phoenician power in the western Mediterranean.

Turning points

1. c. 814 BCEFormation

   Foundation of Carthage

   Phoenician settlers from Tyre establish Carthage, which grows into a dominant Mediterranean trading power.

   [1] [8]

2. 218 BCEWar & Rupture

   Hannibal's war on Rome

   In the Second Punic War Hannibal invades Italy with elephants and wins at Cannae, before defeat at Zama in 202 BCE.

   ↗See the data

   [2] [3]

3. 146 BCEWar & Rupture

   Rome destroys Carthage

   Roman armies raze Carthage in the Third Punic War; its lands become the province of Africa.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [4]

Figures of the era

Julius Caesar's plan to refound Carthage was carried out by Augustus, and the city rose again as capital of Africa Proconsularis — among the wealthiest provinces of the Roman world, exporting grain and olive oil to feed Rome. Prosperity left lasting monuments, including the great amphitheatre of Thysdrus (El Djem), built around 238 CE to seat tens of thousands.

Roman Africa became one of the chief centres of early Latin Christianity. Carthage produced influential writers and bishops such as Tertullian and Cyprian in the second and third centuries, and the wider region shaped figures like Augustine of Hippo, whose theology profoundly influenced the Western Church.

As the Western Empire weakened, the Vandals under Gaiseric captured Carthage in 439 and made it the capital of a Germanic kingdom. The Eastern Roman (Byzantine) general Belisarius reconquered the province in 533–534, restoring imperial rule until the Arab armies arrived in the seventh century.

Turning points

1. c. 29 BCEPolitics & Power

   Augustus refounds Carthage

   Carthage is rebuilt as the capital of Africa Proconsularis, a prosperous grain-exporting Roman province.

   [4] [8]

2. c. 238 CECulture & Ideas

   Amphitheatre of El Djem

   The colossal amphitheatre of Thysdrus is built, the largest Roman amphitheatre in Africa and a later UNESCO World Heritage Site.

   [5]

3. 439 CEWar & Rupture

   Vandals take Carthage

   Gaiseric's Vandals seize Carthage, making it the capital of a kingdom in North Africa.

   ↗See the data

   [8] [4]

4. 533–534 CEWar & Rupture

   Byzantine reconquest

   Belisarius restores Carthage to the Eastern Roman Empire, ending Vandal rule.

   ↗See the data

   [8]

In 670 the Arab commander Uqba ibn Nafi founded Kairouan as a garrison and capital deep in the interior — the first Arab-Muslim city of the Maghreb and a holy city of Islam. Its Great Mosque became one of the most important religious monuments of the western Islamic world and a model for later North African mosques.

From their capital at Kairouan the Aghlabid emirs (800–909), nominally subject to the Abbasid caliphs, rebuilt the Great Mosque in stone and launched the conquest of Sicily. They were overthrown by the Shia Fatimids in 909; when the Fatimids moved their seat to Cairo in 972, they left their Zirid governors to rule Ifriqiya in their name.

After the Zirids broke with Cairo and the region was disrupted by Bedouin migrations, the Almohads and then the long-lived Hafsid dynasty (1229–1574) governed from Tunis, presiding over a prosperous era of Mediterranean trade and scholarship until the Ottomans absorbed the country in 1574.

Turning points

1. 670 CEReligion

   Founding of Kairouan

   Uqba ibn Nafi establishes Kairouan with its Great Mosque, the first Arab-Muslim capital of the Maghreb.

   [6] [7]

2. 800–909 CEPolitics & Power

   Aghlabid dynasty

   The Aghlabids rule Ifriqiya from Kairouan, rebuild the Great Mosque in stone, and conquer Sicily.

   [7] [8]

3. 909 CEReligion

   Fatimid Caliphate

   The Shia Fatimids overthrow the Aghlabids; after moving to Cairo in 972 they leave the Zirids to govern locally.

   [7] [8]

4. 1229–1574Economy & Trade

   Hafsid dynasty rules from Tunis

   The Hafsids make Tunis a prosperous capital of trade and learning until the Ottoman conquest.

   ↗See the data

   [8] [7]

Figures of the era

The Ottomans took Tunis from Spanish forces in 1574 and made it a province of the empire, ruled by governors and the corps of janissaries while remaining a base for Mediterranean corsairs. Over time real power shifted to local rulers who governed with growing independence from Istanbul.

In 1705 Al-Husayn ibn Ali, an Ottoman officer, was proclaimed bey and founded the Husaynid dynasty, which would rule Tunisia until the republic of 1957. The beys conducted their own treaties with European powers and governed from the palaces of Le Bardo near Tunis.

In the nineteenth century the beylik tried to modernise — promulgating in 1861 the Arab world's first written constitution — but heavy borrowing left it bankrupt and exposed to European pressure, setting the stage for French intervention.

Turning points

1. 1574War & Rupture

   Ottoman conquest of Tunis

   The Ottomans take Tunis from Spain, making Tunisia an autonomous province of the empire.

   ↗See the data

   [9] [10]

2. 1705Politics & Power

   Husaynid dynasty founded

   Al-Husayn ibn Ali is proclaimed bey, founding the dynasty that rules Tunisia until 1957.

   [10] [11]

3. 1861Politics & Power

   First written constitution

   Tunisia adopts the Arab world's first written constitution amid attempts at modernising reform.

   [8]

Figures of the era

In 1881 a French army entered Tunisia and forced the bey to sign the Treaty of Bardo on 12 May, establishing a French protectorate; the Conventions of La Marsa of 1883 deepened French control. The beys remained on the throne, but real authority lay with the French Resident-General.

Opposition crystallised in the Destour (Constitution) Party and then, from 1934, in the more militant Neo-Destour founded by the young lawyer Habib Bourguiba. Through decades of agitation, imprisonment and negotiation, the movement built mass support for self-government.

France recognised Tunisian independence on 20 March 1956, and Bourguiba became prime minister. On 25 July 1957 the Constituent Assembly abolished the Husaynid monarchy and proclaimed a republic, with Bourguiba as its first president.

Turning points

1. 12 May 1881Colonisation

   Treaty of Bardo

   The bey signs the Treaty of Bardo, placing Tunisia under a French protectorate.

   ↗See the data

   [12] [13]

2. 1934Politics & Power

   Neo-Destour founded

   Habib Bourguiba and colleagues break from the Destour to form the Neo-Destour, the engine of the independence movement.

   [14] [16]

3. 20 March 1956Independence

   Tunisian independence

   France recognises Tunisian sovereignty; Bourguiba becomes prime minister.

   ↗See the data

   [15] [16]

4. 25 July 1957Politics & Power

   Republic proclaimed

   The monarchy is abolished and Tunisia becomes a republic with Bourguiba as first president.

   [16]

Figures of the era

As president, Bourguiba pursued an emphatically modernising, secular course. In 1956 his government promulgated the Code of Personal Status, which banned polygamy, raised the marriage age and expanded women's rights — among the most progressive family laws in the Arab world — and he later extended education and curbed the influence of religious courts.

In 1987 Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali removed the ageing Bourguiba in a bloodless coup. Ben Ali ruled for twenty-three years over an increasingly repressive police state, marked by censorship, corruption and the suppression of dissent.

On 17 December 2010 the street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in Sidi Bouzid, sparking nationwide protests. On 14 January 2011 Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia — the first Arab ruler toppled by a popular uprising — in what became known as the Jasmine Revolution. It inspired the wider Arab Spring, and Tunisia went on to a democratic transition widely regarded as the movement's one enduring success.

Turning points

1. 1956Culture & Ideas

   Code of Personal Status

   Bourguiba's government bans polygamy and expands women's rights, a landmark reform in the Arab world.

   [17] [16]

2. 1987Politics & Power

   Ben Ali takes power

   Zine El Abidine Ben Ali removes Bourguiba in a bloodless coup, beginning twenty-three years of authoritarian rule.

   [18] [19]

3. 17 Dec 2010Politics & Power

   Mohamed Bouazizi self-immolation

   A street vendor sets himself alight in Sidi Bouzid, triggering nationwide protests.

   [18] [19]

4. 14 Jan 2011Independence

   Jasmine Revolution ousts Ben Ali

   Ben Ali flees the country; the uprising sparks the wider Arab Spring and a Tunisian democratic transition.

   ↗See the data

   [18] [19]

Figures of the era