History History

Tunisia truly entered the history books with the arrival of Phoenician settlers, who set up trading posts on its coasts: First came Utique in 1100 BC, then Hadrumète (Sousse), Thapsus (Ras Dimas) and Kerkouane. According to legend, Carthage was founded by Queen Elyssa of Tyre, daughter of the king of Tyre, Belus, whom Virgil called Didon and who was honored in numerous works of art. Elyssa is said to have originated in present-day Lebanon, and to have set herself on fire to avoid marrying Hiarbas, the local ruler.

Following the destruction of Tyre by Alexander the Great, in 332 BC, Carthage was at the head of an empire as vast as present-day Tunisia. The monopoly it acquired in the field of maritime trade in the western Mediterranean made it an obstacle to any foreign expansion. However, the Greeks, established in the south of Italy and in Sicily, see this domination of a bad eye. Carthage triumphed several times, notably in 535 BC, thus preventing them from settling in Corsica.

Carthage suffered its first defeat against the Greeks at Himera in Sicily in 480 B.C. This battle marked the last confrontation between the two peoples.

The First RomanoPunic War (264-241 BC) forced Carthage to evacuate Sicily. Ancient Rome opposed Carthaginian civilization for over a century. Carthaginian is Pœni in Latin, hence the French word "punique". The second war (218-202 BC) was undoubtedly the most painful for Rome. Amilcar the father and Hannibal the son, famous for having crossed Spain and the Alps with tens of thousands of men and elephants to attack Rome, tried all their lives to save Carthage's power. Despite the Roman victory at Myles in 260 BC, Amilcar was able to save Carthage from destruction for a time. The third and final Punic War (149-146 BC) brutally and definitively sealed Carthage's fate. After a 3-year siege, the Romans, on the orders of the Senate, completely destroyed the city in 146 BC.

The battle of Thapsus (near Mahdia) in 46 BC put an end to the "Roman civil war" pitting Julius Caesar against Pompey and his allies; Caesar annexed the Numidian kingdom (north of the Maghreb), whose ruler, Juba, had allied himself with his adversaries. It was a rich period of gentle Romanization, during which Carthage, refounded by Julius Caesar, became the third city of the Roman Empire.

The decline of the Roman Empire began towards the end of the reign of the Severans. In the ^4th and^5th centuries, the region experienced a period of great political and religious turmoil.

In 429, the Vandals, a Germanic tribe, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and seized Carthage. Their leader, Genseric, established a very oppressive military regime until 477, the date of his death. Then, the collapse of their power is rapid. A part of the Roman Empire that had established itself in Byzantium (now Istanbul) took advantage of a weakening of the Vandals' power to reconquer North Africa.

In 533, the Byzantine emperor Justinian entrusted his general Belisarius with the command of an expedition against the Vandals. After a year, the Roman Empire was established again in Carthage, but not for long. The Byzantine army was obliged to build a line of defense in order to counter the threat of the Berber tribes and to protect itself against possible invasions by sea. We can see, still today, a great number of these defensive works byzantines on the Tunisian ground.

In 647, a weakened province was attacked by Muslim Arabs. But Carthage, defended by the Berbers, did not fall until 698. One woman in particular stood out at this time: the Kahena. Proud Berber queen of the Algerian Aurès mountains, she set out to resist the advance of the Arabs, who wanted to convert the country to Islam. She was finally defeated at the very beginning of the ^8th century, but remains an example for all Berber peoples.
In 670, Okba ibn-Nafi founded Kairouan, a holy city and fortress of Islam, residence of the Umayyad governor who reigned over the whole Maghreb.

After a troubled period when Berber resistance, expressed in Kharidjism, failed to completely overthrow Arab domination, Tunisia became virtually independent of the Baghdad caliphs under the Arab Aghlabid dynasty (800-909). The Aghlabids conquered Sicily (from 827) and made Kairouan a major center of Islamic culture, from which Malékisme, a trend in Islam specific to Tunisia, spread throughout the Arab West. It was during this short reign of the Aghlabids that Ifriqiya, the territory stretching from northeastern Algeria to northwestern Libya, experienced its heyday. Improved irrigation, intensified farming, the development of handicrafts, the flourishing of trans-Saharan trade with the Sudan and military successes abroad made the Aghlabid era one of great prosperity.

Indignant by the light behavior and dissolute life of the Aghlabids, the Ismailis, Shiites, converted a large number of Berbers and gradually persuaded them to join them to put an end to the Aghlabid reign. In 909, the Aghlabids were overthrown by the Shiites. Obaid Allah, the leader of the latter, proclaimed himself caliph and founded the Fatimid dynasty ("Fatimid" comes from Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet, whose descent he claimed).

Mahdia, the new capital founded in 916, was the starting point for new conquests. Under El Moez (953-975), Egypt became Fatimid and Cairo was promulgated as the capital of the caliphate from 969. The administration of Ifriqiya was entrusted to the Berber allies, the Zirids. The region once again experienced a period of prosperity and peace. But in 1048, the Zirids turned away from the Fatimid power in Cairo. In retaliation, the Fatimids dispatched the Bedouin tribes of Banu Hilal who caused immense disasters in the country (1052-1057) and spread ruin and misery.

Taking advantage of these troubles, the Normans, who had seized Sicily in 1072, occupied the main Tunisian ports (1143-1148), and definitively expelled the Zirids from Mahdia. But this Norman domination ended in 1159, when the great Almohad conqueror Abd el Moumin, who came from Morocco, completed the unification of the Maghreb by conquering Tunisia.

In the 13th century, the Almohads appointed a governor, Abu Zakariyya (1229-1249), who proclaimed independence, was appointed emir and founded the Hafsid kingdom (1236-1534), which established its capital in Tunis. Under the Hafsid dynasty, Tunisia (which then only began to bear its current name) reached its peak, both politically and economically. At that time, in the eyes of the Europeans, it represented the main power of the Maghreb. Its trade with European countries and with West Africa was growing. But, while intensifying the trade of agricultural and craft products, the Hafsides encouraged piracy.

At the same time, the arrival of the Andalusians in the Maghreb fleeing an increasingly Christianized Spain was beneficial to the kingdom. They settled in Tunis and in the Cape Bon region, bringing with them new agricultural techniques and a refined culture, thus allowing the whole area to undergo significant agricultural development and artistic revival. After the boom of the first reigns, the dynasty began to decline and collapsed completely in 1534.

The Hafsid Sultan was restored under the protection of Charles V, and the country came under the control of the Kingdom of Spain. Then in 1574, Tunis was taken over by the Ottomans, who made Tunisia a province of the empire in 1575, although Turkish governors only ruled from the ports where they were entrenched. In 1581, Philip II of Spain recognized the regency of Tunis as a Turkish possession, which for Christians became known as the "Barbary regencies". England and France then took over from Spain in the western Mediterranean, taking turns bombarding the Barbary bases.

At the beginning of the Husseinites' reign, the economy prospered, thanks to the agricultural commodities trade, monopolized by the beys (the term used to designate the Ottoman sovereigns), and above all to the acts of piracy that flourished. A great effort was also made to organize teaching at Tunis' Koranic university, the Zitouna. Welcoming foreigners, Tunisia saw the emergence of a bourgeois, well-educated merchant class, with a mix of Turks, Andalusians and Jews from Spain and Italy, who stimulated a certain economic activity.

Hammouda Pacha (1777-1813) also built fine palaces, such as the Manouba. By the end of the ^18th century, the bey was almost a sovereign of the Ottoman Empire. France's interest in Tunisia increased when it occupied Algiers in 1830 and Constantine in 1837. It put an end to the activities of the Barbary pirates. At the same time, increasing famine and epidemics weakened the regency. To restore the situation, the beys called in foreign advisors, who reorganized the army, set up telegraph and railway networks and attempted to modernize institutions.

But to cope with this excessive spending, the country had to raise taxes, leading to the revolt of 1864. Tunisia gradually became indebted to the Western powers, and was soon forced to place itself under the supervision of an Anglo-French-Italian financial commission, responsible for ensuring payment of its debts, which quickly made it a potential prey for each of these three European countries.

France, which governed Algeria, invaded Tunisia and imposed its protectorate. Using incursions along the Algerian border as a pretext, Jules Ferry dispatched a punitive expedition to Tunisia, and French troops imposed the Treaty of Bardo (May 12, 1881) on the bey "to ensure the restoration of order and the security of the Algerian border and coastline".

The convention of La Marsa specifies that the bey must abandon national defense and foreign policy to France, and give it freedom to reform the administration. The country soon came under full French control. A secretary general was placed at the side of the bey and the Prime Minister to control their decisions.

The Tunisian resistance manifested itself as early as 1907 with the birth of the "Young Tunisians" party, the first national movement with a demand character, and then especially in 1920, with the creation of the liberal constitutional party (or Destour). Despite some developments, the latter could only note its inefficiency in its campaign for independence.

It was at this point that Habib Bourguiba, determined to reform the country and restore Islamic culture, entered the scene, taking part in 1922 in a demonstration against the French resident general in Tunis. In 1924, he left to study in Paris. During three years, he touched the power that imposed a protectorate on Tunisia and, on his return, his commitment to independence took shape. He oriented the party in a purely Tunisian, liberal and secular direction. But following disagreements within the party, Bourguiba left the Destour and formed the neo-Destour (March 1934). Six months later, the French declared it illegal and arrested Bourguiba. He then spent two years in prison. Released in 1936 by the Léon Blum government, he was arrested again in 1938, following a demonstration that turned into a riot, then deported to France until 1942, when he was released by the Germans. In 1945, he went to Cairo, where the Arab League had just been founded, and then travelled the world in order to find support for his cause.

In September 1949, he returned to Tunisia where he was given a triumphant welcome. However, while they were ready, in 1950, to enter into negotiations with Bourguiba, the French abruptly changed their minds, categorically refusing to take his claims into consideration.
This about-face provoked the rupture. Bourguiba called the people to armed struggle and demonstrations multiplied in Tunis. He was arrested and imprisoned again in 1952, which did nothing to stop the violence

On July 31, 1954, Pierre Mendès-France recognized the internal autonomy of the Tunisian state in his "Carthage speech.

France recognized Tunisia's total independence.
In 1956, Bourguiba promulgated a Personal Status Code, his "finest work", abolishing polygamy and establishing the principle of equality between men and women before the law. Repudiation was also abolished. With this code, Bourguiba achieved what no Arab Muslim leader had ever dared: the emancipation of women.

Proclamation of the Republic on July 25, 1957. Habib Bourguiba became president.

Although he had refused the life presidency in 1958, he accepted it in 1975. The years passed, the cult of personality transformed the "good man". His mistakes were more and more numerous and his political hesitations penalized the country, which revolted. The riots became bloody and terrible. In 1978 and again in 1984, Bourguiba tried to save the situation by dismissing his Prime Minister. On November 7, 1987 a group of seven doctors signed a report stating that President Bourguiba was unable to govern. This forced retirement sounded like a real "medical coup": Prime Minister Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali had just deposed Bourguiba.

As soon as he took office on November 7, 1987, the new president announced "a new era for Tunisia", "a fair, balanced and democratic society". The first measures seemed to be along these lines. The Constitution was amended to abolish the life presidency.

The electoral code was amended, and the opposition entered the Chamber of Deputies for the first time in 1994.

In addition, Ben Ali made the fight against fundamentalism his hobbyhorse. He affirmed his attachment to the emancipation of women, announced his definitive non-acceptance of the Tunisian Islamist party, and adopted a relentless repressive attitude against fundamentalism, which earned him the support of the West, particularly France, throughout his reign.

Abolition of the life presidency. Ben Ali was nevertheless re-elected several times: in 1994 for a second term, in November 1999 for his third term, in October 2004 by an overwhelming majority for his fourth term, and on 25 October 2009 for a fifth consecutive term.

Tunisia joined the Middle East peace process and opened a liaison office with Israel in 1995. Closure of the Tunisian representation in Tel Aviv and the Israeli office in Tunis in 2000.

While the inhabitants of the Gafsa mining basin in south-west Tunisia were peacefully revolting, the Tunisian government responded with violence. The government refused to open negotiations on the region's economic future.

In January 2011, Tunisia experienced a historic upheaval. Virulent popular demonstrations, which began in December 2010, became so widespread that they led, on January 14, 2011, to the fall of President Ben Ali, who left the country in a hurry after 23 years in power. The first breath of protest was born in Sidi Bouzid on December 17, 2010, in the center of the country, one of the most deprived regions of Tunisia, following the protest of a fruit and vegetable merchant Mohamed Bouazizi, who set himself on fire to protest the seizure of his products by the police

Support demonstrations in other cities in the center of the country (Gafsa, Kasserine, Gabes, etc.) took shape spontaneously, condemning unemployment, social injustice, nepotism and corruption. In a few days, these isolated demonstrations spread throughout the country (Sousse, Sfax and Tunis). To stop the riots, the police forces, the armed wing of Ben Ali's regime, carried out a violent repression that resulted in several hundred deaths (more than 238 in total).

It was at this time that Michèle Alliot-Marie, the French Minister of Defense, offered logistical assistance to the Tunisian police, which was interpreted as French support for Ben Ali's regime... But the claims continue, and turn into a real revolution denouncing the Ben Ali regime. The demonstrators explicitly demand the resignation of the president. Not even the promises of this one, which assures that he will leave the power at the end of his mandate, that he will undertake reforms for employment or that he will organize early legislative elections, appease the insurrection. Ben Ali ordered the army to intervene and shoot at the crowd, which General Rachid Ammar refused, siding with the protesters.

The situation then pushes the leader to flee Tunis hastily on January 14, 2011, to exile in Saudi Arabia. The deposed president left behind an exultant country, which claims to have regained its freedom, but which remains under tension. The Tunisian revolution has just taken place, showing the way to other Arab peoples.

The Arab Spring has just begun.

The country's first free elections, held on October 23, 2011, to determine the composition of the Constituent Assembly, resulted in a majority in favor of the Islamist party Ennahda.

Moncef Marzouki was elected president of the republic and took office the next day. On December 24, Hamadi Jebali was appointed Prime Minister following the victory of the Ennahda Islamists in the first legislative elections.

Attack on the American embassy in Tunis following Islamist demonstrations against an Islamophobic film, leaving at least 4 dead and 46 injured.

Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali resigned following the murder of activist Chokri Belkaïd, who was taking a stand against the rise of fundamentalist Islam. He was replaced by Ali Larayedh, also a member of the Islamist party Ennadha.

The new Tunisian constitution was adopted.

Composed of 217 members, the Constituent Assembly is elected to draft the new Constitution. Two years and three months of painstaking work and difficult agreements will finally lead to the adoption, on January 26, 2014, of this long-awaited text, succeeding the Constituent Law of December 16, 2011, which temporarily organized the public powers after the suspension of the 1959 Constitution. A new course for Tunisia, which is accompanied by the departure at the head of the government of Ali Larayedh, replaced by Mehdi Jomaa, independent

As for the legislative and presidential elections, after being postponed several times, they are finally set for the end of 2014.

Ali Larayedh, head of the government for ten months, is giving up his position as Prime Minister to Mehdi Jomaa, an independent.

The 2014 elections were well organized: legislative elections on October 26, 2014, won by Nidaa Tounès, and presidential elections on November 23 and December 21, 2014, won by Beji Caïd Essebsi.

President Essebsi first appoints Habib Essid, an independent figure, to head a coalition government with Ennahda, then Youssef Chahed, to head a government of national unity in August 2016. Youssef Chahed made a major cabinet reshuffle on September 6, 2017 to preserve a balance between the two political formations, Nida Tounès and Ennahda.

However, from October 2015, President Essebsi's party, Nidaa Tounès, was in crisis: some 30 Nidaa Tounès deputies left the Assembly of Representatives. The government coalition was not called into question, but Ennahda took first place in the Assembly of Representatives. The first municipal elections since the Revolution are scheduled for May 6, 2018.

Attacks at the Bardo Museum in Tunis on March 18, 2015, then at Port el Kantaoui, a seaside resort. These attacks are claimed by the Islamic State (EI). An anti-terrorism law is passed and 80 mosques linked to the Salafist movement are closed.

The seventh anniversary of the fall of Ben Ali on January 14, 2018, is marked by demonstrations to protest against the high cost of living and the finance law, which went into effect on January¹. Aid to support the poorest households was announced in January 2018 by the Tunisian government.

First official visit of French President Emmanuel Macron.
The outcome of the president's visit is considered mixed in Tunisia. The country hard hit by the crisis has indeed welcomed the promises of investment and aid from France (eg: 1.2 billion euros between 2016 and 2020 to finance various aid schemes) but Tunisians were hoping for financial support and more substantial investment from France.

Following the death on July 25, 2019 of President Béji Caïd Essebsi, the president of the ARP, Mohamed Ennaceur, took over as interim president.

On October 23, 2019, Kaïs Saïed won the presidential election against Nabil Karoui in the second round. He is the first independent president elected

On March 2, 2020, the first case of Covid-19 was recorded in Tunisia. Drastic measures were taken to prevent the spread of the disease, including the suspension of collective prayers in mosques, and the closure of cafés and restaurants...

On March 20, a general lockdown is announced, starting on March 22 and lasting until May 4.

Head of government Elyes Fakhfakh resigned on July 15 at the request of President Kaïs Saïed. A new government is formed by Interior Minister Hichem Mechichi at the request of the Head of State.

End of 2020. A national curfew is introduced to counter the spread of the virus.

The President suspends Parliament and assumes full powers after a day of demonstrations. He closed down the Qatari TV station Al Jazeera and expelled journalists.

Between September and December 2021, Kaïs Saïed suspends numerous chapters of the Constitution and dissolves the provisional body responsible for reviewing the constitutionality of draft legislation.

Legislative elections are announced for December 17, 2022, with a new electoral law and a referendum on the future new Constitution for July 25, 2022.

Former President Moncef Marzouki, who opposed Kaïs Saïed's reforms, is sentenced in absentia to 4 years in prison.

Demonstrations in January 2022 against the measures taken by Kaïs Saïed.

In April 2022, an oil tanker sank off the coast of Tunisia. It was carrying 700 tonnes of oil, raising fears of an oil slick in the Gulf of Gabès.

On July 26, 2022, the new Constitution was put to a referendum. It was adopted by a majority with a high abstention rate. According to Amnesty International, "the new Constitution dismantles many of the guarantees of an independent judiciary, removes safeguards preventing civilians from being tried by military courts, and grants the authorities the power to restrict human rights or renege on international human rights commitments in the name of religion."

Tunisia is at an impasse over the issue of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa wishing to reach Europe: Sfax is one of the main departure points. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the number of sub-Saharan migrants repatriated from Tunisia to their home countries has risen sharply since 2023. An IOM spokesperson explains: "Between January¹ and June 25, IOM facilitated the voluntary return of around 3,500 people from Tunisia to their country of origin, an increase of 200% compared to 2023 at the same period".

In the run-up to the presidential election, Kaïs Saïed is making a move, described as a "purge" in the body of governors. In this climate of fear and stifling of freedoms, the outgoing president was re-elected in October 2024 with 89% of the vote and a high abstention rate.