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| TUNISIA |
Background:
Africa covers 6 per cent of the surface of the Earth and provides 20.4 per cent of Earth’s landmass. Occupying this massive and significant territory there are 1.1 Billion people. Africa is the second largest and second most populous continent on Earth.
TUNISIA
The Northernmost country in Africa, and the smallest in its region (the Mahgreb) Tunisia also contains two of the three points in Africa closest to Europe - the closest is not in Tunisia and is opposite Gibraltar.
Historically, its existence has been an ancient but turbulent one, due to its position and internal geography.Tunisia has a Mediterranean coastline of 1,148 Kilometres which begins running West to East before sharply turning South in one of the distinctive features of the African coastline.Nestled within this area we find the capital Tunis and also the ruins of ancient Carthage. The internal geography is notable for the including the Eastern end of the Atlas Mountains and the Northern reaches of the Sahara Desert but much of the rest of the territory is fertile soil.
The population of Tunisia is approx. 10,800,000.
We can trace the origins of Tunisia back to the Berber tribes which were the principal inhabitants.However in about the 12th Century B.C., the Phoenicians established a trading settlement on the coast, and in the 9th Century B.C. the Phoenicians and some Cypriots established the city of Carthage. The culture and religion of the city was Phoenician.The "gods" worshipped were Baal and Tanet. Through trading and war, especially with settlements in Sicily, Carthage progressively became the most important power in the Southern Mediterranean.
This growth of Cathaginian muscle brought Carthage into conflict with Rome which viewed itself as the natural pre-eminent power in the region.The First Punic War 264 B.C. - 241 B.C. had been fought over Sicily and Corsica and was won decisively by the Romans.
Briefly - to cover a near cataclysmic period in Roman history : Carthage invaded what is now Spain in 237 B.C. Under Hamilcar Barca. But he died in 230/229 B.C. His sons Hannibal and Hasdrubal respectively prosecuted and developed plans for the conquest of the whole of the peninsula. So strong was their situation that the Romans concluded a treaty with them, demarcating their borders of influence. In 221 B.C. Hasdrubal was assassinated and the troops elected Hannibal to take political control as well as his military control. In 219 B.C. the people of Saguntum (Carthaginian control) appealed to Rome for protection from the Carthaginian treatment of them. ( Sounds familiar? : Danzig/Gdansk and the Nazis, and Ukraine to-day?) This resulted in the Second Punic War 218-211 B.C.
On this occasion Hannibal ( and his Elephants!) crossed the Alps and invaded Italy. He repeatedly inflicted heavy to very heavy defeats on the Roman forces sent to stop him He killed 15,000 Romans at Lake Trasimene and 50,000 (!) at Cannae. Adding depth to the offence, the Roman Armies had been led by Consuls of Rome.Rome suffered as numerous of its subject colonies abandoned their allegiance and defeats continued. But the resolute Roman character was being forged in this crucible of defeat. And persistence and desperation drove them to gradually win back what they had lost in territory and to bring Hannibal to defeat in 201 B.C. and to gain Spain as compensation for their troubles.
Hannibal returned to Carthage - from which he had received virtually no support in his long war. His fortunes there did not recover and he was exiled in 195 B.C. and committed suicide abroad in 183/182 B.C.
There is much more to the tale but no room for us to examine it here.
The Romans adopted the policy that " Carthage must be destroyed"( " Carthago delenda est") proposed by 84 yrs old Cato the Elder.They conquered it in 149 B.C. They thoroughly Romanized its culture and commerce and it became a great granary for Rome. It is estimated that the region (including Tripolitania in modern Libya) was then producing 1,000,000 tonnes of cereal per annum and 25% of that was going to Rome. Beans , figs, grapes and other fruits enhanced its value to the Romans and, in due course the production and export of olive oil became substantial. The entire trade was dynamic and valuable, even down to pottery and exotic wild animals for the Roman Arenas.
In time the City became Christian as did the Empire, but it fell under the influence of the heretic Berber Bishop Donatus Magnus - from A.D. 430 to 533 the Germanic Vandals invaded the City and ruled it. At the end of that period it was re-conquered by the Eastern Roman Empire under Belisarius. But in the second half of the 7th Century the Mohammedan hordes swept all before them, and established an Arab Mohammedan rule.This was not always stable as internal Mohammedan tribal/factional hatreds ebbed and flowed. In the 12th Century the Normans of Sicily briefly regained Christian control, but they were defeated in turn by the Arab Almohad Mohammedans who drove out or forced the conversion of or killed the last Christians in Tunisia.
Such is the complexity of the situation that this did not produce stability for long, because former factional Mohammedan enemies again contested the situation. By the 14th and 15th Centuries, the Hafsid Dynasty was trading peacefully with some Christian countries. However, in the late 16th Century the coast was home to the Barbary Pirates who so bedeviled shipping in the Mediterranean.
In the early 1500s Spain took possession of a number of coastal cities. But the Ottoman Empire conquered Tunisia in 1534 restoring Mohammedan control.They carried on governance via the appointment of a Bey who in effect ruled Tunisia as an independent country. This brought Tunis into conflict with the Bey of Algiers who was in a similar independent situation.
In 1881 France conquered establishing a " Protectorate" over Tunisia in view of its unmanageable foreign debt, but left the Beys in some degree of standing until 1957.During the Second World War Nazi and Italian forces were in Tunisia in substantial numbers until the defeat suffered at the hands of the Allies and the Axis surrender on 13th May 1943.
Tunisia gained its independence from France in 1956 and President Habib Bourgiba led a secular Government until late 1987. He was succeeded by Abidine Ben Ali a military figure who won successive elections until driven out of power in the so-called Arab Spring.He and his family were accused of massive plundering of the country's wealth via corrupt practices. The new democratically elected Government has retained the secular nature of the Government, resisting Mohammedan zealots keen to re- introduce Sharia Law which had been abolished in 1956.Tunisia's " Code of Personal Status" is regarded as one of the most progressive civil codes in the Middle East and in Mohammedan countries.
Tunisia is a member of the European Union's " European Neighbourhood Policy" which aims to develop relations with neighbouring non-member countries.
The country has moderate military forces which have stayed free of political interference. These forces have served on international U.N. deployments in a number of African countries and even in Asia.
The principal trading relationship for Tunisia is that with the European Union. Although unemployment is significant , especially among youth, the Government has been energetic and even innovative in seeking to expand the economy.
And so as I set my tired eyes resolutely West towards Algeria, and extricate myself from tiny , but history strangled Tunisia , I wonder what that relatively large country holds in store. 
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