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Tunisia

Most Tunisians today are of Berber stock, though few speak the Berber language. The country is so much Arabized that virtually all Tunisians consider themselves Arabs.

Beginning in 814 BC, a trading city state called Carthage, founded by Phoenician traders existed near present-day Tunis. Carthage grew over time to become the center of a vast empire stretching from north Africa to parts of Spain and Italy. In 146 BC, the Roman empire defeated the Carthaginian empire, destroyed the city of Carthage and made the region a Roman province.

Moslem conquerors took control of the region from the 7th century AD and ruled it for nearly 900 years. It was during this period that the city of Tunis was developed and gave its name to the region.

In 1534 the city of Tunis was captured by pirates led by Barbarossa II. The pirates were driven out by Spain in 1535. In 1574, the Ottoman Empire defeated the Spanish rulers of Tunis and ruled the region until 1881. The Ottomans governed Tunisia by indirect rule. They appointed native administrators, who ruled over the region from Tunis. The administrator of Tunisia had the title of Dey of Tunis.

In 1705, al-Husayn ibn Ali changed the title to the "Bey of Tunis" and ruled with increased autonomy as the founder of the Husaynid dynasty.

Piracy had remained a major source of revenue for the rulers of Tunisia since the time of Barbarossa II. It continued to flourish during the Husaynid dynasty with European maritime powers paying regular tribute for the safe passage of their ships. From 1801 the United States Navy began patrols on the Mediteranian Sea to protect American shipping from the pirates along the Barbary coast of north Africa.

The curb on piracy that resulted from the activities of the American Navy drastically reduced the revenue base of the Tunisian government, which found itself in increasing financial and political trouble.

In 1881 a French army invaded Tunisia from Algeria and forced the Bey to sign the Bardo Treaty, which made Tunisia a French protectorate. Even though the Bey remained the nominal ruler of the country, the French colonists actually ruled Tunisia through a Resident General.

During the 1900s westernized "Young Tunisians" began a vigorous agitation for independence. Their efforts culminated in the formation of the Destour (Constitutional) Party in 1920. In 1934, nationalist leader, Habib Bourguiba, organized the more radical and leftist Neo-Destour Party.

During the Second World War, Tunisia fell under German-controlled Vichy French government. Tunisia became a theater of war. German forces were defeated in Tunisia on May 12 1943. Two days later Free French forces took over control and deposed the Bey as a collaborator with the Nazis.

This treatment of the Bey contributed immensely to increased agitations for independence. In an attempt to curb the agitations, Bourguiba was driven into exile in Cairo in 1945. But this action did not help the situation for the French. It was followed by Tunisia being granted a semiautonomous status as an associated state of the French Union in 1946; the formation of a mostly Tunisian cabinet in the colonial government in August 1947; the return of Bourguiba from exile in September 1949. Still the political riots continued.

The riots came to an end only after the French Premier, Pierre Mendès-France, came to Tunisia in July 1954 and promised the colony full internal autonomy with an all Tunisian government. On September 17, 1955, an all-Tunisian government was put in place. An agreement signed in Paris on March 20, 1956 abrogated the Bardo Treaty of 1881 and recognized Tunisia as a completely sovereign, constitutional monarchy under the bey of Tunis. The Neo-Destour Party won decisively the national legislative elections that followed on March 25. On April 8 Bourguiba was elected president of the National Assembly, and on April 11, he was named premier. The new constitution made the Bey a ceremonial monarch with the legislative powers he formally controlled being transferred to the people.

On July 25, 1957, the National Assembly proclaimed Tunisia a republic. They Bey was deposed and Bourguiba was elected president.