Tunisia

Located in north Africa, Tunisia has a population of 10 million, and was in ancient times the location of Carthage, the capital of the Carthaginian Empire. It then became a part of the Roman Empire, later being captured by the Arabs, and then was absorbed into the Ottoman Empire. Occupied by France in 1880, it gained its independence in 1956.

During the Carthaginian Empire, the area that is now Tunisia was the center of a rich and powerful civilization that had established itself as the center of a trading empire, with the Carthaginians exploiting the silver mines in Spain. However, the wealth of the city was sapped by the Punic Wars, and the city itself was sacked by the Romans in 146 B.C.E. Although the Romans built a new city on the site, it never regained its former glory. Cities and towns in Tunisia were stops on caravan routes across north Africa, but these declined with the increase in shipping. Under the Ottoman Turks, the city of Tunis became a center of learning and was also relatively wealthy, persuading the French to take it over in 1878, with their army taking control of the country two years later.

Under the French, the economy of Tunisia was linked to that of the French Empire, and many French and [Page 1623]other European settlers moved to Tunisia, although more had moved to neighboring Algeria. After the fighting in World War II between the Germans and the Allies, the Axis was driven out in 1943, and nationalists started to agitate for independence from France, heavily influenced by events in French Algeria. This came about in 1956, with Habib Bourguiba becoming president of the country, a position he held until 1987. During that time, Bourguiba introduced many economic policies that resulted in the country becoming socialist, yet also taking a political stance of being largely nonaligned. During the 1970s, plans were broached to establish a gas pipeline through Tunisia, which would take natural gas from Algeria to Italy. With the rise in the price of oil, exploration in Tunisia located several new deposits to add to the Ashtart oil field, which started operations in 1973.

There were periods of economic stagnation, and there was labor unrest in 1968, 1978, and 1984. It also saw large numbers of import controls that helped with the development of industry in the country, although some of these were not as efficient as their competitors overseas, leading to problems when free trade policies were introduced in the 1990s. One of these was the textile industry established at Kairouan. President Bourguiba managed to get some concessions from the European Economic Community for Tunisia's exporting its textiles to their member states, but gradually these quotas were reduced. Carpets and rugs continue to be made in Tunisia for the export trade, and the craft industry has continued to operate in some parts of the country.

Following the overthrow of President Bourguiba, there were moves by the new government to free up the economy of the country and introduce free market reforms. However, the government started facing problems from Islamic fundamentalist groups, with events in Algeria once again impacting heavily on Tunisia. This coincided with a communist party, called the Mouvement de la Renovation, becoming a political force, as the government sought to implement reforms suggested by the World Bank. There were certainly allegations of human rights abuses, and when Bourguiba died in 2000 at age 96, tens of thousands of Tunisians turned up at his funeral to mourn someone who had presided over a long period of economic success.

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