Visit to Tunisia: introduction
I love to visit new countries but, north of the equator, the only places in Africa that I’ve been to are Morocco, Egypt, Ethiopia and Kenya. Now though I’m off to Tunisia with my partner Tess on a trip provided by the company Jules Verne. It will be the 91st country that I’ve visited.
Tunisia is the northern-most country in Africa and has a population of just over 12 million. The official language is Tunisian Arabic which is a dialect influenced by Berber, French, Italian and Turkish.
Ancient Carthage was founded by the Phoenicians in the 9th century BC, it was a major power for six centuries, and it became a rival to Rome until, after the two Punic Wars, it was defeated in 146 BC.
For the next almost 800 years, it was ruled by Rome as a Christian nation. However, in the 7th century AD, Arab Muslims conquered Tunisia which since then has been Arabic and Islamic.
Tunisia was part of the Ottoman Empire from 1546 to 1881. Then it was ruled by France from 1881.
In the Second World War, the Battle of Tunisia was a decisive conflict for the Allies when they beat Axis powers in a series of encounters between November 1942 and May 1943.
In 1956, Tunisia gained its independence from France.
The Arab Spring of the early 2010s started in Tunisia with the overthrow of the then president after 23 years of his being in power. It looked as if Tunisia was the one nation convulsed by the Arab Spring to achieve a measure of democracy, but it has slipped back into authoritarianism.
In late 2024, President Kais Saied won a second term with more than 90% of the vote in a presidential election with a 28.8% turnout. Five political parties had urged people to boycott the elections.
Tunisia was hit by two terror attacks on foreign tourists in 2015, the first killing 22 people at the Bardo National Museum, and the latter killing 38 people at the Sousse beachfront.