Languages: Arabic (official, commerce), French
(commerce)
Ethnicity/race: Arab-Berber 98%, European 1%, Jewish and other
1%
Religions: Islam (Sunni) 98%, Christian 1%, Jewish and
other 1%
Literacy rate: 74% (2003
est.)
Economic summary:GDP/PPP
(2005 est.): $76.99 billion; per capita $7,600. Real growth
rate: 4.8%. Inflation: 3.2%. Unemployment: 13.5%.
Arable land: 17%. Agriculture: olives, olive oil, grain,
tomatoes, citrus fruit, sugar beets, dates, almonds; beef, dairy
products. Labor force: 3.41 million; note: shortage of skilled
labor; services 55%, industry 23%, agriculture 22% (1995 est.).
Industries: petroleum, mining (particularly phosphate and iron
ore), tourism, textiles, footwear, agribusiness, beverages. Natural
resources: petroleum, phosphates, iron ore, lead, zinc, salt.
Exports: $10.3 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): textiles, mechanical
goods, phosphates and chemicals, agricultural products, hydrocarbons.
Imports: $12.86 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): textiles, machinery
and equipment, hydrocarbons, chemicals, food. Major trading
partners: France, Italy, Germany, Spain (2004).
Communications: Telephones: main lines in
use: 654,000 (1997); mobile cellular: 50,000 (1998). Radio
broadcast stations: AM 7, FM 20, shortwave 2 (1998). Radios:
2.06 million (1997). Television broadcast stations: 26
(plus 76 repeaters) (1995). Televisions: 920,000 (1997).
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 1 (2000). Internet
users: 400,000 (2002).
Transportation:
Railways: total: 2,152 km (2002). Highways: total: 18,997
km; paved: 12,310 km; unpaved: 6,687 km (2000). Ports and
harbors: Bizerte, Gabes, La Goulette, Sfax, Sousse, Tunis, Zarzis.
Airports: 30 (2002).
Tunisia, at the northernmost bulge of Africa, thrusts out toward Sicily
to mark the division between the eastern and western Mediterranean Sea.
Twice the size of South Carolina, it is bordered on the west by Algeria
and by Libya on the south. Coastal plains on the east rise to a
north-south escarpment that slopes gently to the west. The Sahara Desert
lies in the southernmost part. Tunisia is more mountainous in the north,
where the Atlas range continues from Algeria.
Government
Republic.
History
Tunisia was settled by the Phoenicians in the 12th century B.C. By the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., the great city-state of Carthage (derived from
the Phoenician name for “new city”) dominated much of the
western Mediterranean. The three Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage (the
second was the most famous, pitting the Roman general Scipio Africanus
against Carthage's Hannibal) led to the complete destruction of Carthage
by 146 B.C.
Except for an interval of Vandal conquest in A.D. 439–533, Carthage was part of the Roman
Empire until the Arab conquest of 648–669. It was then ruled by
various Arab and Berber dynasties, followed by the Turks, who took it in
1570–1574 and made it part of the Ottoman Empire until the 19th
century. In the late 16th century, it was a stronghold for the Barbary
pirates. French troops occupied the country in 1881, and the bey, the
local Tunisian ruler, signed a treaty acknowledging it as a French
protectorate.
Nationalist agitation forced France to recognize Tunisian independence
and sovereignty in 1956. The constituent assembly deposed the bey on July
25, 1957, declared Tunisia a republic, and elected Habib Bourguiba as
president. Bourguiba maintained a pro-Western foreign policy that earned
him enemies. Tunisia refused to break relations with the U.S. during the
Arab-Israeli War in June 1967. Concerned with Islamic fundamentalist plots
against the state, the government stepped up efforts to eradicate the
movement, including censorship and frequent detention of suspects.
In 1987, the aged Bourguiba was declared mentally unfit to continue as
president and was removed from office in a bloodless coup. He was
succeeded by Gen. Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, whose tenure has been marked by
repression, a poor human rights record, the rise in Islamic
fundamentalism, and growing anti-Western sentiments among the populace.
Ben Ali was reelected in Oct. 1999 with 99% of the vote in an election
criticized by many human rights observers. In May 2000 Ben Ali's
Constitutional Democratic Assembly Party swept local elections with 92% of
the vote, in a contest many opposition leaders boycotted. However,
Tunisia's economy continued to improve in the late 1990s, making the
country one of the most attractive in Africa for foreign investors. In May
2002, a referendum passed that ended the three-term limit for the
presidency. It permitted Ben Ali, who has served as president for more
than 15 years, to run for two more terms. Opposition parties protested. In
Oct. 2004, the president was reelected with 94% of the vote.
