The Country

Tunisia is a country in Northern Africa bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Neighboring countries include Algeria and Libya.

The government system is a republic. The chief of state is the President and the head of government is the Prime Minister. Tunisia has a mixed economic system in which there is a variety of private freedom, combined with centralized economic planning and government regulation. Tunisia is a member of the African Union (AU) and Council of Arab Economic Unity (CAEU).

Recorded history in Tunisia begins with the arrival of Phoenicians, who founded Carthage and other North African settlements in the 8th century B.C. Carthage became a major sea power, clashing with Rome for control of the Mediterranean until it was defeated and captured by the Romans in 146 B.C. The Muslim conquest in the 7th century transformed Tunisia and the make-up of its population, with subsequent waves of migration from around the Arab and Ottoman world, including significant numbers of Spanish Muslims and Jews at the end of the 15th century. Tunisia became a center of Arab culture and learning and was assimilated into the Turkish Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. It was a French protectorate from 1881 until independence in 1956, and retains close political, economic, and cultural ties with France.
Tunisia's independence from France in 1956 ended a protectorate established in 1881. President Habib Bourguiba, who had been the leader of the independence movement, declared Tunisia a republic in 1957, ending the nominal rule of the Ottoman Beys.

Tunisia remains a model in the Arab world in promoting the legal and social status of women. It also, for the first time in the Arab world, outlawed polygamy. The government required parents to send girls to school, and today more than 50% of university students are women and 66% of judges and lawyers are women. The government has supported a remarkably successful family planning program that has reduced the population growth rate to just over 1% per annum, contributing to Tunisia's economic and social stability.

Economically and commercially, Tunisia is very closely linked to Europe. Tunisia signed an Association Agreement with the European Union (EU), which went into effect on January 1, 2008. The agreement eliminates customs tariffs and other trade barriers on manufactured goods, and provides for the establishment of an EU-Tunisia free trade area in goods--but not in agriculture or services; trade negotiations in these areas are ongoing