Sunday, December 4, 2016

A History of Tunisia, Part 1

THE FACTS
Tunisia, officially the Tunisian Republic, is a country in North Africa. It's primarily arid and hot. Arabic is the official language and islam is the dominant religion. Tunisia is home to one of the highest standards of living and per capita GDPs in Africa, and their currency the Tunisian Dinar is one of the stablest in the continent.

PRE-CARTHAGE TUNISIA (????-780s BCE)
The ethnic Berbers have their roots in the neolithic period. In the Arab West isolated cultures were flourishing by themselves, in small towns and cities, creating tools and weaponry out of stone. 


Not very much is known about the Ancient Berbers other that they came into contact with the Old Kingdom of Egypt and traded with them, with many Berbers and Libyans even entering into the culture of Egypt. It's known that a few pharaohs were originally from Libya or Tunisia. 

Since there was no written account, other than what the Egyptians wrote down, most of what we know about Berber culture comes from archaeological findings. 

The berber religion had similarities to the Egyptian pantheon, as religions that are close to each other geographically tend to have similarities. There are Eygptian gods who show up in Berber mythology and vice versa. 

The berbers were constantly squabbling with other berber clans, which made it difficult to set up a unified Empire like Egypt had done, before it was destroyed, then rebuilt, then destroyed, then rebuilt again, then destroyed again.

The berbers weren't isolated forever. Their position on the northernmost tip of Africa made them first in line for colonization, by the Carthaginians, Greeks and Romans. The berbers made their first steps off Africa when they began to trade with the Spanish. (Keep in mind that these aren't the Spanish language, Antonio Banderas type of Spanish. They are literally from the place we now call Spain, but back then was un-unified tribes and people groups, who eventually came under the control of Rome as the colony of Hispania). 

Tunisia saw trade with the Spanish, as I previously mentioned along with the Greeks, Carthage right next door and the various kingdoms of the Middle East and the Levant.


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