TUNISIA, FLAG OF

national flag consisting of a red field (background) with a central white disk incorporating a red star and redcrescent. The flag's width-to-length ratio is 2 to 3. The Turkish national flag colour for centuries has been red, and ships from Tunisia, like private vessels throughout the Ottoman Empire, flew red ensigns. The current Tunisian national flag, established in 1835, contains a crescent and star on a white disk, also long used by the Turks. The history of those symbols is more ancient than the Ottoman Empire, however. Many nations and civilizations of the Middle East from the days of the ancient Egyptians and Phoenicians had employed standards with the horns of an ox or a crescent moon of the same shape. The Punic state of Carthage, which had existed in the same area as modern Tunisia, emblazoned the crescent moon on its standards and buildings, although the symbol was not chosen by Tunisia because of that association. The crescent and star have greater cultural than religious symbolism. However, because they have been widely adopted by Muslim countries such as Tunisia, they have developed a strong association with Islam. When France made Tunisia a protectorate in 1881, Tunisia's existing flags continued to be used. Likewise, the reestablishment of independence in 1956 and the country's transformation into a republic the following year did not alter the national flag. There have been many other Tunisian flags over the years, including military colours, holy marabout flags of voyagers, and the personal standard of the ruling beys, who served as regents for the Ottoman emperor. Whitney Smith History This discussion focuses on Tunisia since about 1800. For a treatment of earlier periods and of the country in its regional context, see North Africa, history of. Tunisia was called Ifriqiyah in the early centuries of the Islamic period. That name, in turn, comes from the Roman word for Africa and the name also given by the Romans to their first African colony following the Punic Wars against the Carthaginians in 264146 BC. After brief periods of rule by the Vandals and Byzantines, the Arabs conquered the area in AD 647. Although the Arabs initially unified North Africa, by 1230 a separate Tunisian dynasty had been established by the Hafsids. Muslim Andalusians migrated to the area after having been forced out of Spain in 1492. By 1574, Tunisia was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire, which lasted until 1922. Tunisia is the smallest of the Maghreb states and consequently the most cohesive. By the beginning of the 19th century virtually all of its inhabitants spoke Arabic. Berber, the earlier language of the Maghreb, survived in Tunisia in only a few pockets, especially in the extreme south. The vast majority of the population was Muslim, with a small Jewish minority. A single major city, Tunis, dominated the countryside both politically and culturally. Tunis itself was located near the site of the earlier Carthage. More easily controlled from within than any other Maghreb country, Tunisia was also more open to the influence of people and ideas from abroad. Roman Africa, for example, was the most intensively Christianized portion of North Africa, and Ifriqiyah was later more quickly and more thoroughly Islamicized. A small state with limited resources, Tunisia nonetheless managed a considerable autonomy within the framework of larger empires ruled from afar. This status was achieved, for example, under the 'Abbasids in the 9th century and later under the Ottomans. Tunisia's geographic and historical legacy helped prepare it for the shocks it received in the 19th century as a land caught between an expanding Europe and a declining Ottoman Empire. Yet Tunisia proved to be as vulnerable economically as it was militarily. The growth of European influence In 1830, at the time of the French invasion of Algiers, Tunisia was officially a province of the Ottoman Empire but in reality was an autonomous state. Because the principal military threat had long come from neighbouring Algeria, the reigning bey of Tunisia, Husayn, cautiously went along with assurances from the French that they had no intention of colonizing Tunisia. Husayn Bey even accepted the idea that Tunisian princes would rule the cities of Constantine and Oran. The scheme, however, had no chance of success and was soon abandoned. Tunisia's security was directly threatened in 1835, when the Ottoman Empire deposed the ruling dynasty in Libya and reestablished direct Ottoman rule. Thereafter, the vulnerable beylik of Tunis found itself surrounded by two larger powersFrance and the Ottoman Empireboth of whom had designs on Tunisia. From that time until the establishment of the French protectorate in 1881, Tunisian rulers had to placate the larger powers while working to strengthen the state from within. Ahmad Bey, who ruled from 1837 to 1855, was an avowed modernizer and reformer. With the help of Western advisers (mainly French), he created a modern army and navy and related industries. Conscription was also introduced to the great dismay of the peasantry. More acceptable were Ahmad's steps to integrate Arabic-speaking native Tunisians fully into the government, which had long been dominated by Mamluks and Turks. Ahmad abolished slavery and took other modernizing steps intended to bring Tunisia more in line with Europe, but he also exposed his country to Europe's infinitely greater economic and political power. His reforms negatively affected the already stagnant economy, which led to greater debt, higher taxes, and increased unrest in the countryside. The next bey, Muhammad (185559), tried to ignore Europe, but this was no longer possible. Continued civil disturbances and corruption prompted the British and French to force the bey to issue the Fundamental Pact ('Ahd al-Aman; September 9, 1857), a civil rights charter modeled on the Ottoman rescript of 1839. The final collapse of the Tunisian beylik came during the reign of Muhammad as-Sadiq (185982). Though sympathetic to the need for reforms, Muhammad was too weak either to control his own government or to keep the European powers at bay. He did, in 1861, proclaim the first constitution (dustur) in the Arab world, but this promising step toward representative government was cut short by runaway debt, a problem exacerbated by the practice of securing loans from European bankers at exorbitant rates. When the principal minister, Mustafa Khaznadar (who had served from the earliest days of Ahmad Bey's reign), attempted to squeeze more taxes out of the hard-pressed peasants, the countryside rose in a revolt (1864). This uprising almost overthrew the regime, but the government ultimately suppressed it through a combination of guile and brutality. Though Tunisia went bankrupt in 1869, and an international financial commissionwith British, French, and Italian representationwas imposed on the country, there was one last attempt to reform Tunisia from within and thus avoid complete European domination. It was made during the reformist ministry of Khayr ad-Din (187377), one of the most effective statesmen of the 19th-century Muslim world. However, enemies from within and European intrigues conspired to force him from office. The final blow to Tunisia's sovereignty came at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, when Britain acquiesced to France's control of Tunisia. On the pretext that Tunisians had encroached on Algerian territory, France invaded Tunisia in 1881 and imposed the Treaty of Kasser Said (Al-Qasr as-Sa'id), which sanctioned French military occupation of Tunisia, transferred to France the bey's authority over finance and foreign relations, and provided for the appointment of a French resident minister as intermediary in all matters of common interest. This provoked an uprising in southern Tunisia during which France attacked and captured Susah (Sousse) in July 1881, took Al-Qayrawan (Kairouan) in October, and Qafsah (Gafsa) and Qabis (Gabs) in November. After the death of the bey Muhammad as-Sadiq, his successor, 'Ali, was forced to introduce administrative, judicial, and financial reforms that the French government considered useful. This agreement, known as the Convention of Al-Marsa and signed in 1883, solidifed French control over Tunisia. The economy Tunisia has a well-diversified economy, although it remains dominated by only a few large sectors. The economy is heavily dependent on mineral exports, especially petroleum and phosphates, a growing industrial sector that has received much investment, and agricultural products. Tourism is also a significant source of revenue and foreign exchange, as are remittances from migrant workers living abroad. While foreign debt has been brought under control, the country continues to suffer from a regional imbalance between the north and As-S ahil, which are more fertile and more economically developed, and the arid central and southern regions, which have fewer natural advantages. After a brief experiment with socialism in the 1960s, Tunisia shifted its economic doctrine toward a mixed planned and market economy. However, the economy fell into crisis in the early 1980s, the result of an over-reliance on oil revenues, foreign aid, and labour remittances. In the mid-1980s a comprehensive program was introduced to liberalize the economy, which helped restore Tunisia's international credit standing, stabilize public finances, reduce budget deficits and inflation, improve trade balances, and increase foreign and domestic investments. Public-sector reforms, deregulation, and privatization have also been implemented. The program has not been without its social costs, however, as unemployment and poverty levels rose. Nonetheless, by the end of the 1990s, the country's per capita gross national product equaled those of the lesser developed nations of Europe. There are three large professional organizations: the General Union of Tunisian Workers, the principal trade union; the Tunisian Union of Industry, Commerce and Handicrafts, the main employers' organization; and the National Union of Tunisian Farmers, the principal agricultural union. These are the main participants in national wage negotiations, although numerous other organizations also represent the country's economic interests. Resources Tunisia's natural resources are relatively meagre. The lumber industry is essentially confined to the exploitation of oak and cork from the Kroumirie Mountains of the north, while the esparto grass of the plains is used for the manufacture of quality paper. Until the discovery of petroleum, the principal mineral resource was phosphate; of this, one-third is exported, and the remainder is used by domestic chemical industries. Fertilizer is also a chief export. Other mineral resources are iron, lead, zinc, and mercury. Petroleum was discovered in the extreme south in 1964 at the Al-Burmah (El-Borma) field. Although Tunisia's deposits are much smaller than those of its larger neighbours, they are of great importance to the economy. Hydrocarbons are still the third most valuable export after textiles and chemicals. As production fell in the 1980s, the government began developing several of the country's smaller oil fields. Nearly a dozen deposits were being exploited by the early 1990s, the largest fields being Al-Burmah and Ad-Dulab in southern Tunisia near the Algerian border, Sidi al-Yata'im (Sidi el-Itayem) north of Safaqis, the Ashtart field in the Gulf of Gabes, and the Tazirkah field in the Gulf of Hammamat. In the early 1990s, Tunisia's petroleum reserves were estimated to be more than two billion barrels, a volume sufficient to maintain the country's low rate of extraction for several decades but insufficient to prevent Tunisia from becoming a net importer of petroleum products. Since then natural gas production has been significantly increased, and foreign investment has been encouraged in the sector. Major British investments in the Al-Miskar field in the mid-1990s contributed to Tunisia achieving self-sufficiency in natural gas production. Like petroleum and despite new discoveries, the quantities of natural gas are small as compared to Libyan and Algerian production. In addition, Tunisia receives about 5 percent in royalties on the gas that is pumped through a pipeline running through Tunisia, connecting the Algerian gas fields to Sicily. The land Relief and drainage Tunisia is characterized by moderate relief. The Tunisian Dorsal, or High Tell, a southwest-to-northeast mountain range that is an extension of the Saharan Atlas (Atlas Saharien) of Algeria, tapers off in the direction of the Cape Bon peninsula in the northeast, south of the Gulf of Tunis. The highest mountain, Mount ash-Sha'nabi (Djebel Chambi), located near the centre of the Algerian border, rises to 5,066 feet (1,544 metres), while Mount Zaghwan (Djebel Zaghouan), about 30 miles (50 km) southwest of Tunis, reaches 4,249 feet (1,295 metres). Between the limestone peaks of the central Tunisian Dorsal and the mountains of the Northern Tell, which include the sandstone ridges of the Kroumirie Mountains in the northwest that reach elevations of 3,000 feet (900 metres), and the Mogod Mountains, running along the deeply indented coastline to the north, lies the Majardah (Medjerda) River valley, formed by a series of ancient lake basins covered with alluvium. Containing the Majardah, the country's only perennially flowing stream (which empties into the Gulf of Tunis), this valley was once the granary of ancient Rome and remains to this day the richest grain-producing region of Tunisia. To the south of the Tunisian Dorsal lies a hilly region known as the High Steppes in the west and the Low Steppes in the east. These have elevations ranging from about 600 to 1,500 feet (180 to 460 metres) and are crossed by secondary ranges trending north-south. Farther south there is a series of chott (salty lake) depressions. Large plains border the eastern coasts; south of Susah (Sousse) lies the As-Sahil (Sahel) plain and south of Qabis (Gabs) the Al-Jifarah (Gefara) plain. The extreme south is largely sandy desert, much of it part of the Great Eastern Erg. Soils Tunisia's most fertile soils are found in the well-watered intermontane valleys in the north, where rich sandy clay soils formed from alluvium or soils high in lime content cover the valley bottoms and plains. Aside from these and from the plains of the High Steppe region, where some clay soils of medium fertility may be found, soils in the rest of the country tend to be rocky or sandy. In the dry south, moreover, they are often also saline because of excessive evaporation. The humid coastal plain in the east, running between the Gulfs of Hammamat and Gabes (Qabis), where Tunisia's thriving olive plantations are found, is the most agriculturally productive of these coarse-textured soil areas. The people Ethnic composition The population of Tunisia is essentially Arab Berber. However, throughout the centuries Tunisia has received various waves of immigration that have included Phoenicians, sub-Saharan Africans, Jews, Romans, Vandals, and Arabs; Muslim refugees from Sicily settled in the As-Sahil after their homeland was captured by the Normans in 1091. The most notable immigration, however, was that of the Spanish Moors (Muslims), which began after the fall of Seville, Spain, in 1248 and turned into a veritable exodus in the early 17th century. As a result, 200,000 Spanish Muslims settled in the area of Tunis, in the Majardah valley, and on the Cape Bon peninsula in the north, bringing with them their urban culture and more advanced agricultural and irrigation techniques. Finally, from the 16th to the 19th century, the Turks brought in their own blend of Asian and European traditions. This great ethnic diversity is still seen in the variety of Tunisian family names. Linguistic composition The cultural Arabization of the country had been completed by the end of the 12th century. Less than 1 percent of the population, in the south, still speaks the Berber language. French, introduced during the protectorate (18811956), paradoxically came into wider use after independence because of the spread of education. Although Arabic is the official language of the country, French continues to play an important role in the press, education, and government. To a lesser extent, English and Italian comprise a part of the lingua franca.