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Historical Dictionary |
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Narratives : History of North Africa http://www.zum.de/whkmla/sat/texts/narrnafrica.html |
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The history of North Africa has been greatly influenced by the environment - bordering on the Atlantic in the west,
the Mediterranean in the north, the Red Sea in the east and the Sahara desert in the south. The climatic conditions
of North Africa are similar to those of the Near East, with which it has close historical ties. Within North Africa, the Nile valley (Egypt, Nubia) and the Maghreb region (Carthago-Tunis, Algeria, Morocco) have produced the better known civilizations. Yet the Sahara was not alweays as barren as it is today, as cave paintings a few millennia old prove. The history of North Africa has ben characterized by interaction with the regions to the south of the Sahara and to the north of the Mediterranean. And the inhabitants of the Sahara region have contributed their share; the Almoravid Dynasty emerged in the region of modern Western Sahara/Mauritania. Egypt produced one of the world's most ancient civilizations, original and introverted. Irrigation culture laid the foundation for a civilization which emphasized the afterlife. The wealth of Egypt has attracted numerous conquerors. The Egyptian civilization has most significantly influenced the development of her southern neighbour, Nubia (Kush). Egypt has submitted to numerous conquerors, but, for a long time, maintained her culture. The conquerors exerting the greatest impact were the Greeks; Greek was the language of administration during the Ptolemaic Dynasty, Roman rule and Byzaninian rule. When christianity was inroduced, the christian community of Egypt - the Copts - developed the Coptic alphabet, based on the Greek alphabet. The decision to close pagan institutions by Theodosius in the 390es ended ancient Egyptian civilization; the hieroglyphic script was no longer used. Further west, Phoenicians in 814 B.C. had established the colony of Carthago, which over time developed into a thalassocracy controlling the western Mediterranean. The Carthaginians held on to their Phoenician religion, language, identity, so much that the Romans clled the wars with Carthago "Punic Wars" or "Poenic Wars" - Phoenician Wars. Carthago (province Africa) was conquered by Rome in 146 B.C., which later added Numidia and Mauritania to her Empire. Rome thus ruled the Maghreb, a region which was not Hellenized; here over the centuries, a process of Latinization, among the urban population, set in. In the 4th and 5th century A.D., Carthago and environs emerged as a center of christianity; here the Donatist heresy emerged. St. Augustine wrote "The City of God", in Latin. Both the Roman provinces of Africa and Egypt served as grain suppliers, to Rome and Constantinople respectively. This fact attracted Germanic armies - in 410, after having conquered Rome, Visigothic king Alaric marched his army down trhe Italian peninsula, objective Carthago, only to find out that in order to get there, he had to cross water, which he could not. In 439, the Vandals succeeded. In 534 the Byzantinians conquered th Vandal Kingdom, holding on to North Africa's coast until the Arab conquest. Under Byzantinian rule, both Egypt and the province of Africa suffered from heavy taxation and from an oppressive religious policy. The monophysitic Coptic Church had formally broken with the Orthodox Church in 538. In the Maghreb, Byzantine rule extended over an area considerably smaller than that the Romans had ruled over a bit over a century earlier; nomadic peoples inland had taken over lands which used to be under the plow. The Arab conquest marked the propably most important turning point in the history of the region. The invaders originally were welcomed by Coptic christians weary of excessive Byzantinian taxation and of oppressive Byzantinian religious policy. Egypt was conquered 639-642, the Maghreb 694-705. The phenomenal expansion of the Arab Caliphate was only partially planned by the central administration. The Berbers of the Maghreb, only recently conquered and converted to Islam, soon played an active role in further expansion; Tariq, the conqueror of Spain, was a Berber. Relations between Berbers and Arabs, between Copts and Arabs were not always without complications. From the 8th to the early 10th century, the Copts repeatedly rose in rebellion, mainly because they rejected the taxation they were subjected to. The rebellions were defeated, the last rebellion brutally suppressed. Since 932, the Coptic community of Egypt has accepted a role at the margin of Egyptian society, in a country dominated by Islam and Arab language. In the Maghrib, Islam became the dominant religion shortly after the Arab conquest. Arab became the dominant language, but significant pockets of Berber speaking areas remained. The Caliphate disintegrated in the 10th century, and a number of dynasties emerged. The most important ones were the Fatimid Dynasty, which founded Cairo (969) and the al Azhar University(988), the Almoravid Dynasty which in the late 11th and early 12th century ruled the Maghrib and Islamic Spain, succeeded by the brief Almohad Dynasty. The Maghreb and Islamic Spain were closely connected. In the 11th to 13th centuries, North Africa was affected by the crusade movement. Fatimid Caliph of Egypt al Hakim in 1009 had the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem destroyed, and persecuted both Christians and Jews; he is credited for contributing the environment in which the crusades developed. Saladin in 1171 / 1174 established the Ayyubid Dynasty in Egypt and Syria, and in 1187 regained Jerusalem for Islam. Egypt in 1218-1222 was targetted by the fifth crusade; the eighth crusade targetted Tunis (1270). While these episodes had no lasting impact, the Reconquista in Spain had; by 1260 Muslimic Spain had been reduced to the Sultanate of Granada, ruled by the Nasrid Dynasty. Often overlooked, during the crusades the christian kingdoms of the Sudan had been allies of the crusaders. In 1276 a Mamluk army destroyed Dongola, the northern Sudanese christian kingdom. Soba, in the south, would hold on until 1505. In 1404, Castile claimed the Canary Islands; in 1415 the Portuguese conquered Ceuta, in 1418 the Portuguese claimed Madeira. In 1492 Castile-Aragon conquered Granada, the last Muslim stronghold in Spain. In 1493, many Spanish Muslims and Jews were expelled from the peninsula. Most of them settled in north African ports, many becoming pirates, harassing the coasts of Spain. Both Spain and Portugal undertook expeditions to North Africa, establihing strongholds there (and, in case they conquered a Muslim town, usually kllling the entire population). Relations between now christian Spain and Muslim North Africa had turned increasingly hostile. Meanwhile, the Portuguese had reached India in 1498, and soon claimed the Indian Ocean as their own, trying to cut Mamluk Egypt out of the spice trade. Mamluk Egypt was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1517. Algiers, threatened by the Spanish, recognized Ottoman sovereignty and received Ottoman support. Spain and Portugal, in the following years, lost a number of coastal strongholds in North Africa, because their enemies now had cannons. In 1578 King Sebastian of Portugal was defeated and slain while attempting to make conquests in Morocco, in the Battle of Alcazarquivir. This marks the climax in the Christian-Muslim conflict; the Spanish and Portuguese held on to a number of coastal points (Ceuta, Melilla, Oran), but did little to expand their territory in North Africa. The ports from Tripoli in Libya to western Morocco served as bases fo pirates, a piracy which was continued into the early 19th century, the region referred to in western sources as the Barbary Coast. In 1590 a Moroccan force conquered Songhai, on the Niger River. The modern era began in North Africa with Napoleon's expedition to Egypt. Only an episode, it revived western interest in the region. The Rosetta stone was found, and a few years later, Jan-François de Champollion decoded the Hieroglyphic script. In 1805 Mehmet Ali was appointed governor of Egypt; he introduced reforms, improved on transportation, conquered the Sudan, promoted the cultivtion of cotton. The Tanzimat reforms were implemented in the Ottoman Empire after Mehmet Ali's reforms in Egypt had made an impression on Istanbul. Morocco had never been under Ottoman rule; Algeria was de facto independent since 1710. In 1830 a French expedition landed in Oran, Algiers, Bougie and Bone, beginning the conquest of the country. Coastal and Atlas Algeria was conquered by 1848. From 1859 to 1869, the Suez Canal was constructed. In Egypt, Ismail Pasha was governor (since 1863); he pursued an energetic policy which strove both to modernize the country and to expand it. Military adventures overburdened the resources of Egypt; by the time he was deposed in 1879, the country was broke. Inability to pay the interests on foreign debt provided the excuse for colonial powers to come in. The French occupied Tunisia in 1881, the British Egypt in 1882. The modernization policy of Mehmet Ali and Ismail Pasha, and direct interference of the British in Egyptian affairs, were deeply unpopular among traditional Muslims, especially in the Sudan. Here Muhammad Ahmed, the Mahdi, assembled an army of followers which ousted the Egyptians from the Sudan. Toward the end of the century, the race for colonies heated up In 1898 a British force conquered the Sudan, ending the Mahdiyya. In 1904, France declared Mauritania her colony; Spain acquired the Spanish Sahara in 1884-1912. In 1911, France and Spain partitioned Morocco, in 1911-1912 the Italians conquered Tripolitania and Cyrenaica (modern Libya). Except for the city of Tanger and the Sultanate of Darfur, all of North Africa was under colonial rule. The North African countries were not easy to rule, as the colonial powers soon found out. The casbahs, the mountain and desert regions were difficult to control; military resistance continued, for instance in the Rif region of Spanish Morocco, until 1926. European immigration into Algeria and Morocco only further alienated the local population. In 1922 Egypt nominally was released into independence, British troops remaining in the country until 1954, to protect the Suez Canal. Britain maintained influential in Egypt under kings Fu'ad and Farouk. The 1920es saw the emergence of modern organizations, such as the Muslim Brotherhood (founded in Egypt in 1928). World War II turned Africa into a theatre of war (Battle of El Alamein 1942, landing of US forces in Morocco, Algeria in 1942, capitulation of the Afrika Corps in 1943). Following WW II, the north African countries soon were released into independence : Libya 1951, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco 1956, Mauritania 1960. France for a time held on to Algeria, with its significant uropan population element (settlers), but after a massive terrorist campaign, released Algeria into independene in 1962. Spain evacuated the Spanish Sahara only in 1975. In 1952/1954, Egyptian strongman Gamal Abdel Nasser was euphoric and overconfident; he had abolished the monarchy in a coup d'etat. A charismatic leader, widely admired outside of Egypt, in 1956 he took a gamble and confiscated the Suez Canal without compensation - and provoked an Anglo-French-Israeli invasion. The gamble worked; his policy of leaning on the Soviet Union, of entering into a federation with Syria (U.A.R.), of interfering in the Northern Yemen Civil War and of fighting Israel (Six Days War) did not. Egypt had accumulated a huge debt. In Morocco, Tunisia and Libya the colonial powers had also reestablished monarchies, hoping to preserve a maximum influence after independence. The monarchy was ousted in Tunisia in 1957, in Libya in 1969; Morocco still is a monarchy. In Algeria and Libya, major oil fields were found. Egypt under Nasser, and Algeria, for many years, pursued a socialist policy. Tunisia and Morocco, and Egypt since Sadat, pursued a policy favouring econmic development. Libya, Africa's wealthiest country, suffered rom the erratic foreign policy of her strongman Muammar al Gaddafi, who as accused of sponsoring terrorism. The country is currently trying to overcome decades of diplomatic isolation. None of the countries in North Africa have succeeded in establishing democratic structures. When Algeria tried in the early 1990es, the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front won the elections - and the (secular) government, refusing to accept the result, ruled by force. The country went through a phase of civil war. |
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EXTERNAL FILES |
| REFERENCE |
Afaf Lufti al Sayyid Marsot, A Short History of Modern Egypt, Cambridge : UP (1985) 1994, KMLA Lib.Sign. 962 S275a Max Rodenbeck, Cairo. The City Victorious, American University in Cairo Press 1988, KMLA Lib.Sign. 963.6216 R587c C.R. Pennell, Morocco since 1830, a history, New York : UP 2000, KMLA Lib.Sign. 964.03 P413m Benjamin Stora, Algeria 1830-2000. A Short History, Cornell : UP (2001) 2004, French original published in 1991; KMLA Lib.Sign. 965.046 S884a J. Morgan, A Complete History of Algiers (1731), Reprint NY : Negro University Press 1970 [G] Kenneth J. Perkins, A History of Modern Tunisia, Cambridge : UP 2004, KMLA Lib.Sign. 961.1 P448h |
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