AD 1800-2000 Modern

In the 19th century AD the decline of the Ottoman Empire significantly affected the balance of power in North Africa, and allowed expansionist European nations to establish themselves. The French colonised Algeria between 1830 and 1848 and established a protectorate over Tunisia (1881). War between Italy and the Ottoman Empire in 1911 led to Italy seizing Libya. In 1912 France and Spain divided Morocco into two protectorates. At the end of World War I (1914-18), North Africa was under European control, and the Ottoman Empire was being dismantled.

During the 1920s and 1930s, nationalist ideas developed in the occupied countries. Events during World War II (1939-45) – particularly the defeats of France and Italy – encouraged independence movements. Italy’s Libyan provinces achieved self-government first (1951), followed by Tunisia (1954) and Morocco (1956). After a long and bitter civil war (1954-62), the Algerian FLN (National Liberation Front) eventually won independence from France.

In the last quarter of the 20th century, the Maghreb profited from tourism, oil (Libya) and natural gas (Algeria), but continued to experience political unrest with the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. Morocco, under its traditional monarchy, maintained a stable (but not democratic) form of government; however, since 1979, it has been involved in a dispute over the Western Sahara with the Polisario guerrillas (Popular Front for the Liberation of Saharan Territories).