Algeria–Tunisia border

Map of Tunisia, with Algeria to the west

The Algeria–Tunisia border is 1,034 km (642 mi) in length and runs from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the tripoint with Libya in the south.[1]

Description

The border starts in the north at the Mediterranean coast, proceeding overland in a broadly southwards directions via a series of overland lines. Toward the middle it curves west, and in the southern sections of the border straight lines predominate, which eventually veer to the south-east down to the tripoint with Libya.[2]

History

France occupied much of the northern coastal areas of Algeria in the period 1830-47 and Tunisia in 1881, both of which had hitherto been subject to the nominal control of the Ottoman Empire.[3][2] France gradually pushed inland, annexing the Saharan areas of Algeria in 1902.[2] The border from the coast south to Bir Ramane was established by various French decrees, notably those of 1888-89 and 1901.[2] The sections south of this down to the Libyan tripoint was somewhat vaguer, and appear to have been delimited during the period 1911–23.[2]

Tunisia gained independence from France in 1956, followed by Algeria (following a bloody war) in 1962. The two states then confirmed the existing boundary between them by an agreement of 6 January 1960, with relations generally being positive.[2][4]

Settlements near the border

Algeria

Tunisia

See also

References

  1. ^ CIA World Factbook – Algeria, retrieved 22 January 2020
  2. ^ a b c d e f Brownlie, Ian (1979). African Boundaries: A Legal and Diplomatic Encyclopedia. Institute for International Affairs, Hurst and Co. pp. 89–97.
  3. ^ M. Şükrü Hanioğlu, A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire (Princeton University Press, 2008), 9–10 and 69.
  4. ^ Entelis, John P. with Lisa Arone. "The Maghrib". Algeria: a country study Archived January 15, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. Library of Congress Federal Research Division (December 1993)