ABSTRACT
Tunisia occupies a small corner of the southern Mediterranean coast, wedged between Algeria and Libya. French influence in Tunisia began when French forces crossed into Tunisian territory from neighboring Algeria to stem border raids by Algerians opposed to French rule. After World War I, resistance to French rule grew, and Tunisian nationalists founded the Destour, or constitutional movement toward independence. Bourguiba's rule emphasized his nationalist background over the Islamic setting of Tunisia, and sometimes his challenges to Islamic practice caused problems. Tunisia's southern towns and villages are largely rural and poor, and where there is poverty, there is often corruption. Ben Ali used Habib Bourguiba's Neo-Destour Party, renamed the Constitutional Democratic Rally Party (RCD) in 1987, to gain power and to govern as president from 1988 to 2011. Tunisia's leadership realizes that economic prosperity is one vehicle to resist both the chaos of post-Qadhafi Libya and the seduction of radical Islam.
