Tunisia, located on the Mediterranean Sea in northern Africa, is bordered by Libya and Algeria. Colonized by the Phoenicians, it later became the center of the Carthaginian Empire. Tunisia subsequently experienced a long history of invasion and foreign rule by a series of conquerors including the Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, and Turks. It later became a French protectorate and underwent many important social and political changes before becoming independent. After independence, Tunisia established a secular political and legal system and moved toward closer economic cooperation in northern Africa. Although an ethnic mix of Berbers and Arabs with a small but ancient Jewish community, Tunisians speak Arabic and consider themselves Arabs as a result of the process of Arabization. Tensions between secular and moderate Tunisian Muslims on the one hand and Islamic fundamentalists on the other emerged in the 1990s. Today, the country’s economy continues to grow as its leaders seek a close economic relationship with the European Union.