North Africa

The North Africa , North Africa or North Africa, is made up of seven countries:Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, South Sudan and Tunisia.

There is located the second largest desert in the world, the Sahara, which has approximately 9 million km² extension.

It is worth remembering that the African continent is divided into 54 countries distributed in five regions:

North Africa (North Africa or North Africa)
West Africa
Central Africa
East Africa
South Africa

Map

See on the map below where the countries of North Africa are located:

General Data

Borders: Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic Ocean and Spain (Morocco).
Predominant religion: Islam.
Largest country by land area: Algeria.
Smallest country in territorial extension: Tunisia.
Most populous country: Egypt.
Most industrialized country: Egypt.
Economy: Agricultural, livestock, tourism and oil.
Independence: Algeria - July 5, 1962; Egypt - June 22, 1952; Libya - January 1, 1952; Morocco - March 2, 1956; Sudan - January 1, 1956; South Sudan - July 9, 2011; Tunisia - March 20, 1956.

Algeria

Capital :Algiers
Approximate territorial extent :2,381,740 km²
Language :Arabic, Berber and French
Currency :Algerian Dinar
Population: 39,928,947

Algeria's history dates back to two thousand years before Christ, when its region was disputed by western civilizations.

Phoenicians and Carthaginians joined to fight the invasions, until it is invaded by the Romans.

With the fall of the Roman Empire, centuries later Algeria is occupied by the Vandals, who destroy what the previous ones had built.

After the Arab expansion, it was France's turn to invade the country and make it its colony in the period between 1830 and 1962. Algeria's independence from France dates from July 5, 1962 and was achieved through a bloody war.

Egypt

Capital :Cairo
Approximate territorial extent :1,001,450 km²
Language :Arabic
Currency :Egyptian pound
Population :83,386,739

Egypt carries one of the oldest histories in the world, dating back to around eight thousand years before Christ.

Elements of their culture are legacies that survive to this day, especially the writing and construction of the pyramids.

The Egyptian people excelled in the development of Mathematics, Medicine and Astronomy.

The Egyptians became a reference on a cultural and commercial level. Its decline began and accentuated at the end of the 20th century after the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.

Ancient Egypt
Pyramids of Egypt
Egyptian Civilization

Libya

Capital :Tripoli
Approximate territorial extent :1,759,540 km²
Language :Arabic
Currency :Dinar
Population :6,253,452

Libya was also conquered by the Romans and later invaded by the Arabs. It became an Italian colony, which provided improvements for the country. Libya's independence was won on January 1, 1952.

The exploration of oil, discovered in the late 1950s, triggered the beginning of conflicts. It was from there that Libya tried to unite with other countries, without success.

Like Egypt, Libya is at the center of the conflicts that began in 2010 in Tunisia, a movement known as the Arab Spring.

Morocco

Capital :Rabat
Approximate territorial extent :446,550 km²
Language :Arabic, French and Spanish
Currency :Dirham
Population :33,492,909

Before the Spanish and French divided the country, Morocco was in the hands of the Berbers, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals and Byzantines.

Morocco was a Spanish colony, as well as a French one, and on March 2, 1956, Spain and France recognized their independence. The country claims the territory of Western Sahara, a former Spanish possession.

Morocco's economy is mainly governed by tourist activity.

Sudan

Capital :Khartoum
Approximate territorial extent :1,861,484 km²
Language :Arabic
Currency :Sudanese Pound
Population :38,764,090

The independence of Sudan, which was a British colony, dates from January 1, 1956. Before, however, Egypt had conquered it.

In 2011, South Sudan became independent. Until that year, Sudan was the largest country on the African continent, but it lost that status due to its division that gave rise to South Sudan.

Sudan and South Sudan are in civil war, so it is a very unstable country in terms of security.

South Sudan

Capital :Mane
Approximate territorial extent :644,329 km²
Language :English and Arabic
Currency :South Sudanese Pound
Population :11,738,718

Rich in oil, South Sudan, also known as the “New Sudan” - due to the division with Sudan in 2011 - is one of the most precarious countries in the world.

There, there is a shortage of food, medical care, lack of education, high infant mortality rate, among others.

Tunisia

Capital :Tunes
Approximate territorial extent :163,610 km²
Language :Arabic
Currency :Tunisian Dinar
Population :11,116,899

Colonized by the Phoenicians, Tunisia was an important element of the commercial area. After the Phoenicians, the Arabs made the country stand out, this time in religious terms.

Years later, it was France's turn to invade the territory until Tunisia formed a sovereign state in 1956. It is in this country - the smallest in the North African region - that the Arab Spring begins.

Middle East

The Middle East, also called Western Asia, occupies part of North Africa. Among the main cities in this region is Cairo - capital of Egypt, which is located between North Africa (most of it) and part of Asia.

Arab Spring

It all started when a young man in Tunisia set himself on fire in protest at the closure of his fruit stand. The bank, which was his source of income, had been shut down by the police.

The people revolted, leading President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (1936) - who had ruled the country for more than 20 years - to leave the country the following month.

The satisfactory result of the popular uprising influenced the people of Libya. There there was a violent movement that ended up killing Muammar al-Gaddafi (or Gaddafi), two months after the start of the civil war. Gaddafi was the country's president from 1969-2011

In Egypt, in less than a month, the people also managed to overthrow the government of President Hosni Mubarak (1928) who had been in office for 30 years.

The action was reflected in other countries in the region. In Algeria, for example, people are demanding jobs and the possibility of obtaining a visa to leave the country.