North Africa: countries, flags and general data

O North Africa, North Africa or North Africa, is formed by seven countries: Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, South Sudan and Tunisia.

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

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

• North Africa (North Africa or North Africa)
• Western Africa
• Central Africa
• east africa
• southern africa

Map

See 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 in territorial extension: Algeria.
• Smallest country in territorial extension: Tunisia.
• Most populous country: Egypt.
• Most industrialized country: Egypt.
• Economy: Agricultural, agricultural, 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 extension: 2,381,740 km²
• Language: Arabic, Berber and French
• Coin: Algerian Dinar
• Population: 39.928.947

Algeria's history dates back 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 back to July 5, 1962 and was achieved through a bloody war.

Egypt

• capital: Cairo
• Approximate territorial extension: 1,001,450 km²
• Language: Arabic
• Coin: Egyptian Pound
• Population: 83.386.739

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

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

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

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

Read more:

• Ancient Egypt
• Egypt's pyramids
• Egyptian Civilization

Libya

• capital: Tripoli
• Approximate territorial extension: 1,759,540 km²
• Language: Arabic
• Coin: 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.

Oil exploration, 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 conflicts that began in 2010 in Tunisia, a movement known as the Arab Spring.

Morocco

• capital: Rabat
• Approximate territorial extension: 446,550 km²
• Language: Arabic, French and Spanish
• Coin: 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: cartoon
• Approximate territorial extension: 1,861,484 km²
• Language: Arabic
• Coin: Sudanese Pound
• Population: 38.764.090

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

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

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

Southern Sudan

• capital: mane
• Approximate territorial extension: 644,329 km²
• Language: English and Arabic
• Coin: South Sudanese Pound
• Population: 11.738.718

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

There one lives with the scarcity of food, medical care, lack of education, high infant mortality rate, among others.

Tunisia

• ​capital: Tunes
• Approximate territorial extension: 163,610 km²
• Language: Arabic
• Coin: 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) and part of Asia.

Arab Spring

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

The popular 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 as a result of the popular uprising influenced the people of Libya. There was a violent movement there that ended up killing Muammar al-Gaddafi (or Gaddafi), two months after the beginning of the civil war. Gaddafi was president of the country between 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 demand employment and the possibility of obtaining a visa to leave the country.

read more:

• Africa
• African culture
• arab culture
• Saara's desert
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• African countries
• Decolonization of Africa