North Africa

North Africa is generally considered to include Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. The Earliest history of North Africa is dominated by Ancient Egypt while the Maghreb (the western region) remained prehistoric until much later. In the Maghreb region, Phoenician and Greek colonies were established along the Mediterranean coast around the 7th century BC including the Phoenician Carthage (9th century BC) in Tunisia which introduced Greek and Near Eastern culture to the region. As well as this, native Berber populations formed the kingdom of Numidia (202-40 BC) centred in Algeria. In 332 BC, following his conquest of the Persians, Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, establishing the Ptolemaic period which introduced Hellenistic culture but did not exclude native Egyptian culture. Later the whole of North Africa was conquered buy the Romans after conquering Carthage in 146 BC and conquering Egypt in 30BC. In the 1st century AD Christianity arrived in North Africa, originally accepted by the Romans Christianity was later procured, despite this the Coptic tradition was established in Egypt and Berber tribes were largely converted. At the fall of the Roman Empire the Vandals conquered Carthage before being recaptured by the Byzantine Empire. Later the Muslim empire would successively conquer all of North Africa.