Prehistory

Main article: Prehistoric North Africa

Around 3,500 BC, changes in the tilt of the Earth's orbit appear to have caused a rapid desertification of
the Sahara region[19] forming a natural barrier that severely limited contact between the Maghreb and
sub-Saharan Africa. The Berber people have inhabited western North Africa since at least 10,000 BC.[20]

Antiquity
Main articles: North Africa during Antiquity and Ancient Carthage

Roman trireme on a mosaic in the Bardo Museum, Tunisia

Partially isolated from the rest of the continent by the Atlas Mountains (stretching from present-day
Morocco to present-day Tunisia) and by the Sahara desert, inhabitants of the northern parts of the Berber
world have long had commercial and cultural ties across the Mediterranean Sea to the inhabitants of the
regions of Southern Europe and Western Asia. These trade relations date back at least to the Phoenicians
in the 1st millennium BC. (According to tradition, the Phoenicians founded their colony of Carthage (in
present-day Tunisia) c.  800 BC).

The Berbers predominantly constructed their[whose?] coastal ports and cities.[citation needed] Later,
some Phoenicians and Carthaginians arrived for trade. The main Berber and Phoenician settlements
centered in the Gulf of Tunis (Carthage, Utica, Tunisia) along the North African littoral, between the
Pillars of Hercules and the Libyan coast east of ancient Cyrenaica. They dominated the trade and
intercourse of the Western Mediterranean for centuries. Rome's defeat of Carthage in the Punic Wars (264
to 146 BC) enabled Rome to establish the Province of Africa (146 BC) and to control many of these
ports. Rome eventually took control of the entire Maghreb north of the Atlas Mountains. Rome was
greatly helped by the defection of Massinissa (later King of Numidia, r. 202 – 148 BC) and of Carthage's
eastern Numidian Massylii client-allies. Some of the most mountainous regions, such as the Moroccan
Rif, remained outside Roman control.