The geographical space of North Africa has peculiar characteristics:

The difference of appellatives: Libya in the Homeric poems, Numidia and Roman Africa, Maghreb and Gesirat al-Maghreb after the Arabs, Barbaria in the Middle Ages, French North Africa, including Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, Arab Maghreb Union at present from Libya to Mauritania;

The near insularity of the region practically closed at three sides, by the Atlantic and the Desert, making it easier to enter than to leave. So, the history of Maghreb is the history of its invaders who came subsequently from East and from West, in search of space, with contrasting interests and ideologies;

Even though Maghreb is separated from Europe, the mountains hang together from one to the other side of Mediterranean Sea, and are arranged in coherent systems. One bridge united Sicily to Tunisia; another one, the Bethic bridge, existed between Spain and Morocco;

Maghreb, a longed for rich land, is a mosaic of spaces (high mountains, deserts, oasis, hills, plains and sea emporium) and peoples.

Chapter II:
Human Environment (the pre-historic periods; the Carthaginian period)

North Africa was the seat whether of the most ancient Paleolithic civilizations (the homo habilis of Ain Hanech in Algeria goes back to more than a million years ago), or of the Neolithic, the most advanced in history -- the Ibero-Maurusian and Capsian. It is in the Desert that the Neolithic civilization shall affirm and obtain its first successes, as testified particularly by the magnificent rock paintings of the Hoggar and Tibetsi, which show a great artistic refinement. A radical change in social behavior can be noted starting from 3,000 B.C. The proto-historic necropolis spread, which seem to indicate the existence of hierarchical social organization, as testimonies by the famous tomb of Tin Hinan the Tuareg Queen, which was found in Abelessa (Tamanrasset, Algeria). The progressive transition towards forms of agricultural life was the consequence of the great climatic fluctuations. It seems to have been dictated by the necessity and the struggle against adversity, than by opportunity reasons. In the 5^th century B.C., Herodotus gave a description of the peoples that settled in Maghreb. While already dominated by Greeks and Phoenicians, or in contact with them, he brought to mind some of their customs. He indicated: "The Greeks took the style of dress and the aegis which adorns the Athena statues from the women of Libya". There was never a real, long-lasting hostility between Carthaginian and Berbers. Otherwise one could not explain why for centuries the small Punic centers were conserved, dislocated like a long and fragile crown along the coast of Numidia (Tripolitania, Tunisia and Algeria) and of Mauritania (Morocco) and even today make up the urban armor of North Africa.

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