Byzantine North Africa

French Algeria (19th–20th centuries) Algerian War (1954–1962) 1990s–2000s 2010s to present The rapid establishment of Eastern Roman rule in today's Maghreb was the result of the increasing political vacuum in the African provinces of the former Western Empire and the Germanic successor state of the Vandals, which was primarily characterized by the dissolution of regional power and administrative structures.

In parts of western Roman North Africa in 439, with the conquest of Carthage by the Vandals under their king Geiseric, a de facto independent empire ruled by predominantly Germanic warriors had been established.

[9] Here, the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III approved the raising of private armies by large landowners because he hoped that this would lead to attacks on Vandal territory.

[4] After the assassination of Valentinian III, this warlord-like status of large landowners prompted the disintegration of these provinces into various small empires, which were perceived as Berber in the public of the rest of the Mediterranean area and especially in the region around Carthage.

[11] In particular, the regions around Altava as well as Lixus and Volubilis in the extremely western Mauretania Tingitana showed continued existence of the old trade connections and Latin grave inscriptions, in some cases up to the year 655.

[14] Under these conditions, the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I began the Vandal War in 533, which also enabled him to divert attention from the after-effects of the Nika riots of the previous year.

[16] These troops were able to conquer most of the Vandals' domain within nine months[17] – a circumstance that was possibly additionally favored by the fact that some Roman-Berber petty empires saw a reason for war in the fall of Hilderich in a similar way as the Eastern Roman emperor did.

[18] Christianity spread in the area of today's Maghreb during the Roman period from the 3rd century and was the dominant religion in late antiquity and probably also in the early Middle Ages.

[21] As far as Byzantine emperors tried to reach an agreement with oriental faiths through compromises such as the three-chapter dispute or monotheletism, this was rejected in the Maghreb[22] much in the same way as in Italy and thus burdened the cohesion of the empire.

The Greek monk Maximus Confessor, who stayed in the Maghreb between 628 and 645 and became the mouthpiece of the African church, played a special role here[23] and perceived the new doctrine as an unthinkable compromise with the Monophysites and condemned monotheletism in a Lateran synod headed by Pope Martin I.

In the Maghreb, as early as the last phase of the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire, Donatism (named after Donatus Magnus, 315 to 355 primate of the Donatists) split off from the Western Church in the 4th and 5th centuries.

Similar to Donatists and Arians – the latter after the conquest of the Vandal Kingdom by the Eastern Romans, the Jews were also subjected to oppression, especially with regard to the ban on practicing religion, which experienced a first climax under Justinian I and in 632 under Heraclius with an edict for forced conversion across the empire also affected Byzantine North Africa.

[28] In more recent research, however, it is pointed out that the concrete implementation of the edict throughout the empire is very questionable and the background to the measure was probably of an eschatological nature; it was hoped that this would stabilize the state at a time of religious unrest.

[34] Wars, religious unrest and flight are discussed in contemporary historiography, but much less attention is paid to the fact that the reconquest made all the markets of the Eastern Roman Empire and later also Italy accessible again for the products of Africa.

[39] By starting a fortress building program, the praetorian prefect Solomon created the conditions for the Eastern Roman rule to be consolidated despite the internal and external unrest.

[49] In the years 539/540 he finally lost despite a sensational ambush using irrigation canals[50] after the battle of Babosis and Zerboule against the Eastern Romans under Solomon and had to flee to the adjacent Mauretania Caesariensis.

The Eastern Roman campaigns between 544 and 547 initially led to failures in Tripolitania, but also to an advance as far as inland Ghirsa,[60] the consequent destruction of this cultural center of the Berber clan of the Leuathae[61] (belonging to the Zanata tribal group).

Only in December 562 did a local revolt break out when the Berber leader Cutzinas, who had been loyal to the empire since the times of John Troglita, was murdered when he wanted to receive his reward.

His actions, combined with the attacks of the Visigoths on the province of Hispania ulterior and the invasion of the Lombards in Italy, which had already begun in 568, represented a threat to the Eastern Roman power in the entire western Mediterranean area.

Tiberius II Constantine called – either still in his function as Caesar or already as emperor – Thomas again in the office of praetorian prefect and the capable general Gennadius to magister militum to put an end to the campaigns of Garmules.

Under these conditions, Maurice created the exarchates of Carthage and Ravenna in order to grant his governors the greatest possible freedom of action in these areas, which were now largely left to themselves.

In the province of Africa, the separation of civil and military powers was repeatedly broken due to warlike events during Justinian I's lifetime, especially in the case of Solomon as praetorian prefect and Gennadius as magister militum.

Responsible for this were insufficient precautions, an essentially defective coordination with Berbers and the Byzantine heartland – which against the background of the Monothelite disputes – which included the African resistance to imperially decreed forced conversions of Jews[83] – culminating in a failed secession – and, to a lesser extent, geography.

[85] It is also believed that the Byzantine fortresses, smaller than predecessors in pre-Vandal Roman times, were only effective against tribal uprisings and Berber attacks, but not against larger armies,[46] which, however, can be contradicted by the considerable difficulties the Arabs had in their advance, especially in Numidia.

Africa was first confronted with Islamic expansion in 633, when Peter, the Exarch of Carthage, is said to have defied an order from Heraclius, on the advice of the Greek monk Maximus Confessor, to send troops to support the defensive battle in Egypt.

This was probably still favored by the greater attention paid to previous enemies, here the Lombards and their conquest of Liguria from 643,[94] and by the need for the Arab troops to reorganize themselves after the storming of Tripolitania, especially from a logistical point of view.

In 646 the Exarch Gregory the Patrician, son of aforementioned Nicetas, thus also a member of Heraclian Dynasty, rebelled against the emperor, also against the background of the monothelite disputes in Byzantium[95] and in the alleged misconception that fighting between Arabs and Byzantines in Egypt would deter either side from attacking Africa.

[102] Meanwhile, the Byzantine fleet was attacking Muslim areas on the Eastern Mediterranean coast and even recapturing the Barka region in Cyrenaica, those naval activities coming to an end at the latest after the Battle of the Masts in 655 respectively.

[119] The Exarch was able to achieve a considerable defensive success in 683 when ʿUqba ibn Nafiʿ lost the Battle of Vescera on the way back from the Atlantic against the Berber tribes under their king Kusaila, Byzantine troops and allied units and died in the process.

In the older literature, the Byzantine rule in the Maghreb is often portrayed as a failed project which, despite the high economic power of the province of Africa, is said to have brought no real benefit to the Eastern Roman Empire, but only constant wars and thus a wear and tear of troops.