The Land Army is the largest service branch within the Tunisian Armed Forces and has a dominant presence in the current General Staff.

[1] At the initiative of Minister of Hussein Bey II, Mamluk Shakir Saheb Ettabaâ, a battalion of Tunisian infantry was established in Tunis in January 1831.

Soldiers and officers were trained, equipped and dressed in European fashion, like the first regiments of the Ottoman army after the reforms of Sultan Mahmud II which followed the removal of the Janissary Corps.

Also available from 1835 to 1860 were 4 artillery brigades (topjiya) of 1000 men each, distributed as follows: The Army also had several Tunisian irregular regiments made up of Berber tribal levies (or Zouaoua mkhaznia) spread across the country.

These forts were also used as residences by senior officials and governors, as well as serving as prisons or granaries and depots for military supplies such as gunpowder and ammunition.

Hammouda Pacha Bey was the first leader to give the country a military industry; with the creation of a modern cannon foundry in 1810; at Hafsia in the heart of the Medina of Tunis.

However, to ensure the provision of equipment for the new Tunisian army, Ahmed Bey I provided the country with more modern factories on the European model from about 1840: Around 1865 many of these plants were dismantled or abandoned during a financial crisis.

On 21 June 1956 the transfer of about 9,500 Tunisian soldiers who had served in the French army and the Beylical Guard, made possible the speedy establishment of a combined arms regiment.

The integration of the Beylical Guard, the induction of conscripts performing their military service as mandated in January 1957, and the recall of reservists enabled the army to expand from three to twelve battalions numbering 20,000 men in 1960.

The Tunisian army experienced combat for the first time in 1958; against French units crossing the southern border in pursuit of Algerian FLN fighters.

Tunisia has contributed military forces to United Nations peacekeeping missions, including an army company to UNAMIR during the Rwandan Genocide.

In his book Shake Hands with the Devil, Canadian force commander Roméo Dallaire gave the Tunisian soldiers high credit for their work and effort in the conflict and referred to them as his "ace in the hole".