The Maghreb, literally meaning 'the west', is a term used to define the area that constitutes present day Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. When, some 10,000 years ago the Sahara region dried up, the Maghreb area was effectively cut off from the sub-Sahara and looked to the Mediterranean area for its outside contacts, later coming under Carthaginian then Roman control before coming under Islamic influence and stewardship in the 7th century.

The Maghreb remained under Islamic Umayyad, Almoravid and Almohad caliphate control for over 500 years until the 13th century when the Ottoman Empire rose in the east and dominated many provinces including the Magreb area. When the Ottoman empire started to fade, Spain, France and then Italy started to colonise the area as part of the scramble for Africa and the modern day countries that comprise the Magreb remained under colonial control until the 1960s when they were granted their independence.

Today, there has been a push for a Magreb Union, an Arab superstate akin to a north African counter to the European Union, but divisions, particularly between Morocco and Algeria over the status of the Western Sahara have effectively killed off the idea, and its main advocate, Colonel Gaddafi of Libya, sidelined once again and widely seen as an international pariah.

Today there are concerns, especially in Algeria, that al-Qaeda is attempting to infiltrate the Maghreb with the intention of installing strict Islamic law across the region with terrorists attacks in Tunisia, Algeria and other countries in addition to the kidnapping of numerous officials. The current unrest across the area is making various power blocks observe unfolding events in North Africa with concern should such militancy prevail so close to Europe and is discussed in this video.