Abstract
The Mediterranean area presents a particular structure. The Northern part of the region is composed of Western, developed countries belonging to the European Union, such as France, Spain, Italy and Greece. The Southern part is the African coast, including Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Syria and the Palestinian Authority. The basin has often been idealized as a place of unity and coherence, the two coasts being linked by a long past of cooperation, trade and cultural exchanges. However, the North and the South have evolved differently, and this is obvious today that there is no unity in the region. To the contrary, every Southern country of the area has been colonized by Northern countries during the 19th and 20th centuries, most of them belonging to the Northern Mediterranean (France, Portugal and Spain). After the fall of the Empires and the decolonization process, those Western countries, for moral but also commercial reasons, have developed particular relations with their ex-colonies.
