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How might the Berbers effect the development of a Christian North Africa. They always provided an indigenous element, an indigenous resistance, to whoever intruded on them, be it Carthage, Rome, or the Arabs. And religiously, their role in the Christianity of the region (mostly heretical) and later their interpretation of Islam was extremely important. Politically, they were also very important throughout Moroccan and Algerian history.

So say we cut out Islam from the picture through some POD or another. How will the role of the Berbers evolve? By "Berbers", I mean those least likely to be assimilated into the dominant culture (Romanisation/Punicisation). It doesn't matter if North Africa ends up speaking Punic or a local version of Latin, the role of the Berbers will be similar. It will still be foreigners imposing their will and society on the indigenous population who survive mainly in the highlands and remote regions.

The highlands will preserve Berber culture and their form of tribalism and society. Contemporary maps of Berber-speaking regions in Algeria and Morocco illustrate a map of where I think longer-term ethnolinguistic boundaries could be drawn between Romance (or Punic) speaking peoples and Berber speaking groups.

I'm tempted to draw an analogy to the Scottish Highlands compared to the Lowlands, but I think that might be a bit inaccurate although an interesting way to help romanticise the Berber tribesman compared to a city dweller in Carthage/Tingis/Volubilis/wherever.

But since a Christian North Africa will link the region to the cultural identity of "Europe" far more than OTL, I wonder how the role of the Berbers might evolve. Any thoughts?
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