Habib Bourguiba was a Tunisian lawyer, nationalist leader and statesman who served as the country's leader from independence in 1956-1987. He first served as the second Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Tunisia before proclaiming the Republic of Tunisia in 1957 and thus becoming the first President of Tunisia. Prior to that, he played a major role in obtaining independence from France, ending the 75 year-old protectorate and earning the title of "Supreme Combatant".
Habib Ben Ali Bourguiba was born in Monastir into a modest family. He then moved to Tunis in 1907 in order to pursue his studies in Sadiki College then in Lycée Carnot, before obtaining his baccalaureate in 1924. In 1927, he graduated from the University of Paris and worked as a lawyer, after his return to Tunis, in the late-1920s. Bourguiba showed interest in fighting the protectorate from a young age. However, he only joined the national movement in the early-1930s, when he became a member of the Destour party and wrote articles denouncing the regime and the inequality. Bourguiba did not agree with the party's elders whose methods were outdated.