Historically, the Maghreb was home to significant historic Jewish communities called Maghrebim, who

predated the 7th-century introduction and conversion of the region to Islam. These were later augmented
by Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal who, fleeing the Spanish Catholic Inquisition of the 15th and
16th centuries, established a presence in North Africa. They settled primarily in the urban trading centers.
Many Jews from Spain emigrated to North America from the Maghreb in the 19th and early 20th
centuries, or to France and Israel later in the 20th century after the latter was founded.[citation needed]

Another significant group are Turks, who migrated with the expansion of the Ottoman Empire. A large
ethnic Turkish population exists, particularly in Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria.[citation needed]

Sub-Saharan Africans joined the population mix during centuries of trans-Saharan trade. Traders and
slaves went to the Maghreb from the Sahel region. On the Saharan southern edge of the Maghreb are
small communities of black populations, sometimes called Haratine. They appear to have descended from
black populations who inhabited the Sahara during its last wet period and then migrated north as it turned
to desert.[citation needed]

In Algeria especially, a large European minority, known as the "pied noirs", immigrated to the region,
settling under French colonial rule in the late 19th century. They established farms and businesses. The
overwhelming majority of these, however, left Algeria during and following the war for independence.
[27]

In comparison to the population of France, the Maghrebi population was one-eighth of France's
population in 1800, one-quarter in 1900, and equal in 2000. The Maghreb is home to 1% of the global
population as of 2010.[28]