The
Barbary Coast, or
Berber Coast, was the term used by
Europeans from the 16th until the 19th century to refer to much of the collective land of the
Berber people. Today, the term
Greater Maghreb or simply "Maghreb" corresponds roughly to "Barbary". The term "Barbary Coast" emphasizes the Berber coastal regions and cities throughout the middle and western coastal regions of
North Africa – what is now
Morocco,
Algeria,
Tunisia, and
Libya. The English term "Barbary" (and its European varieties:
Barbaria,
Berbérie, etc.) referred mainly to the entire Berber lands including non-coastal regions, deep into the continent, as seen in European geographical and political maps published during the 17–20th centuries.