History of Modern Libya
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 History of Libya |
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Islamic Tripolitania Modern Libya |
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On November 21, 1949, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution stating that Libya should become independent before January 1, 1952. Idris represented Libya in the subsequent UN negotiations. When Libya declared its independence on December 24, 1951, it was the first country to achieve independence through the United Nations and one of the first former European possessions in Africa to gain independence. Libya was proclaimed a constitutional and a hereditary monarchy and Idris was proclaimed king.
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[edit] Discovery of Oil
The discovery of significant oil reserves in 1959 and the subsequent income from petroleum sales enabled what had been one of the world's poorest countries to become extremely wealthy, as measured by per capita GDP. Although oil drastically improved Libya's finances, popular resentment grew as wealth was increasingly concentrated in the hands of the elite. This discontent continued to mount with the rise throughout the Arab world of Nasserism and the idea of Arab unity. Furthermore, he imposed little personal control over his army and neglected to reinforce his perceived legitimacy through public perfermonace.
[edit] Qadhafi`s Coup d'etat
On September 1, 1969, a small group of military officers led by then 28-year-old army officer Mu'ammar Abu Minyar al-Qadhafi staged a coup d'etat against King Idris, who was exiled to Egypt. The new regime, headed by the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), abolished the monarchy and proclaimed the new Libyan Arab Republic. Qadhafi emerged as leader of the RCC and eventually as de facto chief of state, a political role he still plays. The Libyan Government asserts that Qadhafi currently holds no official position, although he is referred to in government statements and the official press as the "Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution."
Qadhafi took control of Libya from the Senusiyyah. They gained support by opposing Italian and British occupiers. Their rise in power followed a similar path as that of the Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia, although with obviously different endings. Since he took power in a 1969 military coup, Qadhafi has espoused his own political system - a combination of socialism and Islam - which he calls the Third Universal Theory.
The new RCC's motto became "freedom, socialism, and unity." It pledged itself to remedy "backwardness," take an active role in the Palestinian Arab cause, promote Arab unity, and encourage domestic policies based on social justice, nonexploitation, and an equitable distribution of wealth.
An early objective of the new government was withdrawal of all foreign military installations from Libya. Following negotiations, British military installations at Tobruk and nearby El Adem were closed in March 1970, and U.S. facilities at Wheelus Air Base near Tripoli were closed in June 1970. That July, the Libyan Government ordered the expulsion of several thousand Italian residents. By 1971, libraries and cultural centers operated by foreign governments were ordered closed.
Qadhafi rejected both Soviet Communism and Western capitalism and claimed that he was charting an independent course, portraying himself as a champion of "oppressed peoples" and Third World nations seeking to assert their independence on the international stage. In the 1970s, Libya claimed leadership of Arab and African revolutionary forces and sought active roles in international organizations.
In 1974, Libya and Tunisia briefly planned to merge and create the Arab Islamic Republic.
[edit] US and Libya
Late in the 1970s, Libyan embassies were redesignated as "people's bureaus," as Qadhafi sought to portray Libyan foreign policy as an expression of the popular will. The people's bureaus, aided by Libyan religious, political, educational, and business institutions overseas, exported Qadhafi's revolutionary philosophy abroad. Viewing himself as a revolutionary leader, Qadhafi used oil funds during the 1970s and 1980s to promote his ideology outside Libya, even supporting militants abroad to hasten the end of Soviet and U.S. hegemony. In 1977, Libya fought a short border war with Egypt.
[edit] Gulf of Sidra incident
On August 19, in the Gulf of Sidra incident (1981), a dispute over whether the Gulf of Sidra was international waters or not, two Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets engaged two United States F-14 Tomcats operating from U.S. aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68) operating in the gulf near the "line of death." The U.S. jets shot down the Libyan fighters and the United States placed an embargo on Libyan petroleum imports starting on March 10, 1982.
[edit] Libya-Chad War
Libyan military adventures in Chad failed, e.g., the prolonged foray of Libyan troops into the Aozou Strip in northern Chad was finally repulsed in 1987.
[edit] Foreign Relations
U.S.-Libyan relations quickly deteriorated following the inauguration of U.S. President Ronald Reagan in January 1981. The Reagan administration saw Libya as an unacceptable player on the international stage because of its uncompromising stance on Palestinian independence, its support for revolutionary Iran in its 1980-1988 war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq (see Iran-Iraq War), support for what Reagan called, "international terrorism", and its backing for liberation movements in the developing world. In March 1982 the U.S. declared a ban on the import of Libyan oil and the export to Libya of U.S. oil industry technology; Europe did not follow suit.
The U.S. attacked Libyan patrol boats from January to March 1986 during clashes over access to the Gulf of Sidra, which Libya claimed as territorial waters. Later, on April 14, 1986, Reagan ordered major bombing raids against Tripoli and Benghazi that killed 60 people following U.S. accusations of Libyan involvement in a bomb explosion in a German nightclub frequented by U.S. servicemen on April 5, which had killed 3. Among the victims of the 14 April attack was the daughter of the Libyan leader.
After Libya's role was exposed in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, UN sanctions were imposed in 1992. UN Security Council resolutions (UNSCRs) passed in 1992 and 1993 obliged Libya to fulfill requirements related to the Pan Am 103 bombing before sanctions could be lifted, leading to Libya's political and economic isolation for most of the 1990s. The UN sanctions cut airline connections with the outer world, reduced diplomatic representation and prohibited the sale of military equipment. Oil-related sanctions were assessed by some as equally significant for their exceptions: thus sanctions froze Libya's foreign assets (but excluded revenue from oil and natural gas and agricultural commodities) and banned the sale to Libya of refinery or pipeline equipment (but excluded oil production equipment).
Under the sanctions Libya's refining capacity eroded. Libya's role on the international stage grew less provokative after UN sanctions were imposed. In 1999, Libya fulfilled one of the UNSCR requirements by surrendering two Libyans suspected in connection with the bombing for trial before a Scottish court in the Netherlands. One of these suspects, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, was found guilty; the other was acquitted. UN sanctions against Libya were subsequently suspended. The full lifting of the sanctions, contingent on Libya's compliance with the remaining UNSCRs, including acceptance of responsibility for the actions of its officials and payment of appropriate compensation, was passed 12 September 2003, explicitly linked to the release of up to $2.7 billion in Libyan funds to the families of the 1988 attack's 270 victims.
