Prehistory

Antiquity

The Greeks employed the word “Libya” to indicate all the coastal area of North Africa lain between the Nile and the Atlantic, as well as the desert back country. In Antiquity, the principal parts of current Libya were:

• the Cyrénaïque, according to the name of the prestigious town of Cyrène, which would have been rested by Greeks of Théra in 631 av. J. - C.;
• the Tripolitaine, at the origin a colony phenician including/understanding the three towns of Sabratha, Leptis Magna and Ola; Ola becomes the capital of the colony under the name of Tripoli, which means “three cities”;
• the Fezzan or Phazania, which is a Saharan and desert area.

Worsen Roman

See the articles Africa (Roman province) and Cyrénaïque.

The Middle Ages

Arab Libya

Under the command of the Arab general 'Amr ibn Al 'Aces, the troops of the caliph `Umar ibn Al-Khattāb conquer easily the Cyrénaïque into 642-643.

In 647, an army of 40.000 men, ordered by `Abdu' lake ibn Its `AD, continued more in the west and seized Tripoli, then of Sufetula (to a few 260 km in the south of Carthage).

Turkish Libya

Italian Libya

Under the pretext of disorders in the country, in particular of persecutions with regard to the Italian minorities, the Italy addresses an ultimatum to the Turkey meaning its intention to him to occupy the country militarily. September 29th, 1911, she declares the war to him. See italo-Turkish War.

After the Second world war

During the Second world war, the Libya is conquered by the allied armies combatant the armies German Italy and .

The free French Forces thus took the control of Fezzan and Ghadamès in the south-west of the country, which remained an occupied military territory of 1943 until in 1956, as testify to them the stamps Italy NS overloaded, then the military emissions British and French.

Independent in 1951, Libya becomes a monarchy and benefits quickly from discovered from oil layers on its territory. In 1969, the king Idris Ier is deposited at the time of a non-violent coup d'etat carried out by the colonel Mouammar Kadhafi. This one intends to radically change the policy of its country: he preaches fusion with other Arab countries and he introduces a state socialism into his country by nationalizing the principal industrial branches, of which oil activities. The following year, it makes close military bases British and American and nationalizes the companies held by Italians. In 1973, the distrust of Kadhafi with respect to the Occident is confirmed by its participation in the oil embargo and its multiple implications in terrorism and the support for many rebellions in the world. In 1977, Kadhafi declares the “revolution of the people”: it changes the name of the country of Libyan Arab Republic into Arab Jamahiriya popular Libyan woman and Socialist and sets up “revolutionary committees”. Then open a period of institutional chaos, arbitrary policy and economic decline for the country.

The Années 1980 are marked by a confrontation between the mode in place and the international community, and in particular the the United States and the the United Kingdom. In 1981, two Libyan planes are cut down by the American army in connection with a dispute on territorial water. In 1984, the United Kingdom breaks any relation with the country following death by ball of police a British in front of the Libyan embassy with London. In 1986, informant to act as reprisals of an attack in a Berliner discotheque attended by American personnel, the United States bombard Libyan military complexes, residential zones of Tripoli and Benghazi, killing 101 civilians. In 1988, year when Kadhafi starts a light economic liberalization of her country, the Libyan secret services are shown to have caused the explosion in full flight of an American airliner to the top of the Scottish city of Lockerbie.

In 1992, the Safety advice of the United Nations sets up sanctions with regard to Libya so that this one delivers the two suspectés secret agents of the air attack of 1988. It is finally thing made in 1999 what causes the suspension of the sanctions and the re-establishment of the diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom. The mode even plays, via the Fondation Kadhafi, a role of intermediary in several releases of hostages, as with Jolo in 2000 and with the the Western Sahara in 2003. In August 2003, Libya formally endorses the responsibility for the Attentat for Lockerbie and signs a contract of compensation with the families of the victims what is worth to him in September 2003 the final lifting of the sanctions on behalf of the Safety advice of the United Nations.

Simultaneously with that, starting from the September 11th 2001, president Kadhafi operates a change in her policy thus intending to avoid a violent end with Iraqi, for him and her mode. As of January 2002, it starts discussions with the United States on the question of the financing of the Terrorisme. Thereafter, consequently of diplomatic negotiations held during all the year 2003 between Libyan persons in charge, British and American, Kadhafi in December of this year announces that it gives up officially its program of weapons of massive destruction. Lastly, in March 2004, it signs the additional protocol of the Traité nuclear non-proliferation (NPT).

Thanks to that and a policy of easing of its economic material regulation allowing the opening of the local market the international companies, the mode of Kadhafi ensures her survival but also approaches the western powers and particularly certain European countries, like the United Kingdom, the France, the Spain and the Italy. Thus, president Kadhafi states from now on that he intends to play an important role in the pacification of the world and the creation of the Middle East without weapons of massive destruction. Particularly compared to the relationships to the European Union, this volte-face of Libya must in particular be seen under the angle of the combat of the governments of the Union against illegal immigration.

In the field of the interior policy, the reforms seem much slower: from the point of view of the democracy and human rights, the Libyan political system is very insufficient. Until now, thanks to a mixture of repression and political evolution, the president succeeded in muzzling the various forces likely to be opposed to him: exiled, armed forces, radical Islam and the tribal dispute. Moreover, the recent lifting of the sanctions of UNO should improve the living conditions of the population and thus, to increase the adhesion of youth to the mode. However, it is possible that the “dynastisation” of the capacity to the profit of the son of the current president, Seif el Islam Kadhafi represents an occasion: indeed, this one could seek at the same time to ensure the paternal heritage and to implement political reforms which would confer a certain legitimacy with the international level to him. On this way, its principal opponents could be the revolutionary committees which are presented in the form of guarantors of the ideology of the revolution of 1969.

Unions (unhappy) of the colonel

Since his come to power in 1969, colonel Kadhafi tried on several occasions to link Libya with other Arab or African countries. Here the list (nonexhaustive) of these fallen through unions:

• 1972: creation of the Union of the Arab Republics gathering Egypt, Libya and Syria (dissolved in 1977);

• 1974: fusion enters Libya and Tunisia (remained without a future);

• 1981: fusion enters Libya and Chad (remained without a future);

• 1984: union enters Libya and Morocco (dissolved in 1986).

Complementary readings

Nora Lafi, a city of the Maghreb between old mode and reforms Othoman. Genesis of the municipal institutions to Tripoli de Barbarie (1795-1911), Paris, Harmattan, 2002,305 p.

See too

• Treats Eastern

External bonds

• the colonization of Libya.

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