THE HISTORY

Libya

Geography

Libya lies at the center of North Africa, and borders borders Egypt, Sudan, Niger, Chad, Algeria and Tunisia. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and shares proximity to Italy across the water. It is 647,189 sq miles, most of which is in the arid and inhospitable Saharan Desert, and as a result the bulk of Libyas population resides in the north, near the Mediterranean. Due to its centrality and proximity to Europe, it has long been a transitory location between Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. Historically, the country is divided into three regions – Tripolitania in the west, Cyrenaica in the east, and the Fezzan in the south.

Demographics

Libya has a population of nearly 7 million people, predominantly Arab-Berber. Western Libya is culturally similar to Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco, whereas Eastern Syria shares more similarities to Egypt and the Middle East region. Libya is 97% Muslim, and speaks Libyan Arabic, Berber, Tamasheq, Teda, and Italian, a remanent of its colonial past. Libya has a GDP per capita of $4000, and relies primarily on oil revenues.

The Political History of Libya

A Timeline

1911: Italy invades and takes control of coastal cities in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica from the Ottoman Empire.
1911-1940: Italian occupation of Libya, using the African country as an agricultural colony.
1949: United Nations votes in favor of Libyan independence with UK backed Muhammad Idris as the monarch.
1959: Petroleum is discovered in Libya. Population becomes critical of the monarchy, seeing it as a ‘client state of the West.’
September 1, 1969: The Revolutionary Command Council under the leadership of Muammar Gaddafi overthrew the monarchy in a bloodless Coup-d’état
1973: Gaddafi calls for a Cultural Revolution to destroy imported ideologies from European and foreign power and to create a society based on the tenets of Islam.
1973-2011: Expansion of Gaddafi’s socialist state, and separation from former client state status.
January 2011: revolutions against authoritative governments break out in Tunisia and Egypt, and Libya’s population follows suit, marking the start of the Libyan Civil War.

August 15, 2011: NATO-backed Transitional National Council (TNC) is formed in Cyrenaica and conquers Gaddafi’s troops in Tripoli.
October 20, 2011: Rebel groups kill Gaddafi in Sirte.
2011-2014: Rebel forces create the General National Congress (GNC), but it fails to disarm the many rebel groups and fails to quell tensions between groups.
2014: The post-Gaddafi government known as the General National Congress (GNC) holds elections that were heavily contested, two competing governments emerge in Libya, the Tripoli-based GNC and the Tobruk-based House of Representatives (HoR).
May, 2014: The Second Libyan Civil War starts between Tripoli based military groups, backed by the GNC, and the Libyan National Army, backed by the HoR.
2018: Ceasefire declared by the UN. The UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) is established in Tripoli. It fails to pass in the HoR.
2021: Libyan parliament dissolves the GNA, establishes the Government of National Unity (GNU).

What’s next?

The Context