Libya

Libya ليبيا / Libya / ⵍⵉⴱⵢⴰ
Flag
Anthem: Libya, Libya, Libya
Seal of the National Transitional Council
Capital		Tripoli 32°52′N 13°11′E
Official language(s)		Arabic
Spoken languages		Libyan Arabic, other Arabic dialects, Berber
Demonym		Libyan
Government		Provisional: National Transitional Council
-	Chairman	Mustafa Abdul Jalil
-	Vice Chairman	Abdul Hafiz Ghoga
-	Interim Prime Minister	Abdel Rahim al-Kib
Independence
-	Relinquished by Italy	10 February 1947
-	from United Kingdom & France under United Nations Trusteeship	24 December 1951
Area
-	Total	1,759,541 km2 (17th) 679,359 sq mi
Population
-	2006 census	5,670,688
-	Density	3.6/km2 (218th) 9.4/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2010 estimate
-	Total	$90.841 billion
-	Per capita	$13,846
GDP (nominal)		2010 estimate
-	Total	$71.336 billion
-	Per capita	$10,873
HDI (2011)		▼ 0.760 (high) (64th)
Currency		Dinar (LYD)
Time zone		EET (UTC+2)
Drives on the		right
Internet TLD		.ly
Calling code		218
a. ^  Libyan Arabic and other varieties. Berber languages in certain low-populated areas. The official language is simply identified as "Arabic" (Constitutional Declaration, article 1). b. ^  Included 350,000 foreigners

A map of Libya

Libya is a country in north Africa. Since 2011 its full name is The Libyan Republic. The first mention of Libya in recorded history is by the ancient Egyptians. The area is named after a woman written about in Ancient Greek stories, "Libya", the daughter of Epaphus and Memphis. In the past, before it became a country, Libya has been part of Carthage, Rome, Arabia and Spain. It was ruled by the Ottoman Empire from 1551 until 1911.

Geography

Desert in Libya, photo Luca Galuzzi 2007

Libya's borders touch the countries of Egypt, Sudan, Chad, Algeria, Niger, and Tunisia. To its north is the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of Libya is Tripoli, which is a port on the sea. Tripoli has about one million people. Libya covers an area of about 1,760,000 km² (679,540 sq mi). The highest point in Libya is Bikku Bitti 2,267 m above sea level and the lowest point is Sabkhat Ghuzayyil -47 m at below sea level. Most of the country is flat, with large plains. Because it is so dry, only 1.03% of the land is suitable for farming.

The area around Tripoli is called Tripolitania, and it was the most developed during the Ottoman occupation.

Cyrenaica is an area of the north east coast. It is divided from Tripolitania by the Gulf of Sert. It was named by the Greeks who built the city of Cirene in 630 BC. The area was where many of the battles of World War II were fought. It includes the cities of Tobruk and Benghazi. Like Tripolitania, Cyrenaica was also governed by Britain after the war.

The Fezzan is an area of desert in south west Libya which the Italians made a part of Tripoli in 1912. After the war this area was governed by France, who wanted to annex to their Empire.

The people

The population of Libya in 2011 was said to be about 6,597,960. This is not a large number for a country that has such a large area, so the population density of Libya is low. This is because much of Libya is in the Sahara Desert. Most people in Libya live in cities on the coast. People from Libya are called Libyans.

Libyans are mostly Arabs, though many are Berbers, a group which includes the nomadic Tuareg of North Africa. About 95% of Libyans are of Arab-Berber origin. Most Libyans are Sunni Muslims.

Cities

Italian style buildings in Tripoli

• Tripoli
• Benghazi
• Al Bayda
• Misratah
• Tobruk

Economy

Oil was discovered in Libya in 1958 and is about 95% of the country's export income. Oil is about 25% of Libya's GDP. Other exports include natural gas, salt, limestone and gypsum. Because so much of the country is desert, Libya has to import about 75% of its food. It does grow wheat, barley, olives, dates, citrus, peanuts, soybeans and many vegetables. In 1984, a 3,862 km (2,400 mi) pipeline was started to bring underground water from the Sahara to coastal areas for irrigation. The pipeline which will take 25 years to complete has been estimated to cost about $25 billion. It is called the Great Man-made River, and is the largest water development scheme in the world.

The money of Libya is called the Libyan dinar. It was made to take the place of the old money, the Libyan pound, in 1971. There are 1000 dirhams in a dinar. Dinar is the name of the money in many Islamic countries. The name comes from an old Roman coin, the denarius.

Politics and History

Temple of Zeus, Cyrene, Libya

Libya is made up of three regions, Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and the Fezzan. Tripolitania is the area on the north west coast, once called the Kingdom of Tripoli. It was ruled by Turks from the Ottoman Empire. The USA went to war with the Kingdom of Tripoli in 1805 over the problems of piracy in the Mediterranean. The USA had refused to pay increased "protection" money to the Turkish rulers.

Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were captured by the Italians during the Italian-Turkish War of 1911-1912. The reason for the war was to set up a colony for Italy. They said that this area was once part of the Roman Empire and belonged to Italy. The Italians were the first country to use aeroplanes to drop bombs when they attacked Tripoli in 1911.

Many thousands of Italian settlers moved to Libya to set up businesses and farms, which were going to supply food and produce for Italy and its Empire Libyans had some of their land in Cyrenaica taken from them by force and about 70,000 people died during the battles, starved, or were decimated by the terrible epidemy (called "Spanish flu") of 1918. Many thousands escaped to Egypt, but soon moved back when the Italian governor Italo Balbo started a friendly attitude toward Arabs.

Italian Libya enjoyed in the late 1930s a huge development, with the creation of new railways, ports, hospitals, airports, roads . In those years the agricultural economy boomed, thanks to the creation of many dozens of new villages for Italian & Arab farmers. There was even an international race-car competition outside Tripoli (Grand Prix of Tripoli ). The war in 1940 destroyed most of what has been done by the Italians.

The British captured Tripolitania in 1942 during World War II and ruled it until 1951.

United Kingdom of Libya

After World War II, the regions of Libya were ruled by military governors from both Britain and France. The United Nations made Libya an independent country, the United Kingdom of Libya, in 1951. This was to be a constitutional monarchy, ruled by King Idris I and his successors. Idris (Muhammad Idris bin Muhammad al-Mahdi as-Senussi) (13 March 1890—25 May 1983) had been the Emir of Cyrenaica, but went into exile in Egypt in 1922. At the end of the war, he returned as emir, with support of Britain. He was also asked to be Emir of Tripolitania. He was able to unite the three regions and became the king of the United Kingdom of Libya on 24 December 1951. The problems facing Libya were huge. The country was poor, with little in the way of goods to export. Only 250,000 people could read. There were only 16 Libyan college graduates, no Libyan doctors, engineers, pharmacists, or surveyors. The United Nations estimated that 10% of the people were blind from eye diseases, especially trachoma. Idris was a religious leader did not take much interest in the affairs of government. His government was seen to be corrupt, and did not take notice of an increasing rise in Arab nationalism which had brought Nasser to power in Egypt in 1952. Once oil was discovered, Libya became one of the richest countries in the world. Many Libyans felt that Cyrenaica was getting more of the oil money than the rest of the country. A lot of the money from oil was also going to overseas companies.

Libyan Arab Republic

In the early morning of 1 September 1969, a group of military officers took over the government in a coup d'état. Colonel Muammar Abu Minyar al-Qadhafi was named as chief of staff of the military. In January 1970 he became Prime Minister. He began a political system named "The Third Universal Theory". This is a mix of socialism and Islam, based on tribal government. It was to be put in place by the Libyan people themselves in a unique form of "direct democracy." Al-Qadhafi called this "jamahiriya".

Some of his first actions were to take back control of the oil and send the remaining Italian settlers back to Italy. He also closed down the American USAF base.

Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

In 1977 Libya became "Al-Jamahiriya al-`Arabiyah al-Libiyah ash-Sha`biyah al-Ishtirakiyah al-Uzma" . In English, the name means the "Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya".

Qadhafi used money from the sale of Libyan oil during the 1970s and 1980s to promote his ideas outside Libya. He supported subversives and terrorists in other countries to bring about the end of Marxism and capitalism. Beginning in 1973, he also started military operations in northern Chad to gain access to minerals. He was forced to retreat in 1987. The Libyan government supported attempts to assassinate the leaders of Egypt, Sudan, Chad, Tunisia, and Zaire. He supplied weapons and money to the Irish Republican Army during its fight with the British government in Northern Ireland. In the 1990's the Libyan government said that it had been a mistake to get involved, and would not supply the IRA any further. It was said that Libya had also bombed aircraft, including Pan AM Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988 and French UTA Flight 772 in 1989.

The United Nations put sanctions in place against Libya in 1992. These sanctions stopped other countries selling weapons, investing money, or even allowing their people to visit Libya. This isolated Qadhafi politically from the rest of the world and caused economic problems for Libya. These sanctions were removed in 2003 when Libya agreed to meet several conditions. They agreed to pay money to the families of people killed in the plane bombings. They handed over two men believed to have carried out the Lockerbie bombing for trial. They agreed not to support terrorism.

In December 2003, Qadhafi said that he would end Libya's plans to develop weapons of mass destruction. He also set about having normal relations with other counties. Western European leaders and many working-level and commercial delegations were able to visit the country. He made his first trip to Western Europe in 15 years when he traveled to Brussels in April 2004.

Suffrage

Every Libyan who is older than 18 can vote. This means that voting (also known as "suffrage") in Libya is universal.

Civil War

In 2011, a civil war broke out in Libya when some Libyans started a rebellion against Colonel Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi and his government. NATO gave the rebels help during the civil war. The war lasted for eight months, and it ended when the rebels killed Colonel Qadhafi and took over Libya.

More reading

• Martinez, Luis (2006). The Libyan Paradox. Hurst. ISBN 9781850658351. 
• Vandewalle, Dirk (2011). A History of Modern Libya (Second ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107019393. 
• Pargeter, Alison (2012). Libya: The Rise and Fall of Qaddafi. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300139327. 

Other websites

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Libya

• Site-seeing in Libya
• Underground "Fossil Water" Running Out Brian Handwerk, National Geographic, May 6, 2010. (English)
• Libya turns on the Great Man-Made River Marcia Merry, Printed in the Executive Intelligence Review, September 1991. (English)