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Country : Libya Official name: Al Jamahiriya al Arabiya al Libiya ash Shabiya al Ishtirakiya al Uzma (The Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) |
Historical profile
According to archaeological surveys, Libya's coastal plain has hosted permanent settlements since at least 8000BC. Berber tribes began to migrate to the area in 3000BC. The people of what is now Libya came under the influence of several empires, including the Egyptian Pharaohs, the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Romans and the Byzantines.
The rise of Islam in the seventh century AD saw the conquering of the region by Arabs under the rule of Caliph Umar I. After the Arab conquest, Libya came under the jurisdiction of a succession of amirs (commanders) who were subordinate to the caliph, the leader of the Islamic world.
1510 During the struggle between Hapsburg Spain and the Ottoman Turks for supremacy in the Mediterranean, Spanish forces captured and largely destroyed Tripoli.
1524 Tripoli was entrusted to the Knights of St John of Malta.
1551 The Knights were driven out of Tripolitania by the Turks who began consolidating their control over the Maghreb region. The three provinces of Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan were joined into one regency in Tripoli by the Ottomans.
1711–1835 Although nominally part of the Ottoman empire, the Turks in effect gave way to the local Karamanli dynasty until 1835 when the Turks strengthened their control again. The local rulers levied a toll on every Christian fleet using the Mediterranean.
1870–1911 The area was dominated by the Sanusi religious order, although the Turks and the Italians continued to invade periodically.
1911–42 By the time of the First World War, an Italian force had taken control of the coastal towns. After the war, Italy captured the Libyan nationalist hero, Omar Mukhtar, hanging him in 1931. Italy introduced an Italianisation programme; by the end of the Second World War in 1945 an estimated half the indigenous population of one million had been exiled or killed.
1942 Italy's colonisation of Libya ended when the Italians and Germans lost the war in the Western Desert. The British took over Tripolitania and Cyrenaica and the French took over the Fezzan.
1951 Libya was granted independence under King Idris (originally Mohammed Idris al Sanusi, a member of the Sanusi religious order).
1956 Libya became an oil producing nation after the government granted two US companies a concession of 35 million hectares.
1961 King Idris opened a 167km pipeline, which linked important oil fields in the interior to the Mediterranean Sea, making it possible for Libya to export oil.
1969 As pan-Arabism swept the Arab world, Colonel Muammar al Qadafi seized power as Leader of the Revolution. Most economic activities were nationalised, including the oil industry.
1970 The government closed the British airbase in Tobruk and the US Air Force base in Tripoli. Property belonging to Italian settlers was nationalised.
1971 The Federation of Arab Republics (FAR), comprising Libya, Egypt and Syria, was approved by national referendum, but was never realised.
1972 Libya and Egypt agreed to merge into a single state, but the plans were abandoned.
1973 Qadafi announced a cultural revolution in which people's committees were established throughout the country. Libyan forces invaded the Aozou Strip in northern Chad.
1974 A plan to unify Libya and Tunisia was agreed but never implemented.
1977 Qadafi set up the General People's Congress (GPC) and the country was renamed the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.
1980 An agreement to merge Libya and Syria was made but failed to materialise.
1981 The US shot down two Libyan aircraft which challenged its warplanes over the Gulf of Sirte, claimed by Libya as its territorial waters.
1984 Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher was killed during demonstrations outside the Libyan embassy in London. The UK suspended diplomatic relations with Libya.
1986 In an unsuccessful attempt to bring down the Qadafi regime, the US launched a major airstrike on Tripoli, causing substantial damage. The US claimed its raids were in response to an alleged Libyan involvement in the bombing of a nightclub in Berlin which was used by US military personnel. The US imposed economic sanctions against Libya.
1988 Libyan terrorists were blamed for the bomb which destroyed a Pan Am passenger aircraft over Lockerbie in Scotland.
1989 Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia formed the Arab Maghreb Union.
1992 UN sanctions were imposed on Libya for refusing to hand over two men suspected of the Lockerbie bombing.
1994 Libya returned the Aozou Strip to Chad.
1995 Qadafi ordered the expulsion of 30,000 Palestinians in protest at the Oslo accords signed by the Israeli government and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).
1999 UN and EU sanctions were suspended after Libya agreed to arrest and extradite Lockerbie bombing suspects. The UK re-established diplomatic links with Libya.
2000 Qadafi visited Arab states in North Africa and the Middle East, seeking to promote Arab co-operation. Libya was one of the key signatories to the creation of the African Union (AU) made at an Organisation of African Unity (OAU) conference in Lomé, Togo.
2001 Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence agent, was found guilty of the Lockerbie bombing in a Scottish court based in the Netherlands, while his co-accused, al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, was acquitted. Colonel Muammar al Qadafi offered to host the proposed AU parliament, for which a building has already been constructed in Tripoli. The US imposed a five-year extension to sanctions against Libya. A German court convicted four Libyans of the 1986 Berlin nightclub bombing.
2002 In January, the Libyan dinar was devalued by 51 per cent against the US dollar – the first step in setting a unified, market-driven exchange rate. Megrahi's appeal failed and he was sentenced to life imprisonment in a Scottish jail. The Libyan government refused to recognise the verdict. A Libyan businessman offered to pay US$2.73 billion in compensation to the relatives of the Lockerbie victims, but the offer fell short of meeting the terms of UN resolutions. When Mike O'Brien became the first British minister to visit Libya in almost 20 years, the Libyans stated they were ready, in principle, to pay compensation. The AU was launched in July.
2003 Libya was chosen to chair the UN Human Rights Commission. The Libyan government and lawyers representing families of Lockerbie bombing victims signed a compensation agreement worth US$2.7 billion. Libya formally took responsibility for the bombing in a letter to the UN Security Council. The UN Security Council voted to lift the 11-year-old sanctions against Libya (already suspended). Libya announced that it would abandon its programmes to develop weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
2004 Libya agreed to compensate families of victims of the 1989 bombing of a French passenger aircraft and to pay US$35 million to victims of the bombing of a Berlin nightclub in 1986. The UK prime minister, Tony Blair, met Colonel Muammar al Qadafi, the first visit of this kind since 1943. The UN sanctions were finally lifted in February, and in April, US President Bush eased sanctions against Libya as a reward for giving up WMD. On 29 June, the US and Libya restored diplomatic relations after a break of 24 years, and US economic sanctions were lifted in September. President Chirac of France visited Libya, the first visit by a French president since 1951.
2005 Libya officially opened to tourism on 26 February.
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