Libya

D

Local Government

Libya, previously divided into governorates, was reorganized in 1977 into 46 municipal and 186 basic people’s congress administrative units.

E

Health and Welfare

In 2004 there were 775 people per doctor and in 2008 the country had an infant mortality rate of 22 deaths per 1,000 live births.

F

Defence

In 2004 Libya maintained an army of 45,000 personnel; a navy of 8,000; and an air force of 23,000. A People’s Militia numbers some 40,000 personnel.

G

International Organizations

Libya is a member of the United Nations (UN), the African Union, the Arab League, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

VI

History

Phoenicia founded colonies on the coast of Tripolitania, which were conquered by Carthage in the 6th century bc. Greeks subsequently established settlements in Cyrenaica. The Greek historian Herodotus, writing in the 5th century bc, described the Garamantes people of the Fezzan, who were sedentary farmers and used horse-drawn chariots in warfare. His account has been verified in the 20th century by ancient cave art, discovered in the Jabal Akakus of the western Fezzan and the Jabal al-Uwaynat near the Egyptian border. Libya later became a Roman possession, until it was conquered by the Vandals in ad 455. After a reconquest by the Byzantine Empire in the following century, the region was won by the Arabs under Amr ibn al-As in 643.

Ruled successively by the Umayyads, Fatimids, and a Berber dynasty, the historic regions of Tripoli and Cyrenaica were partly conquered by the Normans in 1146 but soon abandoned to Almohad control. During the following centuries Libya, or parts thereof, frequently changed hands until it was finally conquered in the 16th century by the Ottoman Empire.

In the 19th century the puritanical Sanusi sect arose in the interior. The Sanusi led the resistance to the Italians, who began their conquest of Libya in 1911. Turkey renounced its rights over Libya in 1912, but the Sanusi resisted Italian invasion until 1931.

During World War II, Libya was the scene of intense desert fighting between Italo-German and Allied forces. Following the expulsion of Axis troops in 1943, France and Britain shared control of the country. On November 21, 1949, the UN General Assembly approved a resolution calling for the granting of independence to Libya by January 1, 1952.