A History of Modern Libya

294 Pages·2012·8.629 MB·English

by  Dirk Vandewalle

A History of Modern LibyA
second edition
dirk Vandewalle is one of only a handful of scholars who have made
frequent visits to Libya over the last four decades. His formidable
knowledge of the region is encapsulated in his history of Libya, which
was first published in 2006. The book – based on original research
and interviews with Libya’s political elite – traces Libya’s history back
to the 1900s with a portrait of Libya’s desert terrain, its peoples, and
the personalities that shaped its development. it then examines the
harrowing years of the italian occupation in the early twentieth cen-
tury, through the sanusi monarchy and, thereafter, to the revolu-
tion of 1969 and the accession of Qadhafi. The chapters that follow
analyze the economics and politics of Qadhafi’s revolution, offering
insights into the man and his ideology as reflected in his Green Book.
in the wake of the civil war and Qadhafi’s demise, the time is ripe
for an updated edition of the history, which covers the years from
2005 to the present. These were the years when Libya finally came
in from the cold after years of political and economic isolation. The
agreement to give up the weapons of mass destruction program paved
the way for improved relations with the West. by this time, however,
Qadhafi had lost the support of his people and, despite attempts to
liberalize the economy, real structural reform proved impossible. This,
as Vandewalle contends in the preface to this new edition, coupled
with tribal rivalries, regional divisions, and a general lack of unity,
paved the way for revolution and civil war. in an epilogue, the author
reflects on Qadhafi’s premiership, The Green Book’s stateless society,
and the legacy that Qadhafi leaves behind.
dirk Vandewalle is Associate Professor of Government at dartmouth
College. He is the author of Libya Since Independence: Oil and State-
Building (1998) and editor of North Africa: Development and Reform
in a Changing Global Economy (1996) and Qadhafi’s Libya: 1969–1994
(1995).

A H i s t o r y o f

M o d e r n L i b yA
second edition
dirk VAndeWALLe
Dartmouth College
cambridge university press
Cambridge, new york, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape town,
singapore, são Paulo, delhi, Mexico City
Cambridge University Press
32 Avenue of the Americas, new york, NY 10013-2473, USA
www.cambridge.org
information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107615748
© Cambridge University Press 2006, 2012
This publication is in copyright. subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
first published 2006
second edition 2012
Printed in the United states of America
A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data
Vandewalle, dirk J.
A history of modern Libya / dirk Vandewalle. – 2nd ed.
p. cm.
includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-107-01939-3 (hardback) – ISBN 978-1-107-61574-8 (paperback)
1. Libya – History – 1969– 2. Libya – foreign relations – 1969–
3. Libya – Politics and government – 1969– i. title.
DT236.V35 2012
961.204–dc23 2011040931
ISBN 978-1-107-01939-3 Hardback
ISBN 978-1-107-61574-8 Paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external
or third-party internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any
content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Contents

List of Illustrations page vii
List of Maps viii
Preface to the Second Edition ix
Preface to the First Edition xiii
Chronology, 1900–2011 xvii
List of Acronyms xxxvi
introduction: Libya, the enigmatic oil state 1
1 “A tract which is wholly sand …” Herodotus 11
Libya’s geography 14
The ottoman period and the sanusiyya 16
european intrusions and the young turk revolt 20
The ottoman legacy 22
2 italy’s fourth shore and decolonization, 1911–1950 24
The italian occupation, 1911–1923 24
fascism and the italian settler colony 30
World War ii, italy’s defeat, and the Great Power deliberations 34
Legacies at the eve of independence 40
3 The sanusi monarchy as accidental state, 1951–1969 43
Politics of avoidance: the reluctant monarchy 45
The development challenges of the first decade 50
The Libyan oil industry 53
The unification of the kingdom 61
The social impact of oil and the early seeds of revolution 68
The monarchy in perspective 72
v
vi Contents
4 A Libyan sandstorm: from monarchy to republic, 1969–1973 76
Libya’s young revolutionaries 78
Popular revolution, participation, and legitimacy 82
Charisma and rhetoric as mobilizational tools 85
oil and economic management 88
The revolution on the eve of the 1973 oil crisis 93
5 The Green Book’s stateless society, 1973–1986 96
revolutionaries, technocrats, and “The Green Book” as political primer 99
“The Green Book’s” economic and social directives 104
oil and development 108
The revolutionary society 117
symbols, myths, islam, and opposition 122
terrorism, adventurism, and confrontation with the West 128
The revolutionary decade revisited 133
6 The limits of the revolution, 1986–2000 137
Curtailing revolutionary energy 139
“The Great Green Charter of Human Rights” 142
Protecting the regime: formal and informal means of power and control 143
The economic sanctions and their impact 150
economic sanctions and oil policies 156
Attempts at economic reform 159
The lessons of failed reforms 163
Confrontation, terrorism, and sanctions 166
The revolution curtailed 170
7 reconciliation, civil war, and fin de régime, 2003–2011 173
The road to disarmament 177
Pragmatism, economic reform, and political reality 182
from Arab socialism to pan-African unity 194
The delusions of Qadhafi and of the West 198
The uprising in Cyrenaica and the civil war 203
epilogue: Whither Libya? 210
Notes 215
Bibliography 227
Index 237
Illustrations

1 omar al-Mukhtar. © Centre for Libyan studies, oxford page 31
2 benito Mussolini in Libya in 1937. © bettmann / Corbis 35
3 Proclamation of the creation of the United kingdom
of Libya at al-Manar Palace in benghazi. © Centre
for Libyan studies, oxford 44
4 richard nixon in Libya. © Centre for Libyan studies, oxford 73
5 Qadhafi , Arafat, Hussein, and nasser, 1970.
© bettmann / Corbis 77
6 Lockerbie bombing. © bryn Colton / Assignments
Photographers / Corbis 168
7 tripoli, Libyan Arab Jamahiriyya. © AfP / Getty images 179
8 female soldier during the 34th anniversary of the revolution
in september 2003. © AfP / Getty images 198
vii
Maps

1 General map of Libya page 13
2 ethnic and tribal map of Libya 25
3 economic activity 97
viii