 |
Travel to Libya — Unbiased reviews and
great deals from TripAdvisorLibya
| Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya National name: Al Jumahiriyah al Arabiyah
al Libiyah ash Shabiyah al Ishtirakiyah al Uzma Chief of State: Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi
(1969) Prime Minister: Mubarak
Abdallah al-Shamikh (2000)
Current government officials
Total area: 679,358 sq mi (1,759,540 sq
km) Population (2008 est.): 6,173,579
(growth rate: 2.2%); birth rate: 25.6/1000; infant mortality rate:
21.9/1000; life expectancy: 77.0; density per sq km: 3
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Tripoli, 2,357,800 (metro. area), 1,269,700
(city proper) Other large city:
Benghazi, 734,900 Monetary unit:
Libyan dinar
Languages:
Arabic, Italian, and English widely understood
in major cities
Ethnicity/race:
Berber and Arab 97%, Greeks, Maltese, Italians,
Egyptians, Pakistanis, Turks, Indians, Tunisians
Religion:
Islam (Sunni) 97%
National Holiday:
Revolution Day, September 1 Literacy rate: 83% (2003 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.):
$74.75 billion; per capita $ $12,300. Real growth rate: 6.8%.
Inflation: 6.7%. Unemployment: 30% (2004 est.).
Arable land: 1%. Agriculture: wheat, barley, olives,
dates, citrus, vegetables, peanuts, soybeans; cattle. Labor force:
1.64 million; agriculture 17%, industry 23%, services 60% (2004
est.). Industries: petroleum, iron and steel, food processing,
textiles, handicrafts, cement. Natural resources: petroleum,
natural gas, gypsum. Exports: $30.79 billion f.o.b. (2005
est.): crude oil, refined petroleum products, natural gas.
Imports: $10.82 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): machinery,
transport equipment, semi-finished goods, food, consumer products.
Major trading partners: Italy, Germany, Spain, Turkey, France,
South Korea, UK, Tunisia (2004). Communications: Telephones: main lines in
use: 500,000 (1998); mobile cellular: 20,000 (1998). Radio
broadcast stations: AM 16, FM 3, shortwave 3 (2002).
Radios: 1.35 million (1997). Television broadcast
stations: 12 (plus one low-power repeater) (1999).
Televisions: 730,000 (1997). Internet Service Providers
(ISPs): 1 (2002). Internet users: 20,000 (2001). Transportation: Railways: 0 km.
Highways: total: 83,200 km; paved :47,590 km; unpaved: 35,610
km (1999 est.). Waterways: none. Ports and harbors: Al
Khums, Banghazi, Darnah, Marsa al Burayqah, Misratah, Ra's Lanuf,
Tobruk, Tripoli, Zuwarah. Airports: 136 (2002). International disputes: Libya has claimed
more than 32,000 sq km in southeastern Algeria and about 25,000 sq km
in Niger in currently dormant disputes; various Chadian rebels from
the Aozou region reside in southern Libya.
Major sources and definitions
|
|
Geography
Libya stretches along the northeast coast of
Africa between Tunisia and Algeria on the west and Egypt on the east; to
the south are the Sudan, Chad, and Niger. It is one-sixth larger than
Alaska. A greater part of the country lies within the Sahara. Along the
Mediterranean coast and farther inland is arable plateau land.
Government
Military dictatorship.
History
The first inhabitants of Libya were Berber
tribes. In the 7th century B.C., Phoenicians
colonized the eastern section of Libya, called Cyrenaica, and Greeks
colonized the western portion, called Tripolitania. Tripolitania was for a
time under Carthaginian control. It became part of the Roman Empire from
46 B.C. to A.D. 436,
after which it was sacked by the Vandals. Cyrenaica belonged to the Roman
Empire from the 1st century B.C. until its
decline, after which it was invaded by Arab forces in 642. Beginning in
the 16th century, both Tripolitania and Cyrenaica nominally became part of
the Ottoman Empire.
Tripolitania was one of the outposts for the
Barbary pirates who raided Mediterranean merchant ships or required them
to pay tribute. In 1801, the pasha of Tripoli raised the price of tribute,
which led to the Tripolitan war with the United States. When the peace
treaty was signed on June 4, 1805, U.S. ships no longer had to pay tribute
to Tripoli.
Following the outbreak of hostilities between
Italy and Turkey in 1911, Italian troops occupied Tripoli. Italian
sovereignty was recognized in 1912. Libyans continued to fight the
Italians until 1914, by which time Italy controlled most of the land.
Italy formally united Tripolitania and Cyrenaica in 1934 as the colony of
Libya.
Libya was the scene of much desert fighting
during World War II. After the fall of Tripoli on Jan. 23, 1943, it came
under Allied administration. In 1949, the UN voted that Libya should
become independent, and in 1951 it became the United Kingdom of Libya. Oil
was discovered in the impoverished country in 1958 and eventually
transformed its economy.
On Sept. 1, 1969, 27-year-old Col. Muammar
al-Qaddafi deposed the king and revolutionized the country, making it a
pro-Arabic, anti-Western, Islamic republic with socialist leanings. It was
also rabidly anti-Israeli. A notorious firebrand, Qaddafi aligned himself
with dictators, such as Uganda's Idi Amin, and fostered anti-Western
terrorism.
On Aug. 19, 1981, two U.S. Navy F-14s shot down
two Soviet-made SU-22s of the Libyan air force that had attacked them in
air space above the Gulf of Sidra. On March 24, 1986, U.S. and Libyan
forces skirmished in the Gulf of Sidra, and two Libyan patrol boats were
sunk. Qaddafi's troops also supported rebels in Chad but suffered major
military reverses in 1987. A two-year-old U.S. covert policy to
destabilize the Libyan government ended in failure in Dec. 1990.
On Dec. 21, 1988, a Boeing 747 exploded in
flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, the result of a terrorist bomb, killing
all 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground. This and other acts of
terrorism, including the bombing of a Berlin discotheque in 1986 and the
downing of a French UTA airliner in 1989 that killed 170, turned Libya
into a pariah in the eyes of the West. Two Libyan intelligence agents were
indicted in the Lockerbie bombing, but Qaddafi refused to hand them over,
leading to UN-approved trade and air traffic embargoes in 1992. In 1999,
Libya finally surrendered the two men, who were tried in the Netherlands
in 2000–2001. One was found guilty of mass murder; the other
defendant was found innocent. Libya had hoped its fainthearted cooperation
would lead to suspended sanctions, which had severely affected the Libyan
economy. The UN did suspend its sanctions, but they were not formally
removed for another four years, until Sept. 2003, when Libya finally
admitted its guilt in the Lockerbie bombing and agreed to pay $2.7 billion
to the families. In 2004, Libya also agreed to compensate the families of
the victims of the UTA airliner bombing ($170 million) and the Berlin
disco bombing ($35 million).
After months of secret talks with the U.S. and
Britain, Qaddafi surprised the world in Dec. 2003 by announcing he would
give up the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and submit to full UN
weapons inspections. After inspections at four secret sites, the
International Atomic Energy Agency concluded that Libya's progress on a
nuclear bomb had been in the very nascent stages. In May 2006, the U.S.
announced it would restore full diplomatic relations with Libya after a
25-year hiatus.
In Dec. 2006, five Bulgarian nurses and a
Palestinian doctor working in Libya were sentenced to death after being
convicted of infecting hundreds of Libyan children with AIDS. The evidence
used to convict the medical workers is considered highly specious, and
many believe that Libya is attempting to deflect the blame for the 1998
outbreak of AIDS in a Libyan hospital to foreigners. In July 2007, Libya's
Supreme Court upheld the death sentences. Days later, however, the
country's High Judicial Council commuted the sentences. On the same day as
the commutations, the government agreed to pay $1 million to the familes
of each of the 460 victims.
See also Encyclopedia: Libya.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Libya
Information Please® Database, © 2008 Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
More on Libya from Infoplease:
- East Timor to Libya - East Timor to Libya Information Please® Database, © 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All ...
- Libya - Libya Libya , officially Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahirya [state of the masses], ...
- Libya - Libya Profile: People, History, Government and Political Conditions, Economy, Foreign Relations, U.S.-Libyan Relations
- Libya: meaning and definitions - Libya: Definition and Pronunciation
- Libya - Map of Libya & articles on flags, geography, history, statistics, disasters current events, and international relations.
|
|
