Libya was part of the Ottoman Turks empire from the middle of the 16th century until 1911, this was the Turks last remaining empire along the North African coast, due to the last minute bid for colonies the Italians took it from them.
From 1945 to 1951 Libya was under UN trusteeship, in 1951 Libya became an independent nation.
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, led a military coup to overthrow King Idris in 1969, he changed dramatically Libya's status.
British and American forces were compelled to leave bases which they had occupied since W.W.2 also thousands of colonial Italian decendents were also forced to leave.
Oil exports bring the country an enormous income, the oil deposits are all gradually being taken over by the government, there was an attempt to form a cartel to resist this development, but by 1973 all foreign oil companies were forced to accept a minimum 51 per cent from Libyan participation.
Libya then took the incentive to refine and distribute their oil, this stopped the need to import refined oil requirements.
Libya is trying to make itself self sufficient in food by developing agriculture, the government are trying to encourage farmers to adopt cooperative methods, dams have been constructed and dry desert is being utilised.
Colonel Gadaffi is well known for his support of liberation movements, this has earned him many enemies but also a lot of respect.
In the 1980's he allowed death squads to try and eliminate exiled Libyan opponents living in western countries.
Libya occupied a section of northern Chad, and when civil war broke out they injected many troops and arms into the country, it was soon after that Libya and Chad told the world of their intention to merge this idea was soon forgotten due to the conflict which engulfed Chad.
In 1983 ex President Goukouni Oueddi supported by 5000 Libyan troops was left in control of the north of the country as a consequent of the stalemate which arrived in 1983, the centre and south of the country was controlled by Hissene Habre who was supported by 3200 French Legionaries.
The two countries made an agreement to withdraw their troops this was due to the fact that neither country wanted to risk a direct confrontation and so secret talks were held in September 1984.
The French withdrew from the country but the Libyans didn't and so the French troops were ordered by their government to return.
The French managed to push the Libyans back into the Aouzou Strip.
Colonel Gaddafi was so keen to take control of Chad due to its deposits of gold, uranium, cassiterite and bauxite.
This union with Chad was an attempt at pan-Arabism, Colonel Gaddafi has tried this before with Tunisia, Sudan, Syria and Egypt none of these attempts worked.
Libya has twice been on the brink of war with Egypt, due to the treatment of Egyptian workers in Libya, also due to the Camp David peace treaty with Israel.
Gaddafi also tried to create a lose federation with Morocco this attempt failed also.
There have been a lot of attempted military coups, Gaddafi created revolutionary committees staffed by young zealots who were only answerable to him. This was an attempt to erode opposition and this movement has gained a lot of power at the expense of the armed forces.
Recently there has been a plan to replace the regular army with a "peoples army".
The transition between nomadic to a modern consumer society was extremely rapid and caused many problems such as high inflation, expensive yet scarce food with basic food types being impossible to find, Libya has to import 90 per cent of its food.
Expatriate workers were very important in Libya, even after the shooting down of Libyan jets by Americans, American workers remained there, most were forced to leave when American armed forces were ordered to attack Libyan mainland targets, this was a retaliation attack due to an extreme Palistinian group's alleged airport massacres in Europe and Libya's subsequent complacency towards the situation.
Colonel Gaddifi escaped the bombings, this attack had more to do with personal animosity towards Gaddafi than the facts, it seemed that Syria deserved the blame more but the US administration decided to turn a blind eye, as Assad's cooperation was vital within the US sponsored Middle East peace negotiations for the release of hostages held in Lebanon.