The Brief and Turbulent History of Modern Libya

Chaos, war, and instability reign

(By Achille Beltrame — [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=155030400)

Some countries get a bad rap on the international stage. Libya is one such country. That is not to say that Libya hasn’t had its issues and didn’t do its share of heinous deeds in the past century, but many of Libya’s problems are not inherently its fault. Libya has one of the most turbulent histories of any modern country. The nation has failed to gain even a modicum of stability. Libya was, arguably, the most stable under the rule of Muammar Gaddafi, and that same stability was undermined by the instability of the ruler himself.

So why has Libya been such a chaotic place? Why was Libya dealt a bad hand from history’s dealer?

Libya’s descent into instability began with the Italo-Turkish War, which broke out in 1911. Italy saw what most European powers did during this time. The Ottoman Empire was sick and ailing. Italy was one of the first nations to exploit the growing weakness of the Ottoman Empire by wresting control of the provinces of Tripolitania, Fezzan, and Cyrenaica from Ottoman control. These three provinces historically make up the nation of Libya. The Italians seized them, colonized them, and reforged them into Italian Libya.