Libya country profile – BBC News

Some key dates in Libya’s history:

643AD – Arabs under Amr Ibn al-As conquer Libya and spread Islam.

16th Century – Libya becomes part of the Ottoman Empire, which joins the three provinces of Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan into one regency in Tripoli.

1911-12 – Italy seizes Libya from the Ottomans.

1920s – Libyan resistance to Italian rule grows.

1931 – Italy breaks resistance through combination of major armed operations and concentration camps for rebel population.

1934 – Italy steps up Italian migration as part of an eventual plan for the incorporation of Libya into a Greater Italy.

1942 – Allies oust Italians and their German allies from Libya after a two-year campaign.

1951 – Libya becomes independent under King Idris.

1956 – Development of Libya’s oil reserves starts.

1969 – Muammar Gaddafi, deposes King Idris.

1971 – National referendum approves proposed Federation of Arab Republics (FAR) comprising Libya, Egypt and Syria. However, the FAR never takes off.

1977 – Col Gaddafi declares a “people’s revolution”, changing the country’s official name from the Libyan Arab Republic to the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and setting up “revolutionary committees”.