Libya was the first African nation under European a colonial power to gain independence. At the time, only Liberia and Ethiopia were not under European rule. Ethiopia was never colonized and Liberia was established by the U.S. in the mid-1800s as a colony for former African American slaves.
Libyan independence came on Dec 24, 1951 when the British and French relinquished power they had held since World War II. The previous year, a national assembly was created by the United Nations in Tripoli. Emir Idris Sanusi was named king of the future independent country.
Libya’s colonial troubles began in 1911 when Italy seized the country from the Ottoman Empire that had been ruling since the 16th century. The Libyans didn’t go down without a fight. Rebel fighter Omar al-Mukhtar began what would become a 20-year insurgency against Italy’s rule.
In the 1920s, the al-Mukhtar campaign gained an ally when the Senussi dynasty, a religious organization with military and administrative functions, joined the rebels in the fight against colonial oppression.
In 1931, al-Mukhtar was captured and executed during a major armed operation by the Italian government to break down the fast-growing resistance movement.
In 1934, Italy envisioned Libya as a part of Greater Italy and as such, it increased the flow of Italians migrating to the North African colony.
During World War II the allies gave Italy the boot from Libya, but this did little to help the Libyans gain independence. The country was then divided between the French and British. It was subsequently ruled under a U.N. trusteeship.
Libya was granted independence on Christmas Eve, 1951, from its colonial governing powers and united as the United Libyan Kingdom, a monarchy, under the rule of King Idris al-Sanusi.
In 1956, Libya gave two American oil companies a drilling concession in the country that covered around 14 million acres, and in 1959 the first successful drilling was reported.
By 1961, Libya had gone from being one of Africa’s poorest countries to one of its richest. King Idris is credited with linking the country’s interior oil fields to the Mediterranean Sea via a 104-mile pipeline that made it possible to export Libya’s oil for the first time.
Just eight years after the oil pipeline was established, Libya’s infamous tyrant, Muammar Gaddafi, deposed King Idris in a 1969 military coup. Gadaffi then established the country as the Libyan Arab Republic and remained in power until he was captured and killed on Oct 20, 2011 following the Arab Spring uprisings earlier that year.
After Gaddafi took control of the country, Independence Day was not celebrated on Dec. 24 for more than 40 years. But when Gaddafi’s rule of terror ended in 2011, Libyans again began celebrating on Christmas Eve, marking a new era with grand fireworks displays.
