The failure of Libya

Thèmes abordés

Failure of Libya, Amazigh, Arabs, Cyrenaica, Tripolitania, Greece, Carthago, Roman era, islamization, Ottoman era, Italian colonization, Sanusiyya, Islamic brotherhood, Italian Libya, rule of Gadhafi, Muammar Gadhafi, the Arab Spring

Résumé du document

While studying the situation in Libya, we are facing a case that is really different from the other failed states. Contrary to Irak or Syria, there is no ethnic differences. Libyans are, like most people from North Africa, a mixed people made of Amazigh and Arabs. Contrary to Irak, Syria or Yemen, Libya is a religiously homogeneous country, with Sunni Islam as the dominant religion. Actually, the failure of the Libyan nation-state is due to historical and cultural differences between the West and the East of the country.

Extraits

[...] This new dynasty appeared in Kabylia. They adopted the ismailian shiite religion, in order to face the arabisation of North Africa. Under the banner of a self-proclaimed mahdī, Ubayd Allah, they conquered Tripolitania in 913 and Cyrenaica in 914. Cyrenaica would become the basis for the future invasions of Egypt by the Fatimids. Libya was at the time the center of the Fatimid Empire, even after the conquest of Egypt. However, under the rule of al-Hakim (996 - 1021), the Fatimids began to lose their Western part, with the Umayyad Abu Rakwa who led an army of Amazigh and Arabs from Tripolitania. [...]

[...] But the civil war is not only ideological or theological. Actually, it takes a tribal dimension. Indeed, if ISIS relies on the Sunni-Shiite conflict in Iraq, this paradigm is not relevant anymore when it comes to Libya. ISIS, settled in Cyrenaica, is made of Iraqi soldiers fighting against each Libyan tribe that does not pledge allegiance to it. ISIS's goal in Libya is actually to make a junction with Boko Haram, through the desert just below the Gulf of Sirte. [...]

[...] The priority in Tripoli was to build a state, with democratic elections, but Libya did not exist anymore. This situation led to the second civil war, between Tobruk government (Cyrenaica) and Tripoli government. Very quickly, islamist groups of Cyrenaica joined the war, fighting both Tripoli and Tobruk governments. Cyrenaica claimed its independence in 2014. The historical opposition between Cyrenaica and Tripolitania has here repercussions at the international scale, since Egypt is supporting the Tobruk government. This dichotomy has also repercussions on the ideological struggle between Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. [...]

[...] For the first time in history, Tripoli faced an American intervention because of piracy. In the XIXth century, the Ottomans took back Libya in order to use it as a strategic place to face European colonialism in Africa. The Ottomans separated the country into two provinces, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica again. The Ottoman power in Cyrenaica was appointed to the Sanūsiyya, an Islamic brotherhood. To fight the Europeans and the Southern tribes, the Ottomans totally delegated their power to the Sanūsiyya in Cyrenaica, to focus on Tripolitania. [...]

[...] Tripolitania had to face both the Hilalian invasion and the invasion of Ifriqiyya by Roger II, King of Sicily. After the Fatimid Caliphate has fallen, Cyrenaica is integrated into the Ayyubid kingdom founded by Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi. Cyrenaica followed the fate of Egypt for a long time, passing through the Mamluk sultanate then the beginning of the Ottoman domination over Egypt. Tripolitania was ruled by the Hafsids, a dynasty of governors established in Ifriqiyya during the rule of the Almohads. [...]