1969 Libyan revolution in the context of "Libyan Arab Jamahiriya"

The Sanusi order or Sanusiyyah (Arabic: السنوسية, romanized: as-Sanūssiyya) are a Muslim political-religious Sufi order (tariqa) in Libya and North Africa founded in Mecca in 1837 by Muhammad ibn Ali al-Sanusi.

During World War I the Senusi order fought against both Italy and Britain. During World War II, the order provided support to the British Eighth Army in North Africa against Nazi and Fascist Italian forces. The founder's grandson became King Idris I of Libya in 1951. The 1969 Libyan revolution led by Muammar Gaddafi overthrew him, ending the Libyan monarchy. The movement remained active despite persecution by Gaddafi's government, and its cultural legacy continues to this day in Libya, centered on Cyrenaica.

Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi (c. 1942 – 20 October 2011) was a Libyan military officer, revolutionary, politician, and political theorist who ruled Libya from 1969 until his overthrow by Libyan rebel forces in 2011 during the first Libyan civil war. He came to power through a military coup, first becoming Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977, Secretary General of the General People's Congress from 1977 to 1979, and then the Brotherly Leader of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1979 to 2011. Initially ideologically committed to Arab nationalism and Arab socialism, Gaddafi later ruled according to his own Third International Theory.

Born near Sirte, Italian Libya, to a poor Bedouin Arab family, Gaddafi became an Arab nationalist while at school in Sabha, later enrolling in the Royal Military Academy, Benghazi. He founded a revolutionary group known as the Free Officers movement which deposed the Western-backed Senussi monarchy of Idris in a 1969 coup. Gaddafi converted Libya into a republic governed by his Revolutionary Command Council. Ruling by decree, he deported Libya's Italian population and ejected its Western military bases. He strengthened ties to Arab nationalist governments and unsuccessfully advocated pan-Arab political union. An Islamic modernist, he introduced sharia as the basis for the legal system and promoted Islamic socialism. He nationalized the oil industry and used the increasing state revenues to bolster the military, fund foreign revolutionaries, and implement social programs emphasizing housebuilding, healthcare and education projects. In 1973, he initiated a "Popular Revolution" with the formation of Basic People's Congresses, presented as a system of direct democracy, but retained personal control over major decisions. He outlined his Third International Theory that year in The Green Book.

Muammar Gaddafi became the de facto leader of Libya on 1 September 1969 after leading a group of Libyan Army officers against King Idris I in a bloodless coup d'état. When Idris was in Turkey for medical treatment, the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) headed by Gaddafi abolished the monarchy and the constitution and established the Libyan Arab Republic, with the motto "Unity, Freedom, Socialism". The name of Libya was changed several times during Gaddafi's tenure as leader. From 1969 to 1977, the name was the Libyan Arab Republic. In 1977, the name was changed to Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Jamahiriya was a term coined by Gaddafi, usually translated as "state of the masses". The country was renamed again in 1986 as the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, after the United States bombing that year.

After coming to power, with the oil price rise of the 1970s and consequential rise of the Libyan economy, the RCC government initiated a process of directing funds toward providing education, health care and housing for all. Public education in the country became free and primary education compulsory for both sexes. However, the quality of the education system was far below many other Arab states, even those with much less oil wealth, with 2 hours a week being dedicated to his Green Book. It was also illegal to learn a second language for more than a decade. There were instances of revolt, like the 1976 Libyan protests. There was some students who even faced public execution in the university, witnessed by many other students and broadcast on Libyan state television, such as the Execution of Al-Sadek Hamed Al-Shuwehdy. Medical care became available to the public at no cost, but the quality was far below those of some of its neighbours (Tunisia, Egypt & Malta) which prompted many Libyans to get medical treatments in those countries. Providing housing for all was a task the RCC government was unable to complete. Under Gaddafi, per capita income in the country rose to more than US$11,000 in nominal terms, and to over US$30,000 in PPP terms, the 5th highest in Africa. The increase in prosperity was accompanied by a foreign policy hostile to the other Arab states of the region, an anti-West foreign policy, and increased domestic political repression.

Khalifa Haftar (Arabic: خليفة حفتر, romanized: Ḵalīfa Ḥaftar; born 7 November 1943) is a Libyan-American politician, military officer, and the commander of the Tobruk-based Libyan National Army (LNA). In 2015, he was appointed commander of the armed forces loyal to the elected legislative body, the Libyan House of Representatives. He has been the de facto ruler of the eastern part of Libya since 2017, governing the region as a military dictatorship under the LNA.

Haftar was born in Ajdabiya. He served in the Libyan Army under Muammar Gaddafi, and took part in the coup that brought Gaddafi to power in 1969. He participated in the Libyan contingent against Israel in the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Haftar then participated in the Chadian-Libyan war (1978–1987), becoming promoted to Chief officer of the Libyan military in Chad in 1986 until he was captured by Chadian forces in 1987 and held as a prisoner of war, which was seen as a major embarrassment for Gaddafi and represented a major blow to Gaddafi's ambitions in Chad. While being held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Gaddafi. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades living in the U.S. in Langley, Virginia, and gained U.S. citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia in Libya, of crimes against the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, and sentenced to death.

The Free Officers movement (Arabic: حركة الضباط الأحرار) was a group of Arab nationalist and Nasserist officers in the Libyan Army that planned and carried out the 1969 Libyan revolution, which overthrew the Senussi monarchy of King Idris I, ending the Libyan monarchy. It was led by a twelve-member cabinet known as the Revolutionary Command Council, whose chairman was Muammar Gaddafi, which came to govern the Libyan Arab Republic.