Libyan nationalism refers to the

nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

of Libyans and

Libyan culture Libya is a North African country along the Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered by Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west. The Libyan culture is a blend of many influences, ...

. Libyan nationalism began to arise with the creation of the

Senussi The Senusiyya, Senussi or Sanusi ( ar, السنوسية ''as-Sanūssiyya'') are a Muslim political-religious tariqa (Sufi order) and clan in colonial Libya and the Sudan region founded in Mecca in 1837 by the Grand Senussi ( ar, السنوسي ...

religious orders in the 1830s that blended North African Sufism with orthodox Islam. After colonization of Libya by Italy, opponents of Italian colonial rule from Tripolitania and Cyrenaica combined forces in 1922, with Senussi leader

Omar Mukhtar Omar al-Mukhṭār Muḥammad bin Farḥāṭ al-Manifī ( ar, عُمَر الْمُخْتَار مُحَمَّد بِن فَرْحَات الْمَنِفِي ; 20 August 1858 – 16 September 1931), called The Lion of the Desert, known among ...

leading the revolt against Italian forces in Libya. Libya became an independent state after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Libya under

Muammar Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by '' The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...

initially pursued

pan-Arabism Pan-Arabism ( ar, الوحدة العربية or ) is an ideology that espouses the unification of the countries of North Africa and Western Asia from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, which is referred to as the Arab world. It is closely c ...

but later abandoned this, Gaddafi initiated an

irredentist Irredentism is usually understood as a desire that one state annexes a territory of a neighboring state. This desire is motivated by ethnic reasons (because the population of the territory is ethnically similar to the population of the parent st ...

war with

Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

over the

Aouzou strip The Aouzou Strip (; ar, قطاع أوزو, Qiṭāʿ Awzū, french: Bande d'Aozou) is a strip of land in northern Chad that lies along the border with Libya, extending south to a depth of about 100 kilometers into Chad's Borkou, Ennedi Ouest ...

. Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011.

History

Mid 19th Century

During the 1840s the

religious orders reached the borders of Libya with the help of Algerian sheikh El-Sayyid Mohammed bin Ali Al-Senussi, also known as Grand Sanusi. The Senussi orders created a spiritual unification, a sense of community, among the Libyan people. The Senussi orders were concerned with the spiritual aspect of the religion of Islam. Their presence was detectable among the

tribes The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...

in Libya which provided the religion with more power and influence in the region. They played an important part in creating cohesion among tribes and keeping the tribes at peace, preventing conflict. Within politics, the Senussi orders were concerned with spreading

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...

's reach. They became more prominent in Libya to the point where we could eventually speak of a state within a state led by the Senussi order.

20th Century

Since the 19th century, Italy had had colonial ambitions in Libya. In 1912, the European power invaded and annexed

Tripolitania Tripolitania ( ar, طرابلس '; ber, Ṭrables, script=Latn; from Vulgar Latin: , from la, Regio Tripolitana, from grc-gre, Τριπολιτάνια), historically known as the Tripoli region, is a historic region and former province o ...

and

Cyrenaica Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika ( ar, برقة, Barqah, grc-koi, Κυρηναϊκή ��παρχίαKurēnaïkḗ parkhíā}, after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between ...

right after their recognition by the Turks through the

Treaty of Lausanne The Treaty of Lausanne (french: Traité de Lausanne) was a peace treaty negotiated during the Lausanne Conference of 1922–23 and signed in the Palais de Rumine, Lausanne, Switzerland, on 24 July 1923. The treaty officially settled the confl ...

. The power was shared between the Senussi orders and the Italian authorities in Libya. After the Senussi orders had sided with the Ottoman Empire during the war and lost, Muhammad Idris took the lead in the negotiations with the British. In 1922, the different nationalist groups in Tripoli decided to put their differences aside and recognized Idris as the legitimate leader of Libya. With his nomination, the war between the Senussi orders and the Italians started again. After another Italian victory, thousands of Italians immigrated to the Libyan soil. During World War II, Idris fled to Egypt where he was protected by the British. He finally rose to the throne when Libya was unified under a

constitutional monarchy A constitutional monarchy, parliamentary monarchy, or democratic monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in decision making. Constitutional monarchies dif ...

after the defeat of Italy and Germany. King Muhammad Idris was overthrown in the 1969 coup led by Captain

. Inspired by

Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, . (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian politician who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-r ...

in Egypt, Gaddafi joined his project of regional unity, also called

, aiming at creating a common Arab state. In this project, Gaddafi viewed

as an essential pillar, hence approaching ideas of

pan-Islamism Pan-Islamism ( ar, الوحدة الإسلامية) is a political movement advocating the unity of Muslims under one Islamic country or state – often a caliphate – or an international organization with Islamic principles. Pan-Islamism wa ...

. Islam worked as a unifying factor of universal relevance. Gaddafi wished to promote an alternative to the communism and capitalist philosophies in the

Third International Theory The Third International Theory () was the style of government proposed by Muammar Gaddafi in the early 1970s, on which his government, the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, was officially based. It was partly inspired by Islami ...

. This theory, developed in ''The Green Book'', was addressing not only the Arab world but the entire globe and promoted direct democracy through the

General People's Committee The General People's Committee ( ar, اللجنة الشعبية العامة, ''al-lajna ash-sha'biyya al-'āmma''), often abbreviated as the GPCO, was the executive branch of the government of Libya, during the existence of Muammar Gaddafi's L ...

establishing a direct dialogue between the population and the government.

21st Century

With the failure of the pan-Arabism movement, Gaddafi turned to

pan-Africanism Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all Indigenous and diaspora peoples of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement exte ...

. He was nominated president of the

African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the Africa ...

in 2009 and exposed his ideas of

continentalism Continentalism refers to the agreements or policies that favor the regionalization and/or cooperation between states within a continent. The term is used more often in the European and North American contexts, but the concept has been applied to ...

: Gaddafi did not believe in the possibility of individually strong African states. He claimed that, to find their strength and be able to challenge greater powers, the African states had to unite. He also defended the establishment of a continental army as he argued that no state could flourish and prosper without one. During the Libyan Resistance Movement of 2011 Gaddafi was overthrown. After this, there was a lack of leadership and unity filled by the

National Transitional Council The National Transitional Council of Libya ( ar, المجلس الوطني الإنتقالي '), sometimes known as the Transitional National Council, was the ''de facto'' government of Libya for a period during and after the Libyan Civil War ...

and Non-State (Armed) Actors. The non-state (armed) actors played an important role in the state-building of Libya after 2011: they have provided the Libyan people with, among other things, security and social services.

Long-Distance Nationalism

After the revolution of 1969 many Libyan nationals fled from Libya, resulting in the establishment of a Libyan diaspora across the world in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and the

MENA MENA, an acronym in the English language, refers to a grouping of countries situated in and around the Middle East and North Africa. It is also known as WANA, SWANA, or NAWA, which alternatively refers to the Middle East as Western Asia (or ...

region. During the 2011 revolution, there was support for and part taking in the revolution by Libyan people across the world. The diaspora shared a common feeling of one nation, of connectedness and of belonging to one community.

Social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social me ...

was an important factor in making this possible.

References

Bibliography

* Alunni, Alice. ''Long-Distance Nationalism and Belonging in the Libyan Diaspora''. ''British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies'' 46, no. 2 (March 2019): 242-58. https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2019.1569303. * Badi, Emadeddin. ''Of Conflict and Collapse: Rethinking State Formation in Post-Gaddafi Libya''. ''Middle East Law and Governance'' 13, no. 1 (March 2021): 22-48. * Baldinetti, Anna. ''The Origins of the Libyan Nation''. Abingdon: Routledge, 2010. * Deeb, Marius K. "Islam and Arab Nationalism in Al-Qaddhafi's Ideology". ''Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies'' 2, (Winter 1978): 12-26. * Ladjal, Tarek. ''Tribe and State in the History of Modern Libya: A Khaldunian Reading of the Development of Libya in the Modern Era 1711-2011'', edited by Alexios Alecou. ''Cogent Arts & Humanities'' 3, no. 1 (December 2016): 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2016.1183278. * Motyl, Alexander J.. ''Encyclopedia of Nationalism''. San Diego: Academic Press, 2001. * Ntaka, Buyisile and László Csicsmann. ''Non-State Armed Groups and State-Building in the Arab Region: The Case of Post-Gaddafi Libya''. ''South African Journal of International Affairs'' 28, no. 4 (January 2022): 629-49. https://doi.org/10.1080/10220461.2021.2019104 * Ramutsindela, Maano. "Gaddafi, Continentalism and Sovereignty in Africa". ''South African Geographical Journal'' 91, no. 1 (February 2012): 1-3. {{Ethnic nationalism