ABSTRACT

Eventually Pax Romana prevailed, and Libya enjoyed a long period of prosperity and peace. Primarily a missionary movement, its functions were to spread the call to Islam throughout North Africa and mediate intertribal conflicts. It became a powerful political movement in the last two decades of the nineteenth century, when it sought to curb Ottoman power in the region, and later when it tried to push the Italians out of Libya. King Idris followed a pro-Western foreign policy. Treaties signed with Britain in 1953 and the United States in 1954 allowed those countries to maintain military bases and station forces in Libya in exchange for ensuring Libyan security. The political circle Idris led was centered in the palace and had special ties to Cyrenaica. Political expression was limited, and political parties were disbanded soon after independence. Like most things in Libya, the country's political institutions and dynamics are in constant evolution.