A nation divided for 2,000 years, united by Mussolini
Annexation: Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini united three independent regions in north Africa to create modern Libya
The idea of dividing Libya into two regions – as suggested by armed forces minister Nick Harvey this week – has strong historical pedigree.
In fact, the way the civil war has split the country between a western region centred on Tripoli and an eastern region at Benghazi mirrors the situation over the 2,000 years before the Italian takeover of 1911.
Historically, Benghazi is part of Cyrenaica, founded in the 7th century BC by Greek colonists around the ancient city of Cyrene.
Tripoli – 1,200 miles to the West – was, on the other hand, founded by Carthaginians, who wanted to trade with the indigenous Berber tribesmen.
Over two millennia both colonies maintained their separate identities. Greek-influenced Cyrenaica developed a reputation for arts, crafts, medicine and learning while Tripoli focused on the commercial skills of its founders. The Roman historian Plutarch described the Carthaginians as ‘coarse and gloomy, submissive to those who govern them and despotic to those they govern’.
Trade – indeed all contact – between the two regions was rare; land travel over such large distances was difficult and the sea route was not favoured by the prevailing winds.
Under Persian, Egyptian and Macedonian rule, the two regions stayed apart and when the Romans rolled in, they ruled Tripolitania province directly but joined Cyrenaica to their existing province of Crete.
Tripoli and Benghazi had a common language and common legal system but continued to develop separately.
Leadership: King Idris, left, was the first and only king of Libya, reigning from 1951 until he was deposed in a coup led by Colonel Gaddafi, right, in 1969
The East embraced Christianity until the marauding Vandals, then Arab invaders and later Ottoman Turks suppressed those who followed the religion.
Under the Ottomans, Tripoli became one of the great cities of the region, jewel of what was known as the Maghreb, or Barbary Coast. Its population was predominantly Moorish and Muslim.
While the Ottoman empire crumbled Tripolitania stayed rich, largely through piracy and the slave trade, which was allowed to continue until 1890.
In 1911, Italy invaded, annexing Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and southern Fezzan as three separate colonies. Mussolini combined them in 1934 into a new country he called Libya, a Latin corruption of Libu, the Greek name for the Berbers.
The country has stayed together under King Idris and Muammar Gaddafi – until now.
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