Libyan coup d'état - September 1, 1969

On this day in 1969, the Free Officers Movement overthrew King Idris I, and Muammar Gaddafi assumed power. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Stay in History Class. It's a production of I
Heart Radio. Hi there, Welcome to this Day in History class,
where we stift through the artifacts of history seven days
a week. Today is September one, nineteen. The day was

(00:23):
September one, nineteen sixty nine. In Dress. The first and
only King of Libya was overthrown in a coup while
he was in Turkey for medical treatment. More Marek Gaddafi,
a Libyan army officer, was named Commander in Chief of
the Armed Forces and the chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council,

(00:44):
Libya's new governing body. Gaddafi reigned for forty two years
until he was killed in October of eleven. Gaddafi was
a controversial figure, with some viewing him as an oppressive
and eccentric dictate lader, and others a praising his reforms,
charisma and anti imperialism. Kaddafi was born in Libya when

(01:08):
it was an Italian colony. Libya gained its independence in
nineteen fifty one, and it became a constitutional and hereditary
monarchy under King Idris the first. Early on, Gaddafi was
politically active. He was a fan of Egyptian president Gamal
Updale Nasser, who advocated for socialism and Arab nationalism and

(01:33):
argued against Western colonialism. Gaddafi himself was a devout muslim
An Arab nationalists and critical of the monarchy under King Idris.
He read works by revolutionaries and about revolution. In the
early nineteen sixties, Gaddafi began military training in Benghazi. He

(01:55):
graduated from the Royal Military Academy in nineteen sixty five,
but while he was there he became part of the
Free Unionist Officers movement. Inspired by the Egyptian Free Officers,
he and some of his friends planned to overthrow King Idris.
The monarch was falling out of favor with more Libyans,

(02:17):
as Arab nationalism game support, and people were unhappy with
the monarchy's corruption and ties to Western nations. After rising
through the ranks of the military and gaining power within
the Free Unionist Officers movement, Gaddafi decided to stage a
coup with his fellow officers to overthrow the Libyan monarchy.

(02:39):
On September one, nineteen sixty nine, dozens of officers in
the Free Officers movement overthrew the monarchy in a bloodless
coup while Indriss was out of the country. After just
a few days, the Libyan Arab Republic was declared. Experienced
officers and civilians were appointed to senior government because editions,

(03:01):
but while the Revolutionary Command Council was in theory meant
to discuss issues until it because sinceus was reached, Gaddafi
suppressed his opposition and exerted his own will. Gaddafi had
taken over Libya at just twenty seven years old. Gaddafi
made changes under what he called Islamic socialism. He closed

(03:23):
American and British military basis in Libya. He replaced the
Gregorian calendar with the Islamic one, and people were required
to use Arabic in official and public communications. Gaddafi nationalized finance, business,
and industry, including big oil interests. He also banned alcohol

(03:43):
and nightclubs and declared the Koran the law of the land.
In nineteen seventy, he expelled all Italians from Libya. He
also opposed Zionism in Israel and expelled Jewish people from Libya,
and Gaddafi's supported Pan Arab unity. He criminalized political dissent,

(04:04):
and he worked to turn Libya away from the West
and toward the Middle East in Africa. Gaddafi eventually transitioned
to a style of government that he called Third International Theory,
under which he further distributed wealth among citizens and funded housing, agriculture,
and healthcare. He summarized the tenets of his Third International

(04:27):
Theory and a series called The Green Book. The text
explained the problems with liberal democracy and capitalism and uplifted
Gaddafi's policies. Throughout the nineteen seventies, Libya intervened in the
affairs of neighboring countries and forged agreements with others. Gaddafi's
rule was divisive. He encouraged groups to kill Libyan dissidents

(04:51):
in exile abroad. Western nations, especially the United States, took
issue with Gaddafi and Libya's support of terror risk and
revolutionary groups around the world, like Palestinian groups, the Irish
Republican Army, the Black Panthers, and the Japanese Red Army.
Gaddafi has been accused of sexual abuse. He also instituted

(05:15):
social programs that improved the standard of living in Libya
and garnered a cult of personality around his peculiar persona.
For instance, he traveled with a group of women bodyguards
and heels, and many supported his vision of pan Africanism
and African self sufficiency. Tensions between Gaddafi and Western nations

(05:37):
east in the nineteen nineties, but in eleven Gaddafi was
captured and killed during the Battle of Search, with an
autopsy revealing that he was shot in the head. I'm
eas Jeff Coote and hopefully you know a little more
about history today than you did yesterday. If you have
any burning questions or comments to tell us, you can

(06:00):
find us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at t d
i HC podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and
I hope to see you again tomorrow for more tidbits
of history. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit

(06:25):
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