Mohomad Qaddafi the king of libya

The son of an itinerant Bedouin farmer Qaddafi was born in a tent in the Libyan desert. He proved a talented student and graduated from the University of Libya in 1963 A devout Muslim and ardent Arab nationalist, Qaddafi early began plotting to overthrow the Libyan monarchy of King Idris I He graduated from the Libyan military academy in 1965 and thereafter rose steadily through the ranks all the while continuing to plan a coup with the help of his fellow army officers. On September 1 1969 Qaddafi seized control of the government in a military coup that deposed King Idris. Qaddafi was named commander in chief of the armed forces and chairman of Libya new governing body the Revolutionary Command Council The President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano at the Quirinale Palace (cropped out), shakes hands with the President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, Rome, Oct 17 2009. egypt protests 2011 protests in egypt 2011 Britannica Quiz Before They Were World Leaders: Middle East Edition Qaddafi removed the U.S. and British military bases from Libya in 1970. He expelled most members of the native Italian and Jewish communities from Libya that same year, and in 1973 he nationalized all foreign-owned petroleum assets in the country. He outlawed alcoholic beverages and gambling, in accordance with his own strict principles. Qaddafi also began a series of persistent but unsuccessful attempts to unify Libya with other Arab countries. He was adamantly opposed to negotiations with Israel and became a leading figure in the Arab world in the rejection of the Egyptian-Israeli peace process. He earned a reputation for military adventurism; his government was implicated in several abortive coup attempts in Egypt and Sudan, and Libyan forces persistently intervened in the long-running civil war in neighbouring Chad. From 1974 onward Qaddafi espoused a form of socialism as expressed in The Green Book. This combined the nationalization of many economic sectors with a brand of populist government ostensibly operating through people’s congresses labour unions, and other mass organizations. Innovations along these lines continued to be introduced, including a system of government in 1977 called jamāhīriyyah (a neologism implying a popular decentralized confederation) Qaddafi relinquished his formal leadership of Libya’s government in 1979 but despite the claims of merely guiding a revolutionary form of populist democracy, the reins of power remained firmly concentrated in his hands.