Libya (1983: Doomsday)

Pre-Doomsday
Libya has for many thousands of years been fought over by various world superpowers, Libya was ruled over by the Romans, then the Arabs, then the Ottoman empire and until the end of the second world war it was ruled by the Italians however after the war ended the United Kingdom took control of the country as a British administration colony. In 1951 Libya declared independance from the UK as a constitutional monarchy under Sultan Idris.

On September 1, 1969, a small group of military officers led by then 27-year-old army officer Muammar al-Gaddafi staged a coup d'état against Sultan Idris, launching the Libyan Revolution. At the time, Idris was in Turkey for medical treatment. His nephew, Crown Prince Sayyid Hasan ar-Rida al-Mahdi as-Sanussi, became King. It was clear that the revolutionary officers who had announced the deposition of Sultan Idris did not want to appoint him over the instruments of state as King. Gaddafi was at the time only a captain and his co-conspirators were all junior officers. Nevertheless the small group seized Libyan military headquarters (due to the sympathies of the stationed men) and the radio broadcasting station with 48 rounds of revolver ammunition. Before the end of September 1, Sayyid Hasan ar-Rida had been formally deposed by the revolutionary army officers and put under house arrest. Meanwhile, revolutionary officers abolished the monarchy, and proclaimed the new Libyan Arab Republic. Gaddafi was, and is to this day, referred to as the "Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution" in government statements and the official press.

Since the early 1980's Libya began to distance itself from the USA. On August 19, 1981 the US navy was sent close to Libya's coast which resulted in a confrontation where two of the SU-22 fighters supplied to Libya by the Soviet Union were shot down. Following this, Libya was implicated in committing mass acts of state-sponsored terrorism.

On Doomsday the captial Tripoli was hit with a 150 Kilotonne weapon, it is not known who fired the weapon however it is assumed that it was either the USA (as a trade partner with the USSR) or possibly Israel.

Doomsday
On Doomsday the entire governmental and many military assests were destroyed as their bases inside Tripoli were vapourised in the 150 KT explosion. Within 2 months the country had collasped into anarchy and chaos. With no security forces many warlords take control of towns throughout the country these continued infighting for many years, reducing the population of the country further. International investigators assessed that Libya as a independant country seased to exist sometime early in 1984.

Since the atmospheric upheavals initiated by Doomsday rainfall across the Sahara Desert has increased to a point where it is now starting to take on the appearance of a dry savanna type landscape.

After Libya
In recent years the eastern parts of the former country have been taken over by Egypt and much of the coastline has been taken over by the Greek state of Cyrenaica.