.
The upheaval was launched in Benghazi, mostly by members of the Libyan Signal Corps. (Huffington) During this event, the crown prince, Sayyid Hasan ar-Rida al-Mahdi as-Sanussi, Idris' nephew, who during King Idris trip was appointed as regent, was captured by Gaddafi's men and placed under house arrest. The Free Officers Movement, as the coup leaders were referred to, declared an end to monarchy in Libya and renamed the country the Libyan Arab Republic. (CIA) The Movement quickly evolved into the Revolutionary Command Council which on September seventh nineteen sixty nine announced that it had formed a cabinet to conduct the business of the government of the new republic. The following day, it was declared that Captain Muammar al-Gaddafi would be promoted to colonel and appointed to commander in chief of the Libyan Armed Forces, making him the new head of state. (CIA).
Gaddafi Maintains Power.
Under Gaddafi, Libya became surrounded with violence and corruption. Libya was confused, chaotic and dangerous in which many videos taken during Gaddafi's rule demonstrate the type of place Libya turned into. Libyans were fleeing Libya in a rush to escape the violence. As David Lamb writes in The Arabs, "Gaddafi has been accused of mining the Red Sea, plotting the assassination of the heads of state of the United States, Britain, France, West Germany and Saudi Arabia, planning the capture of the Grand mosque in Mecca, calling on African Americans in the United States Army to revolt, killing a score of Libyan dissidents abroad and trying to buy an atomic bomb from China." (CNN) Showing just how far Gaddafi was willing to go to have things going his way. Libya was turned from a monarchy system into a mixture of socialism and Islam, a political system that Gaddafi called "the third international theory" (Nations Online). Gaddafi saw himself as a revolutionary leader and would use Libyan oil funds to promote his beliefs in other territories, even supporting terrorist groups in hopes of bringing Marxism and Capitalism to an end.
