First Libyan Empire

1AD – 192AD

### Ethnic groups

Arabs, Berbers, Bantus, Chadians, Nilotes, Fulanis, Ethiopians, Somalis, Malagasy, Malays, Filipinos, Caribs, Tupi, Quechua, other Native Americans

### Regional Language(s)

Nilotic, Coptic, Swahili, Malagasy, Bantu, Malay, Javanese, Arawakan, Quechua, Mayan

### Minority Religion(s)

Sunni Islam, Ibadi Islam, Waaqeffanna, Coptic Orthodoxy, Ethiopian Orthodoxy

### Succeded by

Terran Confederation

The **First Libyan Empire** was one of the most important nations of the Classic Era, and the main superpower of Africa during its existence. At its height of power, it directly controlled the vast majority of the African continent, the northern and northwestern half of South America, most of the Indonesian archipelago in Southeast Asia and some territories in North America. Its empire was one of the strongest in the world, only being surpassed by Byzantium, Scotland, Bharat, and New Portugal later on. It is generally considered one of the first great Islamic empires to have been created, with it being the oldest of the many Arab nations that would follow it. Early on, they were a major power in Northern Africa, and later established themselves across nearly the whole continent.

Libya was subject to many controversies during its existence, mainly caused by their rivalry with Scotland. At one point, them and Scotland were major rivals, and engaged in numerous arguments. Some would also escalate into border gore and near-war events, but they later began to cooperate after Libya joined the United Legion, Scotland's largest alliance. They infamously would work against both Scotland and the Scottish Resistance in the First Worlda War, giving them a bad reputation. Later, they also betrayed Byzantium during the Second Worlda War, which would eventually lead to Libya's downfall.

After attempting to illegally claim all of Western Africa due to a misunderstood treaty, a coalition formed against them and their empire would be dissolved. The First Libyan Empire spread Islam across much of Africa, and its downfall led to many new African states emerging from its former lands. Over a century after their fall, a second Libyan empire would form, and reconquered some of their territories.

## History

### Formation and early expansion

The First Libyan Empire officially formed in 1AD with the union of smaller Arab and Berber tribes in the regions of Cyrenaica and Marmarica. A man named Muhammad as-Senussi was chosen as the leader of the new nation, and was the one who united them originally. The capital started off in the important city of Benghazi, and functioned more as a confederacy than it did a centralized country during its early years.

Libya began calling itself an empire from the very beginning, although it was not much of an empire early on. The first expansions of the empire were along the Gulf of Sidra, and then towards the city of Cairo, and the Nile delta. It was hoped that the city of Cairo would bring riches to the Libyans. However, before reaching the city, Muhammad died and his son Meryey took control of the empire. Rather than take Cairo, he wished to conquer lands elsewhere, mainly in Libya itself.

Meryey centralized the country and formed the Libyan navy. Meryey's first attempt at exploring lands outside their borders led them south into the Sahara, which was mostly worthless desert. By the time Meryey got back from this expedition, the navy was ready to begin exploring the Mediterranean Sea, which was mostly unknown to Libya before then besides the Gulf of Sidra. His navy landed in Cyprus but found it was already under the control of the Anatolian Commonwealth. This led them to sailing west of Cyprus, finding Crete, which was under Byzantium's rule, and eventually Sicily, an unclaimed island.

They established the colony along the southern edge of the island. This new colony was soon discovered and bordered by the British Empire, with the island being split in half. This lead Libya to look for more Mediterranean islands to colonize. Libya would then colonize Sardinia, taking the whole island.

### Axis alliance and African expansion

The Anatolians offered Meryey a military alliance, which he gladly accepted. The name of this alliance was to be known as the Çorum-Tripoli Axis and later the Tripoli Axis. The alliance was helpful to Libya, as they could now stand up against the much larger empires that were nearby.

Meryey's expansions did not end with the colonizing the Mediterranean Sea islands, as he also set west towards the city of Tripoli. After capturing the city, he moved the capital to Tripoli as it was more centralized, and a much larger city compared to Benghazi. Meryey's last conquests led Libya towards Tunisia, finding and bordering Sfax, which was owned by Poland. He died soon afterwards.

After Meryey's death, Dassin would take control of the country, beginning with expanding south, farther than his father did only to find little to nothing special in the deserts of Fezzan and south Cyrenaica. This did not let him down, leading him to continue expanding the empire more and more, growing its territory into the desert, as well as into Tunisia and Egypt.

After the fall of their ally, the Seljuk Commonwealth, the Libyan Empire managed to seize much of their former land, such as the Nile delta and its large cities, and holy cities in the Levant like Jerusalem and Hebron. The empire used this to conquer the remaining lands of Egypt, obtaining large chunks of the Nile. The empire also took over the Seljuk's Somalian colony, making it the nation's first colony. This was around the time the Libyan Empire and British Empire became rivals, competing for African lands.

Dassin and his successor Sarah I would continue to conquer further south into Central Africa, getting into several border disputes with Scotland along the way, the most notable being the border disputes over Lake Chad, which was eventually peacefully settled by both parties. Libya gave Somalia to Scotland with them promising to give them Mecca, but this deal fell through. The country also learned of the New World, leading them to begin expanding westward, through the Algerian deserts towards the Atlantic.

### Sahell lines and New World expansion

During the country's quest to reach an Atlantic outlet, Scotland attempted to cut them off to no avail. Soon after this, things went south as Libya and Scotland attempted to cut each other off from expand more, creating the worst instances of border gore in the entire server's life, known as the Sahell lines. This was later mostly solved by both parties, with them agreeing to divided it up evenly between each other. With its newly acquired coastline on the Atlantic, the nation established a colony in Panama, and expanded up through Central America before coming into conflict with Mexico. They also began to expand into Indonesia, which would become their largest colony in Asia.

They later also expanded into Carolina, Newfoundland and South America under Omar as-Senussi, and became the first nation to come into contact with the Amazonas. They also took over most of central Indonesia, expanded into the Philippine islands and up to Taiwan, and even colonized part of India and America. Sarah as-Senussi II also helped Arigh Khan in his civil war against his brother Chinua. While they did lose their land in Brazil later, they chose to take over Peru rather than risk losing it yet again. Scotland also got into a border dispute here, which would not be resolved until much later. Just before Sarah II's death, the Carolina War occurred, resulting in the loss of their Carolina colony and some other territories. Sarah as-Senussi III ascended to the throne in 122AD, with her heir Peter as-Senussi being born several years later.

### Kushan-Libyan War

The Libyan Empire came into conflict with the Kushan Empire, with the war being dragged on due to Kushan's inactivity. While Libya made large progress against the Kushans, Byzantium chose to invade them as well to expand their sphere of influence. Scotland later forced them to leave India, which led to the end of the conflict

### Italian Uprising

*Main article: Italian Uprising*

During the Italian Uprising, the Scottish enlisted the help of them and the Byzantines to defeat the rebellion. They played a major role in weaking the rebels, temporarily occupying southern Italy before giving the territory back to Scotland.

### First Worlda War involvement

The nation played a large role in the large conflict known as the First Worlda War. While they originally worked together with the Scottish Resistance against their old enemy, Scotland, they later betrayed both Scotland and the Scottish Resistance, becoming hated by both sides in the process. While it seemed as if the nation would become the center of the war, they mysteriously became dormant soon after. The nation would not do much for the next few decades, possibly in an attempt to draw attention away from them.

### Duchy of Namibia

*Main article: Duchy of Namibia*

The Duchy of Namibia was a small country under the protection of Libya from its creation. Although it was an incredibly small nation, it managed to outlast Libya itself and persist until the solar flare of 232.

### After the First Worlda War

The nation bought back land it had lost in the Carolina War in Africa and Somalia in 131AD. In the Great Giveaway of Paris three years later, the Libya Empire gained large amounts of land in East Africa from Scotland, but stayed dormant to consolidate their newly gained lands. In 151AD, they began an invasion into Mali, but did not occupy much land and once again went dormant for some time. However, after their assassination of Keita III combined with Mongolia's disintegration, the ensuing chaos resulted in the collapse of order in the Congo region, as well as in the Mongol colony, leaving it unclaimed. This allowed the Libyan Empire under Sarah III, still looking to expand the empire, began pushing to connect their southernmost land near the Duchy of Namibia. This led to their annexation of parts of much of southern Africa.

During this time, Peter and his wife Joan had a son named James, who became crown prince after Peter's ascension to the throne. He is known to have had 2 sons and 1 daughter, with his eldest son Suleiman being the ancestor of Ahmed as-Senussi, and thusly the royal family of the Second Libyan Empire. Sarah III had a heart attack sometime after James was born, but she managed to survive this despite her advanced age. She continued to expand the empire into the interior of Africa. She eventually passed away in 176AD, after ruling over the country for over 50 years.

Peter took over upon her death, and immediately continued expanding the empire across Africa, annexing the entire area of the Congo and getting into minor border disputes with Bharat in West Africa. They then began invading Mali again, but from the east. They got into a minor dispute with Bharat again during their invasion of Mali, but managed to avoid a war by splitting the country in half, with them getting the northern half and Timbuktu itself. The empire established a colony in Norway, near both Bharat's and New Portugal's colonies there. They also landed in Germany, and expanded into southern Africa, reaching Byzantium in South Africa.

### Second Worlda War and dissolution

The Libyan Empire originally joined on the side of Byzantium, seeking Malian territory from Bharat. They made minor advancements along the Inner Niger delta. However, after a treaty with Bharat, they switched sides and attacked Byzantium. The nation invaded Tunisia, Algeria, Sicily, southern Italy, and eventually advanced as far as into Macedonia. However, the nation suddenly halted its efforts to invade Byzantium, leaving Bharat to face them alone. The cause of this remains unclear. They later retreated from all lands occupied from Byzantium immediately following the death of Bimbisara. The empire never officially signed a treaty ending the war.

In 191AD, the empire got into a dispute with several other nations over the treaty that caused Libya's entry into the war. They claimed that it was supposed to gift them all of the territories owned by Bharat in Western Africa. However, the treaty itself only specified the lands formerly controlled by Mali. This dispute led to the formation of the Unified Global Alliance by Byzantium, Bharat, Gohelm and New Portugal. They jointly declared war on the Libyan Empire, for their illegal activities within west Africa as well as their attempts at manipulating the great powers into gifting them the land. Despite all of this, the empire continued expanding into west Africa even during the massive invasion until they surrendered.

After their surrender, the Borobinsk Conference took place, which officially ended the war. Byzantium annexed Tunisia, Sardinia, and part of Morocco, and Egypt was transformed into an autonomous region of Byzantium. Gohelm annexed the Congo, Somalia, part of Norway, and Venezuela. The New Portuguese annexed Libya's Central American territories. Bharat annexed the Maldives, Zanzibar, Tanzania and Kenya's coast, part of Mozambique and northwestern Madagascar.

The Libyan Empire was reduced to only lands in a small part of the Maghreb, the same as modern-day Libya, with the rest of its territories being removed from their control. Libya was also demilitarized for the foreseeable future, to prevent them from causing any more trouble from that point onwards. This treaty effectively marked the end of the First Libyan Empire. However, for around 20 years afterwards, a rump state of Libya persisted until it was finally annexed by Terra in 218AD.