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== Geography ==
== Geography ==
[[File:Boys Libyan Arabs WC.jpg|thumb|left|Boys, Libyan Arabs, 2006.]]
[[File:Oasis in Libya.JPG|left|280px]]
Total area: 1,759,540 sq km, slightly larger than Alaska. Coastline: 1,770 km. Climate: Mediterranean along coast; dry, extreme desert interior. Terrain: mostly barren, flat to undulating plains, plateaus, depressions.
Total area: 1,759,540 sq km, slightly larger than Alaska. Coastline: 1,770 km. Climate: Mediterranean along coast; dry, extreme desert interior. Terrain: mostly barren, flat to undulating plains, plateaus, depressions.
After the 1969 coup, Gaddafi closed American and British bases on Libyan territory and partially nationalized all foreign oil and commercial interests in Libya. He also played a key role in promoting the use of oil embargoes as a political weapon for challenging the West, hoping that an oil price rise and embargo in 1973 would persuade the West--especially the United States--to end support for Israel. Gaddafi rejected both Soviet communism and Western capitalism, and claimed he was charting a middle course.
After the 1969 coup, Gaddafi closed American and British bases on Libyan territory and partially nationalized all foreign oil and commercial interests in Libya. He also played a key role in promoting the use of oil embargoes as a political weapon for challenging the West, hoping that an oil price rise and embargo in 1973 would persuade the West--especially the United States--to end support for Israel. Gaddafi rejected both Soviet communism and Western capitalism, and claimed he was charting a middle course.
[[File:Oasis in Libya.JPG|left|280px]]
[[File:Boys Libyan Arabs WC.jpg|thumb|left|Boys, Libyan Arabs, 2006.]]
Libya's relationship with the former Soviet Union involved massive Libyan arms purchases from the Soviet bloc and the presence of thousands of east bloc advisers. Libya's use--and heavy loss--of Soviet-supplied weaponry in its war with Chad was a notable breach of an apparent Soviet-Libyan understanding not to use the weapons for activities inconsistent with Soviet objectives. As a result, Soviet-Libyan relations reached a nadir in mid-1987.
Libya's relationship with the former Soviet Union involved massive Libyan arms purchases from the Soviet bloc and the presence of thousands of east bloc advisers. Libya's use--and heavy loss--of Soviet-supplied weaponry in its war with Chad was a notable breach of an apparent Soviet-Libyan understanding not to use the weapons for activities inconsistent with Soviet objectives. As a result, Soviet-Libyan relations reached a nadir in mid-1987.