Libyan Revolution and Where Libya Will Be In Five Year
In this essay i will discuss where Libya will be in five years following the end of their current revolution, by comparing the modern day events to similar events that occurred in the Russian and French Revolutions. The Libyan Revolution is a crisis stemming from oppression of the previous Czar, Muammar Gaddafi, and the lack of basic human and civil rights. In comparison, the French Revolution came from unfair taxation of the third estate and a strive for equality, while the Russian Revolution was pushing for equal rights of the middle, working class. In order to predict the outcome of the Libyan revolution, i will compare the following historical events, the death of Louis XVI, high food prices and taxation, Bloody Sunday and the March Revolution, to current day events like the death of Gaddafi, high unemployment/an unstable government, the protests in Benghazi and lastly the intervention of the United Nations.
It was clear from a young age that Louis XVI was unfit to be the next king of France. When Louis succeeded the crown from his grandfather, tensions were already high between between the monarchy and French citizens. Jumping into the American Revolutionary War left France in poverty and Louis's ideas to reform France with Enlightenment ideas were unsuccessful due to the fact that he lacked any authority or power over his people. Wanting a change and a better life for themselves, French citizens took advantage of the Committee of Public Safety's new invention, the Guillotine, and saw to Louis XVI's untimely death. Although Gaddafi's death in 2011 was less public and not as violent it has one thing in common with Louis XVI's death in 1793, it was instigated by the public's displeasure at said rulers leadership. This is where the similarities end because where as Louis XVI was a very weak, push-over king, Muammar Gaddafi was strong, powerful and managed to stay influential in Libya for 42 years, 34 of which he wasn't a ruler. During the time when he was in power, Gaddafi led a strict dictatorship but recently high unemployment rates, delays in home building and corruption in politics, in addition the Egyptian and Tunisian Revolutions ignited the much needed spark that set off the revolution. While protests continued, Gaddafi was thrown out of power but continued to fight hard to keep Libya until he was captured and killed on October 20th, 2011. While both revolutions show how a failing economy can lead to tension and displeasure, both situations were very different. I feel that in five years Libya will be much stronger and will be well on their way to stabilizing their government if it is not already stabilized. This is because although both countries overcame their oppressive leaders, Libya fought a lot harder and was more determined to see a better life for themselves. This determination is what makes me confident that Libya will end up stronger and better off than during Muammar Gaddafi's terrorizing reign.
April 15th. Otherwise known in America nowadays as National tax day. In this current day economy it's the single handed most dreaded day of the year, but imagine how much worse it was paying your taxes 223 years ago when 97 percent of the French population couldn't afford a loaf of bread. "With bread more scarce, its price rose. People had been in the habit of eating mainly bread, and it now took most of the wages of those still working to obtain it." (Frank E. Smitha) Bread, a common staple in most households in France during these years inclined by such a dramatic price that riots broke out amongst the starving citizens of France. In addition to higher prices were more taxes, forced onto the Bourgeoisie (or third estate) in order to pay for France's bankruptcy due to participation in various wars, mainly the American Revolutionary War. Although the economic crisis in Libya differed from expensive bread and unfair high taxation it still largely impacted the revolution. Similarly to in France, Libyans were very poor with a large percent of the population unemployed and most families not containing a single member that earned a stable income. The countries income came mostly from oil production but none of the money went to bettering the lives of everyday civilians. At one point the idea of possibly giving oil production money straight to citizens but Gaddafi immediately shut the idea down. Personally I think that in both situations most of the economic troubles stem from poor government rule, which is why stand by what i said before i believe Libya can overcome the rut they're in due to the execution of Gaddafi. Now national income will proceed to be spent on important things to enhance citizens lives and I believe with a new government in power they will try to achieve a lower unemployment rate and ensure every family is well supported and economically stable as to not onset a new rebellion.
Many Americans still remember the horror that occurred during the Kent State shootings, when our very own soldiers shot at unsuspecting, peaceful protestors. Many years before this,halfway across the world, occurred an event that mirrored the Kent State shootings. Bloody Sunday occurred because dissatisfied workers were assembling to deliver a petition peacefully to the Tsar. Although all protestors were calm and following through with the plan, the march took a turn for the worst when the Tsar, concerned for his own personal safety, ordered the Imperial Guard to shoot at the crowd, leaving an official number of about 96 people dead and many more injured. "When the procession of workers reached the Winter Palace it was attacked by the police and the Cossacks."You can only imagine the shock, anger and distress of the Russian people to be gunned down by the very same people that were there to protect them. The petitioners weren't even given a time to present themselves fairly before they were immediately shot down, this proved to be the wrong step for the current Tsar at the time because the situation only heartened the burning desire in society's belly to revolt. About one hundred and ten years later, history repeated itself, as it tends to do. Protestors gathered in the city of Benghazi, in Libya, to fight for their human and civil rights by showing support for the recently arrested activist, lawyer Fathi Terbil. Even though they were armed weakly with stones and were using them to block roads and throw at cars, the extent to which police officers went to retaliate, far exceeded the attackers threats. It was another example of citizens attacking citizens but instead of shooting bullets it consisted of shooting rubber, using a cannon filled with water and finally unleashing tear gas on the crowd. No matter how many times in history an event occurs it is still met with what feels like heart breaking betrayal seeing your country's service men attack innocent people. Seeing as this was only the beginning of the revolution shows that Libya's people are strong fighters and didn't give up when things got tough, just like the way the Russians didn't give up after seeing the brutality of the Tsar. It only made them work harder and they turned out a stronger and more stable country because of it. All things considered comparing Bloody Sunday to the Benghazi protests shows that in 5 years there shouldn't be more protests because citizens fought hard for many months to gain the necessary rights that they were entitled to.
Previously in this essay the death of Louis XVI from France was compared to the death of Libya's previous dictator, Muammar Gaddafi. What I failed to mention was that in between both of these revolutions and during the later/ second part of the Russian revolution the Czar and his family were killed too after the people of Russia took over the government and the Czar was abdicated. The events that occurred during the March Revolution in 1917, in Russia, were very similar to the events that occurred during the Benghazi protests and Bloody Sunday. Years after the original revolution and way before the LIbyan revolution but much of the same was occurring. When women led the riots in Petrograd, the Czar sent in soldiers to break up the protests but instead of having many deaths like in other scenarios the revolutionaries were successful. The Czar realized that his army was powerless against the revolters and he backed off but this show of weakness was more than enough for the revolutionaries, they pounced on the opportunity and overthrew him. Now about twelve years earlier a similar situation happened with Bloody Sunday with very different results. This proves that the country grew stronger and learned from their past experiences and took the knowledge they learned to apply it to a new situation. Seeing how strong Libya is and how badly they fought for what they believed in i think that Libya will follow in the footsteps of Russia and learn to embrace new experiences and grow from them.
Considering that the LIbyan revolution was certainly not the first revolution in history I have to be honest when I say i'm not too concerned for the well being of Libya a few years down the line. When comparing all the current day events to events from the past it is evident that this is just history repeating itself all over again in the form of a new country, forcing new people to step out of their shells and comfort zones and fight for the things they truly believe they deserve. Seeing that the results of these modern day events coincides with the results of almost identical past events means that i believe Libya will overcome the problems their facing just the way that France and Russia did. Although it took a while for France and Russia to get to the stable place they're at now I have concluded that it will take less time for Libya to get to a stable place with their economic issues and government problems because instead of being a multiple years long ordeal it just spanned over the course of a few months. The Libyan people also showed that they had a backbone, and no i'm not referring to the fact that their so skinny that it sticks out, by standing up and fighting they managed to come together and overthrow a power that had been rooted there for over forty years. I think this greatly shows proof that Libya will see the light at the end of the tunnel and emerge from this experience with a new perspective on how to run their country, improve their government and work towards providing equal human and civil rights for all its citizens.
WORKS CITED:
Modern World History textbook, published by McDougal Littell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libyan_civil_war
http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h33-fr.html
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSsunday.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_(1905)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution
http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/french/french.html