This study adopts an historical approach in order to trace the successive evolution of economic development in Libya since 1900 to the present. It has been demonstrated throughout this research that during this period a number of significant events, both international and national in origin, have altered and consequently transformed the Libyan economy. Three major external forces which have been identified include: Italian colonialism (1911-1942), foreign administration and foreign aid (1942-1960), and multinational corporations (1955 to the present). These outside factors introduced a wide-scale exchange economy which was brought about largely by external capital and enterprise. They also made the Libyan economy highly integrated and incorporated into the world economy. The regional outcome of these factors, together with the Libyan government policies after independence, has been a marked spatial as well as social, economic and political concentration of investments and development efforts in few locations (particularly in the two major cities of Tripoli and Behghazi).

In order to erradicate this socio-economic and spatial polarization, the goal should be to bring development closer to the people of peripheral regions through a greater integration of urban-rural development. Policies promoting even development and equitable distribution of resources would assist in eliminating socioeconomic differentials between regions and social groups inhabiting these areas and it would curb the tide of the current rural-urban migration and the urban problems associated therewith.