The first inhabitants of Libya were Berber tribes. Ancient Libya was invaded by Phoenicians, Numidians, Greeks, Romans, Vandals and Byzan-tines, followed in 648 by Arabs and the Turks in 1551. Both Tripolitania and Cyrenaica became part of the Ottoman Empire. Tripolitania became one of the outposts for the Barbary pirates who exacted "tribute" payments from merchant ships in the Mediterranean. This practice led to a four year war between the Pasha of Tripoli and the US ending in a peace treaty in June 1805, exempting US ships from this "tribute." Before World War II Italy took control of the coastal towns while the Turks ruled the interior. After the war, the Italians began to pacify the country. Its dominance ended in 1942 when the German- Italian Axis was defeated in the Western Desert. The British took Tripolitania and Cyrenaica and the French occupied the Fezzan. In 1951 Libya became independent under King Idris. Wealth followed the discovery of oil in 1960 and led to corruption and discontent. On 1 September 1969, a 28-year-old army captain, Muammar Qaddafi, seized power. Eight years later he formed a monolithic General People's Congress and renamed the country, the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.