Libya is located in Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The Arabs conquered Libya in the 7th century, and in the following centuries most of the indigenous peoples adopted Islam and the Arabic language and culture. The Ottoman Turks conquered the country in the mid-16th century, and Libya remained part of their empire until Italy invaded in 1911 and made Libya its colony the following year. After World War II, British and French forces occupied the area until a United Nations resolution made Libya an independent nation in 1951. A monarchy ruled until 1969 when a military coup led by Colonel Qadhafi who abolished the monarchy and proclaimed the new Libyan Arab Republic. Qadhafi's confrontational foreign policies and use of terrorism led to increased tensions with the West in the 1980s. Libya was blamed for the bombing of a Pan-American flight that exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, and the UN imposed sanctions on Libya in 1992. UN sanctions were lifted in September 2003 after Libya accepted responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing. In December 2003, Libya announced it had agreed to reveal and end its programs to develop weapons of mass destruction and to renounce terrorism. Libya has made significant strides in normalizing relations with Western nations since then. Libya is a mostly desert country, but discovery of oil in 1959 transformed Libya into a wealthy nation.