Around 1800, Libya contained Tripoli as its principal city, several coastal towns, and oasis settlements such as Ghadames, Murzuk, and Awjila. Most inland inhabitants lived nomadic lives, either as shepherds following regular circuits or as camel herders moving across wider and more irregular routes. The political order depended heavily on arrangements with powerful desert communities, whose cooperation was necessary for peace in Tripolitania.

The Karamanli dynasty dominated Tripoli from 1710 and recovered its position in 1794 under Yusuf Karamanli. His revival of trans-Saharan commerce and maritime pillage led to war with the United States from 1801 to 1805. Resistance by the Mahamid and Awlad Sulayman nomadic coalitions challenged central authority, but the Karamanli court temporarily suppressed them in 1812. After renewed revolt during the power crisis, these groups dominated the Fezzan and Tripolitania toward Benghazi when the dynasty ended in 1835.

The Ottoman Porte then resumed direct control. Ottoman forces defeated the Awlad Sulayman in 1842 and obtained the submission of the Mahamid after the death of Ghuma in 1858, securing rule over Tripolitania and part of the Fezzan. In Cyrenaica, the Sanusiyya became an influential intermediary after its foundation in 1843, organizing a caravan route between Barka and Wadai and settling disputes among nomadic communities.

After 1860, Ottoman authorities cautiously introduced Tanzimat reforms, including judicial changes, schools, municipal government, administrative reorganization, hospitals, a central market, and food-distribution centres. These measures mainly benefited the urban middle class and increased the tax burden on ordinary people, although the economy remained comparatively healthy for a time. Famines, the decline of Saharan trade, the weakening of the Sanusiyya, and the expansion of European firms prepared the way for the Italian conquest attempted in 1911.