 Britain and France considered dividing the nation between their empires, but the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) decided that the country was to be granted political independence, and in 1951 created the United Kingdom of Libya, a federal state under the leadership of a pro-Western monarch, Idris, who banned political parties and centralized power in his own hands.Gaddafi's earliest education was of a religious nature, imparted by a local Islamic teacher.Subsequently, moving to nearby Sirte to attend elementary school, he progressed through six grades in four years.