History of Libya as Italian Colony
Encyclopedia
The History of Libya as an Italian colony began in the 1910s and lasted until February 1947, when Italy
officially lost all the colonies of the former Italian Empire
.
's rule.
Despite a major revolt by the Arabs, the Ottoman sultan ceded Libya to the Italians by signing the 1912 Treaty of Lausanne (not to be confused with a more famous treaty of the same name
made in 1923). Tripoli was largely under Italian control by 1914, but both Cyrenaica and the Fezzan
were home to rebellions led by the Senussi
.
On 25 October 1920, the Italian
government recognized Sheikh Sidi Idris
as the hereditary head of the nomadic Senussi
, with wide authority in Kufra
and other oases, as Emir of Cyrenaica, a new title extended by the British
at the close of World War I
. The Emir
would eventually become King of the free Libyan state.
The Italians made extensive use of the Savari
, colonial cavalry troops raised in December 1912: these units were recruited from the Arab-Berber population of Libya following the initial Italian occupation in 1911-12. The Savari, like the Spahi
or mounted Libyan police, formed part of the Regio Corpo Truppe Coloniali della Libia (Royal Corps of Libyan Colonial Troops).
Several reorganizations of the colonial authority were made necessary, in the face of armed Arab opposition, mainly in Cyrenaica. From 1919 (17 May) to 1929 (24 January), the Italian government maintained the two traditional provinces, with separate colonial administrations. A system of controlled local assemblies with limited local authority was set up, but was revoked on 9 March 1927.
In 1929, Tripoli and Cyrenaica were united as one colonial province. Then in 1934, as Italy wanted to achieve imperial status, the classical name "Libya" was revived as the official name of the colony. The newly created "Libya" was then split administratively into four provinces, Tripoli
, Misrata, Benghazi
, and Derna. The Fezzan
area was called Territorio Sahara Libico and administered militarily.
The Italian colonization of the Ottoman
provinces of Tripolitania
and Cyrenaica
was not initially successful and it was not until the early 1930s that the Kingdom of Italy
took full control of the area.
The Italian governor Marshal of the Air Force
Italo Balbo
promoted the birth of the modern state of "Libya", and until 1940 favoured the integration of Italian emigrants to Libya with the Arab population. He is considered by some Italian historians (such as G. Gentile) to be the Father of modern Libya.
Benito Mussolini
. The Emir Muhammad Idris fled to Egypt
in 1922. From 1922 to 1928, Italian forces under General Badoglio
waged a punitive pacification campaign. Badoglio's successor in the field, General
Rodolfo Graziani
, accepted the commission from Mussolini on the condition that he was allowed to crush Libyan resistance unencumbered by the restraints of either Italian or international law
. Mussolini reportedly agreed immediately and Graziani intensified the oppression. Some Libyans continued to defend themselves, with the strongest voices of dissent coming from the Cyrenaica. Omar Mukhtar
, a Senussi sheikh
, became the leader of the uprising.
After a much-disputed truce on 3 January 1928, the Italian policy in Libya reached the level of full scale war. A barbed wire fence
was built from the Mediterranean to the oasis of Jaghbub to sever lines critical to the resistance. Soon afterwards, the colonial administration began the wholesale deportation of the people of the Jebel Akhdar to deny the rebels the support of the local population. The forced migration
of more than 100,000 people ended in concentration camps in Suluq
and El Agheila where thousands died in squalid conditions. It is estimated by Arab historians that the number of Libyans who died - killed either through combat or mainly through starvation and disease - is at a minimum of 80,000 or even up to one third of the Cyrenaican population.
But Italian historian Gentile wrote that this amount is excessive, and only a few thousands died, mainly of disease (even related to the "Spanish flu
epidemy" and consequences) and starvation. After Al-Mukhtar's capture September 15, 1931 and his execution in Benghazi, the resistance petered out. Limited resistance to the Italian occupation crystallized round the person of Sheik Idris, the Emir of Cyrenaica.
By 1934, Libya was fully pacified and the new Italian governor Italo Balbo
started a policy of integration between the Libyans and the Italians, that proved fully successful. Indeed in 1939, laws were passed that allowed Muslims to be permitted to join the National Fascist Party
and in particular the Muslim Association of the Lictor
(Associazione Musulmana del Littorio), and the 1939 reforms allowed the creation of Libyan military units within the Italian army.
As a consequence during the Second World War, there was strong support for Italy between many Libyans, who enrolled in the Italian Army (other Libyan troops were fighting for the Kingdom of Italy since the 1920s: the Savari
(cavalry regiments) and the mounted police called Spahi
). Indeed two divisions of Libyan colonial troops (with 30000 native Muslim soldiers) were created (and in summer 1940 the first and second Divisions
of Fanteria Libica -Libyan infantry - participated in the Italian offensive against British army
in Egypt
): 1 Libyan Division Sibelle
and 2 Libyan Division Pescatori
.
In March 1937 Mussolini
made a state visit to Libya, where he opened a new military highway running the entire length of the colony (the Via Balbia
). For propaganda reasons he had himself declared Protector of Islam and was presented with a symbolic sword. Mussolini's publicized encouragement of the Arab nationalist movement suited his wider policies of confronting Britain and France. He also sought to fully colonise Libya, introducing 30,000 Italian colonists which brought their numbers to more than 100,000. These colonists were shipped primarily to Sahel al-Jefara in Tripolitania and the Jebel Akhdar in Cyrenaica, and given land from which the indigenous inhabitants had been partially removed during the colonial war in the 1920s.
The Kingdom of Italy
built in Libya
nearly 400 km of railways with 950 mm gauge. The last line the Italians started to create was the Tripoli-Benghazi (of 1040 km with 1435 mm gauge) in summer 1941, but their defeat in World War II
stopped it at the beginning.
In 13 September 1940, Mussolini's highway
was used for the invasion of Egypt
by Italian forces stationed in Libya. Two divisions of Libyan colonial troops (for a total of 30090 native Muslim soldiers) participated in the offensive. Even a battalion of Libyan paratroopers was raised shortly before World War II, the first force of this kind to be created in all Africa
. They trained in Castel Benito
, near Tripoli
, where the first "Italian Military Parachute School" was located (the first troops trained were two Libyan battalions, the Libyan Parachute Battalion and the 1st National Libyan Parachute Battalion, of the Regio Corpo Truppe Coloniali della Libia (Royal Colonial Corps).
Counterattacks of British Allied forces from Egypt, commanded by Wavell and their successful two-month campaign in (Tobruk
, Benghazi
, El Agheila
), and the counteroffensives under Rommel
in 1940-43, all took place during World War II
. In November 1942, the Allied forces retook Cyrenaica; by February 1943, the last German and Italian soldiers were driven from Libya. In the early post-war period, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica remained under British
administration, while the French
controlled Fezzan.
In 1944, Idris returned from exile in Cairo
but declined to resume permanent residence in Cyrenaica until the removal in 1947 of some aspects of foreign control. Under the terms of the 1947 peace treaty with the Allies
, Italy, which hoped to maintain the colony of Tripolitania
, (and France, which wanted the Fezzan
), relinquished all claims to Libya. Libya so remained united.
In July 1998, the Italian government offered a formal apology to Libya. In August 2008 the two nations signed a treaty of friendship in which US$5 billion in goods and services, including the construction of the Libyan portion of the Cairo-Tunis highway, would be given to Libya to end any remaining animosity.
. Italian farmers cultivated lands that had been lost to the desert for centuries. Even archaeology flourished. Leptis Magna
was rediscovered and viewed as a symbol of the Italian right to colonize the region. Libya was considered the new "America" for Italian emigrants in the Thirties.
The Italian population numbered 108,419 (12.37% of the total population) at the time of the 1939 census, concentrated on the coast around the city of Tripoli (37% of the city's population) and Benghazi (31%). In 1938, Marshal of the Air Force
Italo Balbo
, the Governor, brought 20,000 Italian farmers to colonize Libya, and 26 new villages were founded by them, mainly in Cyrenaica. The 22,000 Libyan Jews were allowed to integrate without problems in the society of the Fourth Shore (but after summer 1941, with the arrival of the German Afrika Korps
, they started to be moved to temporary internment camps in Libya under Nazi SS control).
Mussolini sought to assimilate the Arabs of Libya (whom he called "Muslim Italians") and so in 1939 ten villages were created for Arabs and Berbers: "El Fager" (Alba), "Nahima" (Deliziosa), "Azizia" (Profumata), "Nahiba" (Risorta), "Mansura" (Vittoriosa), "Chadra" (Verde), "Zahara" (Fiorita), "Gedina" (Nuova), "Mamhura" (Fiorente), "El Beida" (La Bianca). All these new villages had their mosque, school, social centre (with sport grounds and cinema) and small hospital. This was a reward for the military performance of the Libyan colonial troops: in 1936 Savari
s and other Libyan units took part in the Italian invasion of Ethiopia and received a "Gold Medal of Honour" for their distinguished performance in battle
On January 9 1939, the colony was incorporated into metropolitan Italy and thereafter considered an integral part of the Italian state. By 1939, the Italians had built 400 km of new railroads and 4,000 km of new roads (the most important and largest was the one from Tripoli to Tobruk
). Even during WWII a new road was being built, the Via della Vittoria
, and a new Tripoli-Benghazi railway.
All the Italian projects disappeared after the Italian defeat: Libya in the late forties experienced the beginning of the worldwide process of decolonization
that characterized colonies of Europe in the Fifties and Sixties.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
officially lost all the colonies of the former Italian Empire
Italian Empire
The Italian Empire was created after the Kingdom of Italy joined other European powers in establishing colonies overseas during the "scramble for Africa". Modern Italy as a unified state only existed from 1861. By this time France, Spain, Portugal, Britain, and the Netherlands, had already carved...
.
First years
On 3 October 1911 Italy attacked Tripoli, claiming to be liberating the Ottoman Wilayats from IstanbulIstanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
's rule.
Despite a major revolt by the Arabs, the Ottoman sultan ceded Libya to the Italians by signing the 1912 Treaty of Lausanne (not to be confused with a more famous treaty of the same name
Treaty of Lausanne
The Treaty of Lausanne was a peace treaty signed in Lausanne, Switzerland on 24 July 1923, that settled the Anatolian and East Thracian parts of the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. The treaty of Lausanne was ratified by the Greek government on 11 February 1924, by the Turkish government on 31...
made in 1923). Tripoli was largely under Italian control by 1914, but both Cyrenaica and the Fezzan
Fezzan
Fezzan is a south western region of modern Libya. It is largely desert but broken by mountains, uplands, and dry river valleys in the north, where oases enable ancient towns and villages to survive deep in the otherwise inhospitable Sahara.-Name:...
were home to rebellions led by the Senussi
Senussi
The Senussi or Sanussi refers to a Muslim political-religious order in Libya and the Sudan region founded in Mecca in 1837 by the Grand Senussi, Sayyid Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi. Senussi was concerned with both the decline of Islamic thought and spirituality and the weakening of Muslim political...
.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
government recognized Sheikh Sidi Idris
Idris I of Libya
Idris, GBE , , was the first and only king of Libya, reigning from 1951 to 1969, and the Chief of the Senussi Muslim order.- Early life :...
as the hereditary head of the nomadic Senussi
Senussi
The Senussi or Sanussi refers to a Muslim political-religious order in Libya and the Sudan region founded in Mecca in 1837 by the Grand Senussi, Sayyid Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi. Senussi was concerned with both the decline of Islamic thought and spirituality and the weakening of Muslim political...
, with wide authority in Kufra
Kufra
Kufra is a basin and oasis group in Al Kufrah District, southeastern Cyrenaica in Libya. Kufra is historically important above all because at the end of nineteenth century it became the center and holy place of the Senussi order...
and other oases, as Emir of Cyrenaica, a new title extended by the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
at the close of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. The Emir
Emir
Emir , meaning "commander", "general", or "prince"; also transliterated as Amir, Aamir or Ameer) is a title of high office, used throughout the Muslim world...
would eventually become King of the free Libyan state.
The Italians made extensive use of the Savari
Savari
Savari was the designation given to the regular Libyan cavalry regiments of the Italian colonial army in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. The word "savari" was derived from a Persian term for "horsemen" .-Organisation:...
, colonial cavalry troops raised in December 1912: these units were recruited from the Arab-Berber population of Libya following the initial Italian occupation in 1911-12. The Savari, like the Spahi
Spahi
Spahis were light cavalry regiments of the French army recruited primarily from the indigenous populations of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. The modern French Army retains one regiment of Spahis as an armoured unit, with personnel now recruited in mainland France...
or mounted Libyan police, formed part of the Regio Corpo Truppe Coloniali della Libia (Royal Corps of Libyan Colonial Troops).
Several reorganizations of the colonial authority were made necessary, in the face of armed Arab opposition, mainly in Cyrenaica. From 1919 (17 May) to 1929 (24 January), the Italian government maintained the two traditional provinces, with separate colonial administrations. A system of controlled local assemblies with limited local authority was set up, but was revoked on 9 March 1927.
In 1929, Tripoli and Cyrenaica were united as one colonial province. Then in 1934, as Italy wanted to achieve imperial status, the classical name "Libya" was revived as the official name of the colony. The newly created "Libya" was then split administratively into four provinces, Tripoli
Tripoli
Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...
, Misrata, Benghazi
Benghazi
Benghazi is the second largest city in Libya, the main city of the Cyrenaica region , and the former provisional capital of the National Transitional Council. The wider metropolitan area is also a district of Libya...
, and Derna. The Fezzan
Fezzan
Fezzan is a south western region of modern Libya. It is largely desert but broken by mountains, uplands, and dry river valleys in the north, where oases enable ancient towns and villages to survive deep in the otherwise inhospitable Sahara.-Name:...
area was called Territorio Sahara Libico and administered militarily.
The Italian colonization of the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
provinces of Tripolitania
Tripolitania
Tripolitania or Tripolitana is a historic region and former province of Libya.Tripolitania was a separate Italian colony from 1927 to 1934...
and Cyrenaica
Cyrenaica
Cyrenaica is the eastern coastal region of Libya.Also known as Pentapolis in antiquity, it was part of the Creta et Cyrenaica province during the Roman period, later divided in Libia Pentapolis and Libia Sicca...
was not initially successful and it was not until the early 1930s that the Kingdom of Italy
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...
took full control of the area.
The Italian governor Marshal of the Air Force
Marshal of the Air Force
Marshal of the Air Force is the English term for the most senior rank in a number of air forces. The ranks described by this term can properly be considered marshal ranks....
Italo Balbo
Italo Balbo
Italo Balbo was an Italian Blackshirt leader who served as Italy's Marshal of the Air Force , Governor-General of Libya, Commander-in-Chief of Italian North Africa , and the "heir apparent" to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.After serving in...
promoted the birth of the modern state of "Libya", and until 1940 favoured the integration of Italian emigrants to Libya with the Arab population. He is considered by some Italian historians (such as G. Gentile) to be the Father of modern Libya.
Mussolini and Libya
Fighting intensified after the accession to power in Italy of the dictatorDictator
A dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power but without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...
Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
. The Emir Muhammad Idris fled to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
in 1922. From 1922 to 1928, Italian forces under General Badoglio
Pietro Badoglio
Pietro Badoglio, 1st Duke of Addis Abeba, 1st Marquess of Sabotino was an Italian soldier and politician...
waged a punitive pacification campaign. Badoglio's successor in the field, General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
Rodolfo Graziani
Rodolfo Graziani
Rodolfo Graziani, 1st Marquis of Neghelli , was an officer in the Italian Regio Esercito who led military expeditions in Africa before and during World War II.-Rise to prominence:...
, accepted the commission from Mussolini on the condition that he was allowed to crush Libyan resistance unencumbered by the restraints of either Italian or international law
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
. Mussolini reportedly agreed immediately and Graziani intensified the oppression. Some Libyans continued to defend themselves, with the strongest voices of dissent coming from the Cyrenaica. Omar Mukhtar
Omar Mukhtar
Omar Mukhtar , of the Mnifa, was born in the small village of Janzour, near Tobruk in eastern Barqa in Libya. Beginning in 1912, he organized and, for nearly twenty years, led native resistance to Italian colonization of Libya. The Italians captured and hanged him in 1931...
, a Senussi sheikh
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
, became the leader of the uprising.
After a much-disputed truce on 3 January 1928, the Italian policy in Libya reached the level of full scale war. A barbed wire fence
Frontier Wire (Libya)
The Frontier Wire was a obstacle in Italian Libya, along the with border of Egypt, running from El Ramleh down to Jaghbub. It was built by Italian forces—under the command of General Rodolfo Graziani—in the winter of 1931/1932 due the Italian's struggle with Omar Mukhtar's Senussi resistors...
was built from the Mediterranean to the oasis of Jaghbub to sever lines critical to the resistance. Soon afterwards, the colonial administration began the wholesale deportation of the people of the Jebel Akhdar to deny the rebels the support of the local population. The forced migration
Forced migration
Forced migration refers to the coerced movement of a person or persons away from their home or home region...
of more than 100,000 people ended in concentration camps in Suluq
Suluq
Suluq is a town in the Benghazi District of the Cyrenaica region in northeastern Libya. It is located about 53 kilometers to the south-east of Benghazi.-Italian Libya:...
and El Agheila where thousands died in squalid conditions. It is estimated by Arab historians that the number of Libyans who died - killed either through combat or mainly through starvation and disease - is at a minimum of 80,000 or even up to one third of the Cyrenaican population.
But Italian historian Gentile wrote that this amount is excessive, and only a few thousands died, mainly of disease (even related to the "Spanish flu
Spanish flu
The 1918 flu pandemic was an influenza pandemic, and the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus . It was an unusually severe and deadly pandemic that spread across the world. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin...
epidemy" and consequences) and starvation. After Al-Mukhtar's capture September 15, 1931 and his execution in Benghazi, the resistance petered out. Limited resistance to the Italian occupation crystallized round the person of Sheik Idris, the Emir of Cyrenaica.
By 1934, Libya was fully pacified and the new Italian governor Italo Balbo
Italo Balbo
Italo Balbo was an Italian Blackshirt leader who served as Italy's Marshal of the Air Force , Governor-General of Libya, Commander-in-Chief of Italian North Africa , and the "heir apparent" to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.After serving in...
started a policy of integration between the Libyans and the Italians, that proved fully successful. Indeed in 1939, laws were passed that allowed Muslims to be permitted to join the National Fascist Party
National Fascist Party
The National Fascist Party was an Italian political party, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of fascism...
and in particular the Muslim Association of the Lictor
Muslim Association of the Lictor
The Muslim Association of the Lictor was created in 1939 as the Muslim branch of the National Fascist Party of Italy found largely in Italian Libya....
(Associazione Musulmana del Littorio), and the 1939 reforms allowed the creation of Libyan military units within the Italian army.
As a consequence during the Second World War, there was strong support for Italy between many Libyans, who enrolled in the Italian Army (other Libyan troops were fighting for the Kingdom of Italy since the 1920s: the Savari
Savari
Savari was the designation given to the regular Libyan cavalry regiments of the Italian colonial army in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. The word "savari" was derived from a Persian term for "horsemen" .-Organisation:...
(cavalry regiments) and the mounted police called Spahi
Spahi
Spahis were light cavalry regiments of the French army recruited primarily from the indigenous populations of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. The modern French Army retains one regiment of Spahis as an armoured unit, with personnel now recruited in mainland France...
). Indeed two divisions of Libyan colonial troops (with 30000 native Muslim soldiers) were created (and in summer 1940 the first and second Divisions
Division (military)
A division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions typically make up a corps...
of Fanteria Libica -Libyan infantry - participated in the Italian offensive against British army
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
): 1 Libyan Division Sibelle
1 Libyan Division Sibelle
The 1 Libyan Division Sibelle was a Infantry Division of the Italian Army during World War II.-History:Originally called in the 1920s with the name Italian Libyan Colonial Division...
and 2 Libyan Division Pescatori
2 Libyan Division Pescatori
The 2 Libyan Division Pescatori was a Infantry Division of the Italian Army during World War II. In December 1940, it was in Libya part of the Italian XXIII Corps a together with the 1 Blackshirt Division 23 Marzo and 2 Blackshirt Division 28 Ottobre, took part in the Italian invasion of Egypt and...
.
In March 1937 Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
made a state visit to Libya, where he opened a new military highway running the entire length of the colony (the Via Balbia
Via Balbia
The Libyan Coastal Highway is a highway that is the only major road that runs along the entire east-west length of the Libyan Mediterranean coastline...
). For propaganda reasons he had himself declared Protector of Islam and was presented with a symbolic sword. Mussolini's publicized encouragement of the Arab nationalist movement suited his wider policies of confronting Britain and France. He also sought to fully colonise Libya, introducing 30,000 Italian colonists which brought their numbers to more than 100,000. These colonists were shipped primarily to Sahel al-Jefara in Tripolitania and the Jebel Akhdar in Cyrenaica, and given land from which the indigenous inhabitants had been partially removed during the colonial war in the 1920s.
The Kingdom of Italy
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...
built in Libya
Italian Libya
Italian Libya was a unified colony of Italian North Africa established in 1934 in what represents present-day Libya...
nearly 400 km of railways with 950 mm gauge. The last line the Italians started to create was the Tripoli-Benghazi (of 1040 km with 1435 mm gauge) in summer 1941, but their defeat in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
stopped it at the beginning.
In 13 September 1940, Mussolini's highway
Via Balbia
The Libyan Coastal Highway is a highway that is the only major road that runs along the entire east-west length of the Libyan Mediterranean coastline...
was used for the invasion of Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
by Italian forces stationed in Libya. Two divisions of Libyan colonial troops (for a total of 30090 native Muslim soldiers) participated in the offensive. Even a battalion of Libyan paratroopers was raised shortly before World War II, the first force of this kind to be created in all Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. They trained in Castel Benito
RAF Castel Benito
RAF Castel Benito was a Royal Air Force station near Tripoli in Libya between 1943 and 1966.-History:Originally a Regia Aeronautica airfield where later the first units of Italian parachutists were trained and formed shortly before the Second World War. The first Italian Military Parachute...
, near Tripoli
Tripoli
Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...
, where the first "Italian Military Parachute School" was located (the first troops trained were two Libyan battalions, the Libyan Parachute Battalion and the 1st National Libyan Parachute Battalion, of the Regio Corpo Truppe Coloniali della Libia (Royal Colonial Corps).
Counterattacks of British Allied forces from Egypt, commanded by Wavell and their successful two-month campaign in (Tobruk
Tobruk
Tobruk or Tubruq is a city, seaport, and peninsula on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near the border with Egypt. It is the capital of the Butnan District and has a population of 120,000 ....
, Benghazi
Benghazi
Benghazi is the second largest city in Libya, the main city of the Cyrenaica region , and the former provisional capital of the National Transitional Council. The wider metropolitan area is also a district of Libya...
, El Agheila
El Agheila
El Agheila is a coastal city at the bottom of the Gulf of Sidra in far western Cyrenaica, Libya. In 1988 it was placed in Ajdabiya District; between 1995 and 2001 the district name is not known; however, it was again placed into Ajdabiya District in 2001...
), and the counteroffensives under Rommel
Erwin Rommel
Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel , popularly known as the Desert Fox , was a German Field Marshal of World War II. He won the respect of both his own troops and the enemies he fought....
in 1940-43, all took place during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In November 1942, the Allied forces retook Cyrenaica; by February 1943, the last German and Italian soldiers were driven from Libya. In the early post-war period, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica remained under British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
administration, while the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
controlled Fezzan.
In 1944, Idris returned from exile in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
but declined to resume permanent residence in Cyrenaica until the removal in 1947 of some aspects of foreign control. Under the terms of the 1947 peace treaty with the Allies
Allies
In everyday English usage, allies are people, groups, or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out between them...
, Italy, which hoped to maintain the colony of Tripolitania
Tripolitania
Tripolitania or Tripolitana is a historic region and former province of Libya.Tripolitania was a separate Italian colony from 1927 to 1934...
, (and France, which wanted the Fezzan
Fezzan
Fezzan is a south western region of modern Libya. It is largely desert but broken by mountains, uplands, and dry river valleys in the north, where oases enable ancient towns and villages to survive deep in the otherwise inhospitable Sahara.-Name:...
), relinquished all claims to Libya. Libya so remained united.
In July 1998, the Italian government offered a formal apology to Libya. In August 2008 the two nations signed a treaty of friendship in which US$5 billion in goods and services, including the construction of the Libyan portion of the Cairo-Tunis highway, would be given to Libya to end any remaining animosity.
Civic development
The Italians in less than thirty years (1911–1940) built huge public works, allowing the Libyan economy to flourish to a level unseen since the time of the Roman EmpireRoman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. Italian farmers cultivated lands that had been lost to the desert for centuries. Even archaeology flourished. Leptis Magna
Leptis Magna
Leptis Magna also known as Lectis Magna , also called Lpqy, Neapolis, Lebida or Lebda to modern-day residents of Libya, was a prominent city of the Roman Empire. Its ruins are located in Khoms, Libya, east of Tripoli, on the coast where the Wadi Lebda meets the sea...
was rediscovered and viewed as a symbol of the Italian right to colonize the region. Libya was considered the new "America" for Italian emigrants in the Thirties.
Marshal of the Air Force
Marshal of the Air Force is the English term for the most senior rank in a number of air forces. The ranks described by this term can properly be considered marshal ranks....
Italo Balbo
Italo Balbo
Italo Balbo was an Italian Blackshirt leader who served as Italy's Marshal of the Air Force , Governor-General of Libya, Commander-in-Chief of Italian North Africa , and the "heir apparent" to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.After serving in...
, the Governor, brought 20,000 Italian farmers to colonize Libya, and 26 new villages were founded by them, mainly in Cyrenaica. The 22,000 Libyan Jews were allowed to integrate without problems in the society of the Fourth Shore (but after summer 1941, with the arrival of the German Afrika Korps
Afrika Korps
The German Africa Corps , or the Afrika Korps as it was popularly called, was the German expeditionary force in Libya and Tunisia during the North African Campaign of World War II...
, they started to be moved to temporary internment camps in Libya under Nazi SS control).
Mussolini sought to assimilate the Arabs of Libya (whom he called "Muslim Italians") and so in 1939 ten villages were created for Arabs and Berbers: "El Fager" (Alba), "Nahima" (Deliziosa), "Azizia" (Profumata), "Nahiba" (Risorta), "Mansura" (Vittoriosa), "Chadra" (Verde), "Zahara" (Fiorita), "Gedina" (Nuova), "Mamhura" (Fiorente), "El Beida" (La Bianca). All these new villages had their mosque, school, social centre (with sport grounds and cinema) and small hospital. This was a reward for the military performance of the Libyan colonial troops: in 1936 Savari
Savari
Savari was the designation given to the regular Libyan cavalry regiments of the Italian colonial army in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. The word "savari" was derived from a Persian term for "horsemen" .-Organisation:...
s and other Libyan units took part in the Italian invasion of Ethiopia and received a "Gold Medal of Honour" for their distinguished performance in battle
On January 9 1939, the colony was incorporated into metropolitan Italy and thereafter considered an integral part of the Italian state. By 1939, the Italians had built 400 km of new railroads and 4,000 km of new roads (the most important and largest was the one from Tripoli to Tobruk
Via Balbia
The Libyan Coastal Highway is a highway that is the only major road that runs along the entire east-west length of the Libyan Mediterranean coastline...
). Even during WWII a new road was being built, the Via della Vittoria
Via della Vittoria
The Via della Vittoria was a military road between Bardia in Italian Libya and Sidi Barrani in western Egypt.- Characteristics :The "Via della Vittoria" , was a road built by Italian engineers during World War II, between June and December 1940...
, and a new Tripoli-Benghazi railway.
All the Italian projects disappeared after the Italian defeat: Libya in the late forties experienced the beginning of the worldwide process of decolonization
Decolonization
Decolonization refers to the undoing of colonialism, the unequal relation of polities whereby one people or nation establishes and maintains dependent Territory over another...
that characterized colonies of Europe in the Fifties and Sixties.
See also
- List of colonial heads of Libya
- Italian LibyaItalian LibyaItalian Libya was a unified colony of Italian North Africa established in 1934 in what represents present-day Libya...
, 1934–1943 - Fourth Shore
- Italo BalboItalo BalboItalo Balbo was an Italian Blackshirt leader who served as Italy's Marshal of the Air Force , Governor-General of Libya, Commander-in-Chief of Italian North Africa , and the "heir apparent" to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.After serving in...
- Italy–Libya relationsItaly–Libya relationsItaly–Libya relations are foreign relations between Italy and Libya. Between 1911 and 1947, what is now Libya was an Italian colony. Both countries established diplomatic relations in 1947. Italy has an embassy in Tripoli and a general consulate in Benghazi...
- SavariSavariSavari was the designation given to the regular Libyan cavalry regiments of the Italian colonial army in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. The word "savari" was derived from a Persian term for "horsemen" .-Organisation:...
- SpahiSpahiSpahis were light cavalry regiments of the French army recruited primarily from the indigenous populations of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. The modern French Army retains one regiment of Spahis as an armoured unit, with personnel now recruited in mainland France...
- Italian Libyan Colonial DivisionItalian Libyan Colonial DivisionThe Libyan Division was a formation of colonial troops raised by the Italians in their colony in Libya. It participated in the invasion of Ethiopia in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. The formation was reorganized into the 1 Libyan Infantry Division Sibelle by the beginning of Italy's entry into...
- Tripoli Grand PrixTripoli Grand PrixThe Tripoli Grand Prix was a motor racing event first held in 1925 on a racing circuit outside Tripoli, the capital of what was then Italian Tripolitania...
- Italian EmpireItalian EmpireThe Italian Empire was created after the Kingdom of Italy joined other European powers in establishing colonies overseas during the "scramble for Africa". Modern Italy as a unified state only existed from 1861. By this time France, Spain, Portugal, Britain, and the Netherlands, had already carved...
- Via BalbiaVia BalbiaThe Libyan Coastal Highway is a highway that is the only major road that runs along the entire east-west length of the Libyan Mediterranean coastline...
- Via della VittoriaVia della VittoriaThe Via della Vittoria was a military road between Bardia in Italian Libya and Sidi Barrani in western Egypt.- Characteristics :The "Via della Vittoria" , was a road built by Italian engineers during World War II, between June and December 1940...
- Italian Libya RailwaysItalian Libya RailwaysItalian Libya Railways was a group of small railways built in the Italian colony of Libya between the two World Wars.-History:The Kingdom of Italy built in Italian Libya nearly 400 km of railways with 950 mm gauge.-Projects:...
- Aouzou Strip
External links
- Photos of Libyan Italians and their villages in Libya
- The Italians in Libya after World War II
- Pictures of the Italian conquest of Libya (arab)
- Italian colonial railways built in Libya (in Italian)