Italian Libya

Libia Italiana Italian Libya Colony of Italy ←   ←   ← 1934 – 1943 →   →   → Flag Coat of arms Map of Libya as a colony Capital Tripoli Government Colony History  - Established 1934  - Disestablished 1943

Italian Libya was a unified colony of Italian North Africa (Africa Settentrionale Italiana, or ASI) established in 1934 [1] in what represents present-day Libya.

Italian Libya was formed from the colonies of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania which were taken by Italy from the Ottoman Empire in 1912 after the Italo-Turkish War of 1911 to 1912. Both Cyrenaica and Tripolitania, along with Fezzan, were merged into Italian Libya in 1934.

The colony expanded after concessions were made from the British colony of Sudan and a territorial agreement with Egypt. Libya was lost as a colony in 1943 when it was occupied by the Allied powers in World War II.

Colonial Policy under Fascism

King Victor Emmanuel III in Benghazi.

Initially the Fascist regime took a hard line against Libyan Arab nationalists who had been fighting a civil war for independence for many years under the leadership of Omar Mukhtar.

Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini sent Rodolfo Graziani to lead military forces to crush Mukhtar's resistance. The Arab resistance movement was violently crushed and Mukhtar was executed in 1931. In the aftermath of the violence, Mussolini attempted to improve the image of his government to Libyan Arabs and pursued policies to woo the trust of Arab leaders there.

In 1934, Italy adopted the name "Libya" (used by the Greeks for all of North Africa, except Egypt) as the official name of the colony (made up of the three Provinces of Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan).

In December 1934, individual freedom, inviolability of home and property, right to join the military or civil administrations, and the right to freely pursue a career or employment were guaranteed to Libyans. ^[1] and in a famous trip to Libya in 1937, a propaganda event was created when on March 18 he posed with Arab dignitaries who gave him an honorary "Sword of Islam" (that had actually been made in Florence) which was to symbolize Mussolini as a protector of the Muslim Arab peoples there.^[2]

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.^[3]

During the Fascism many Italians moved to Libya and colonized the coastal areas. In 1940 the Libyan Italians were nearly 110,000, or 12% of the total population of Libya. The governor Italo Balbo developed the Italian Libya from 1934 to 1940, creating a huge infrastructure (from 4,000 km of roads to 400 km of narrow gauge railways to new industries and to dozen of new agricultural villages).

The last railway development in Libya done by the Italians was the Tripoli-Benghazi, that was started in 1941 and was never completed because ot the Italian defeat during WWII. ^[4]

World War II

A number of major battles took place in Libya during the North African campaign of World War II. In September 1940, the Italian invasion of Egypt was launched from Libya. Starting in December of the same year, the British launched a counterattack called Operation Compass and the Italian forces were pushed back into Libya. After losing all of Cyrenaica and almost all of its Tenth Army, Italy asked for German assistance to aide the failing North African Campaign.

With German support, the lost Libyan territory was regained and by the conclusion of Operation Brevity, German and Italian forces were entering Egypt. The Siege of Tobruk in April 1941, where German General Erwin Rommel's forces were defeated, marked the first failure of Blitzkrieg tactics. Defeat during the Second Battle of El Alamein in Egypt spelled the doom of the Axis forces in Libya and meant the end of the Western Desert Campaign.

In February 1943, retreating German and Italian forces were forced to abandon Libya as they were pushed out of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania, thus ending Italian jurisdiction and control over Libya.

After WWII

From 1943 to 1951, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were under British administration, while the French controlled Fezzan. Under the terms of the 1947 peace treaty with the Allies, Italy relinquished all claims to Libya.^[5]

On November 21, 1949, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution stating that Libya should become independent before January 1, 1952. On December 24, 1951, Libya declared its independence as the United Kingdom of Libya, a constitutional and hereditary monarchy. The final defeat of Italy in World War II and the era of international decolonization fostered an exodus of Italians from Libya when Libya became a country.

The Italian population virtually disappeared after Libyan president Muammar al-Qaddafi ordered the expulsion of remaining Italians (about 20,000) in 1970.^[6] Only a few hundred of them have been allowed to return to Libya in the 2000s.

2008 cooperation treaty

On 30 August 2008, Gaddafi and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi signed a historic cooperation treaty in Benghazi.^[7][8][9] Under its terms, Italy will pay $5 billion to Libya as compensation for its former military occupation. In exchange, Libya will take measures to combat illegal immigration coming from its shores and boost investments in Italian companies.^[8][10] The treaty was ratified by Italy in 6 February 2009,^[7] and by Libya on 2 March, during a visit to Tripoli by Berlusconi.^[8][11]

See also

• Italian invasion of Libya
• History of Libya as Italian Colony
• Frontier Wire (Libya)
• Italian North Africa
• Italian Libyans
• Aozou Strip

References