Italian Libya#After WWII

{{main|Italian colonization of Libya}}

{{main|Italian Tripolitania|Italian Cyrenaica}}

{{see also|Italo-Turkish War|Italian invasion of Libya|Tripolitanian Republic|Libyan resistance movement|Pacification of Libya}}

File:The Italian Army landing at the Port in Tripoli.jpg

File:Italian Benghazi.jpg, where the "Lungomare" (sea-walk) and many other buildings were constructed]]

Italian efforts to colonise Libya began in 1911, and were characterised initially by major struggles with Muslim native Libyans that lasted until 1931. During this period, the Italian government controlled only the coastal areas. Between 1911 and 1912, over 1,000 Somalis from Mogadishu, the then capital of Italian Somaliland, served in combat units along with Eritrean and Italian soldiers in the Italo-Turkish War.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?ei=_vexU_fCEYeEqgaqkYKIBQ& |title=Journal of the Royal United Service Institution, Whitehall Yard, Volume 57, Issue 2 |author=W. Mitchell |page=997}} Most of the Somali troops remained in Libya until they were transferred back to Italian Somaliland in preparation for the invasion of Ethiopia in 1935.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4O0vAAAAIAAJ|title=War Over Ethiopia |author=William James Makin |page=227|year=1935 }}

After the Italian Empire's conquest of Ottoman Tripolitania (Ottoman Libya), in the 1911–12 Italo-Turkish War, much of the early colonial period had Italy waging a war of subjugation against Libya's population. Ottoman Turkey surrendered its control of Libya in the 1912 Treaty of Lausanne, but fierce resistance to the Italians continued from the Senussi political-religious order, a strongly nationalistic group of Sunni Muslims. Although resistance to the Italian colonisers was less prevalent in Tripolitania than Cyrenaica (which waged significant guerilla warfare), a resistance group did form the short-lived Tripolitanian Republic in 1918. They didn't succeed in setting up a republic, and Italian rule was restored four years later. Relations between the Senussi Order and the newly established Tripolitanian Republic were acrimonious;{{sfn|Vandewalle|2006|p=27}} the Senussi attempted to militarily extend their power into eastern Tripolitania, resulting in a pitched battle at Bani Walid in which the Senussi were forced to withdraw back into Cyrenaica.{{sfnm|1a1=Bearman|1y=1986|1p=14|2a1=Vandewalle|2y=2006|2p=27}} Following the death of Tripolitanian leader Ramadan Asswehly in August 1920, the Republic descended into civil war. Many tribal leaders in the region recognized that this discord was weakening the region's chances of attaining full autonomy from Italy, and in November 1920 they met in Gharyan to bring an end to the violence.{{sfn|Vandewalle|2006|p=29}} Idris feared that Italy under its new Fascist leader Benito Mussolini would militarily retaliate against the Senussi Order, and so he went into exile in Egypt in December 1922.{{sfnm|1a1=Bearman|1y=1986|1pp=14–15|2a1=Vandewalle|2y=2006|2p=29}}

File:Mussolini, Sabratha, 1926.png meeting local notables in Sabratha, 1926]]

Under the leadership of Omar Al Mukhtar, native troops associated with the Senussi led the Libyan resistance movement in 1923 against Italian settlement in Libya. Italian forces under Generals Pietro Badoglio and Rodolfo Graziani waged punitive pacification campaigns using chemical weapons and mass executions of soldiers and civilians; Senussi troops reacted with the raiding of animals and intimidation against the Libyan tribes who had submitted to the Italians, such as on November 29, 1927, when they attacked a Braasa tribe camp near Slonta, which also affected women and children.{{sfn|Saini Fasanotti|2012|p=272}} One-quarter of Cyrenaica's population of 225,000 people died during the conflict.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cGHGPgj1_tIC&pg=PA309|title=The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing|last=Mann|first=Michael|date=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521538541|pages=309}} The Italian occupation also reduced livestock numbers, killing, confiscating or driving the animals from their pastoral land to inhospitable land near the concentration camps.General History of Africa, Albert Adu Boahen, Unesco. International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of Africa, page 196, 1990 The number of sheep fell from 810,000 in 1926 to 98,000 in 1933, goats from 70,000 to 25,000 and camels from 75,000 to 2,000.

Thousands of Libyans joined the Italian colonial troops during the conflict, which included the native Savari, Spahi and Meharist soldiers. From 1930 to 1931, 12,000 Cyrenaicans were executed and all the nomadic peoples of northern Cyrenaica were forcibly removed from the region and relocated to huge concentration camps in the Cyrenaican lowlands.Michael R. Ebner. Geoff Simons. Ordinary Violence in Mussolini's Italy. New York, New York, USA: Cambridge University Press, 2011. P. 261.{{Cite book|first=John|last=Wright|title=Libya: A Modern History|location=Kent, England |publisher=Croom Helm|year=1983|page=35}} Fascist regime propaganda proclaimed the camps as hygienic and efficiently run oases of modern civilization. However, in reality the camps had poor sanitary conditions and an average of about 20,000 Beduoins, together with their camels and other animals, crowded into an area of one square kilometre.{{Cite book|first=Christopher|last=Duggan|title=The Force of Destiny: A History of Italy Since 1796|location=New York|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|year=2007|page=496}} The camps held only rudimentary medical services, with the camps of Soluch and Sisi Ahmed el Magrun with an estimated 33,000 internees having only one doctor between them. Typhus and other diseases spread rapidly in the camps as the people were physically weakened by meagre food rations and forced labour. By the time the camps closed in September 1933, 40,000 of the 100,000 total internees had died in the camps. Italian authorities committed ethnic cleansing by forcibly expelling 100,000 Bedouin Cyrenaicans, almost half the population of Cyrenaica, from their settlements, slated to be given to Italian settlers.{{Cite book|first=Anthony L.|last=Cardoza|title=Benito Mussolini: the first fascist|publisher=Pearson Longman|year=2006|page=109}}{{Cite book|first1=Donald |last1=Bloxham|first2=A. Dirk |last2=Moses|title=The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies|location=Oxford, England|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2010|page=358}} After nearly two decades of suppression campaigns the Italian colonial forces claimed victory.

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File:Territorial growth of Italian Libya.svg

Italian Libya expanded after concessions from the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and a territorial agreement with the Kingdom of Egypt. The Kufra District was nominally part of Egypt until 1925, but served de facto as a headquarters for the Senussi until conquered by the Italians in 1931. Although the Italians received no former German colonies from the Paris Peace Conference, as compensation Britain gave them the Oltre Giuba and France agreed to transfer some Saharan territories to Italian Libya.{{cite web|title=Districts of Libya|url=http://www.statoids.com/uly.html|work=Statoids|access-date=10 November 2013}} After prolonged discussions through the 1920s, in 1935 under the Mussolini-Laval agreement Italy received the Aouzou strip, which was added to Libya. However, this agreement was not ratified later by France.

In 1931, the towns of El Tag and Al Jawf were taken over by Italy. Egypt ceded Kufra and Jarabub districts to Italian Libya on December 6, 1925, but it was not until the early 1930s that Italy was in full control of the place. In 1931, during the campaign of Cyrenaica, General Rodolfo Graziani easily conquered Kufra District, considered a strategic region, leading about 3,000 soldiers from infantry and artillery, supported by about twenty bombers. Ma'tan as-Sarra was turned over to Italy in 1934 as part of the Sarra Triangle to colonial Italy by the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, who considered the area worthless and so an act of cheap appeasement to Benito Mussolini's attempts at an empire.Burr, J. Millard and Robert O. Collins, Darfur: The Long Road to Disaster, Markus Wiener Publishers: Princeton, 2006, {{ISBN|1-55876-405-4}}, p. 111 During this time, the Italian colonial forces built a World War I–style fort in El Tag in the mid-1930s.

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File:GreaterItalia.jpg was the southern part of "Imperial Italy" (orange borders), a Fascist project to enlarge Italy's national borders.]]

File:Karl Schwabe, 3 x Afrika (216c).jpg camel cavalry of the Italian Colonial Army in Ghadames, 1933]]

In the 1930s, the policy of Italian fascism toward Libya began to change, and both Italian Cyrenaica and Tripolitania, along with Fezzan, were merged into Italian Libya in 1934. The Italians started a new policy toward the Libyans, in order to "assimilate" them in the Italian colonial empire: they gave a special Italian citizenship to all Libyans, while improving the economy with the creation of special new villages for Moslem Libyans.{{Cite book |last=Sarti |first=Roland |title=The Ax Within: Italian Fascism in Action |publisher=Modern Viewpoints |location=New York |year=1974}}

Mussolini sought to fully colonize Libya, introducing 30,000 more Italian colonists, which brought their numbers to more than 100,000.[http://www.architecturebeyond.eu/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/vittoria-capresi_I-centri-rurali-libici.pdf New villages in coastal Libya (in Italian)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720153207/http://www.architecturebeyond.eu/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/vittoria-capresi_I-centri-rurali-libici.pdf|date=2011-07-20}} At the time of the 1939 census, the Italian population in Libya numbered 108,419 (12.37% of the total population), concentrated on the coast around the city of Tripoli (37% of the city's population) and Benghazi (31%). The 22,000 Libyan Jews were allowed to integrate in the society of the "Fourth Shore". On 9 January 1939, the coastal regions of the colony were incorporated into metropolitan Italy and thereafter considered by Italy to be an integral part of their state. By 1939, the Italians had built 400 km of new railroads and 4,000 km of new roads. During World War II a new road was still being built, the Via della Vittoria, and a new Tripoli-Benghazi railway.

{{Blockquote|In 1939 some Libyans were granted special (though limited) Italian citizenship by Royal Decree No. 70 on 9 January 1939. This citizenship was necessary for any Libyan with ambitions to rise in the military or civil organizations. The recipients were officially referred to as Moslem Italians. Libya had become "the fourth shore of Italy" (Trye 1998). The incorporation of Libya into the Italian Empire gave the Italian Army a greater ability to exploit native Libyans for military service. Native Libyans served in Italian formations from the beginning of the Italian occupation of Libya. On 1 March 1940, the 1st and 2nd Libyan Divisions were formed. These Libyan infantry divisions were organized along the lines of the binary Italian infantry division. The 5th Italian Army received the 2nd Libyan Infantry Division, which it incorporated into the 13th Corps. The Italian 10th Army received the 1st Libyan Infantry Division, which it incorporated into the reserve. The Italian Libyan infantry divisions were colonial formations ("colonial" in the sense of consisting of native troops). These formations had Italian officers commanding them, with Libyan NCOs and soldiers. These native Libyan formations were made up of people drawn from the coastal Libyan populations. The training and readiness of these divisions was on an equal footing with the regular Italian formations in North Africa. Their professionalism and 'esprit de corps' made them some of the best Italian infantry formations in North Africa. The Libyan divisions were loyal to Italy and provided a good combat record.[http://cgsc.cdmhost.com/cgi-bin/showfile.exe?CISOROOT=/p4013coll2&CISOPTR=597&filename=591.pdf. Libyan colonial Troops: pp. 3031]{{dead link|date=January 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}}}

After the enlargement of Italian Libya with the Aouzou Strip, Fascist Italy aimed at further extension to the south. Indeed, Italian plans, in the case of a war against France and Great Britain, projected the extension of Libya as far south as Lake Chad and the establishment of a broad land bridge between Libya and Italian East Africa.{{cite book |last1=Stegemann|first1=Bernd|last2=Vogel|first2=Detlef|title=Germany and the Second World War: The Mediterranean, South-East Europe, and North Africa, 1939–1941|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1995|isbn=0-19-822884-8|page=176}}

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File:Wrecked Italian aircraft at Tripoli 1943.jpg

File:Żołnierz włoskiej armii kolonialnej (2-2060).jpg in January 1943]]

During World War II, there was strong support for Italy from many Muslim Libyans, who enrolled in the Italian Army. Other Libyan troops (the Savari [cavalry regiments] and the Spahi or mounted police) had been fighting for the Kingdom of Italy since the 1920s. 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.[http://cgsc.cdmhost.com/cgi-bin/showfile.exe?CISOROOT=/p4013coll2&CISOPTR=597&filename=591.pdf. Full analysis of the initial Italian attack]{{dead link|date=January 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Starting in December of the same year, the British Eighth Army 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 aid the failing campaign.This was assisted by orders from London withdrawing a large part of the Army to redeploy to Greece. According to German General Erwin Rommel, "On 8th February, leading troops of the British Army occupied El Agheila... Graziani's army had virtually ceased to exist. All that remained of it were a few lorry columns and hordes of unarmed soldiers in full flight to the west. If Wavell had now continued his advance into Tripolitania, no significant resistance could have been mounted."

With German support, the lost Libyan territory was regained during Operation Sonnenblume and by the conclusion of Operation Brevity, German and Italian forces were entering Egypt. The first Siege of Tobruk in April 1941 marked the first failure of Rommel's Blitzkrieg tactics. In 1942 there was the Battle of Gazala when the Axis troops finally conquered Tobruk and pushed the defeated Allied forces inside Egypt again. Defeat during the Second Battle of El Alamein in Egypt spelled doom for 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. The Fezzan was occupied by the Free French in 1943. At the close of World War II, the British and French collaborated with the small new resistance. France and the United Kingdom decided to make King Idris the Emir of an independent Libya in 1951. Libya would finally become independent in 1951.{{cite web|url=https://www.thoughtco.com/chronological-list-of-african-independence-4070467|title=A Timeline of African Countries' Independence|first1=Alistair |last1=Boddy-Evans |website=ThoughtCo}}

From 1943 to 1951, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were under British military administration, while the French controlled Fezzan. Under the terms of the 1947 peace treaty with the Allies, Italy relinquished all claims to Libya.{{cite web|last=Hagos |first=Tecola W |date=November 20, 2004 |url= http://tigray.net/2014/11/30/treaty-of-peace-with-italy-1947-evaluation-and-conclusion/ |title=Treaty Of Peace With Italy (1947), Evaluation And Conclusion |access-date=2018-02-20}} There were discussions to maintain the province of Tripolitania as the last Italian colony, but these were not successful.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}

Although Britain and France had intended to divide the nation between their empires, 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.

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File:Administrative subdivision of Italian Libya.jpg

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). The colony was subdivided into four provincial governatores (Commissariato Generale Provinciale) and a southern military territory (Territorio Militare del Sud or Territorio del Sahara Libico):Rodogno, D. (2006). Fascism's European empire:

Italian occupation during the Second World War. p. 61.

• Tripoli Province, capital Tripoli.
• Benghazi Province, capital Benghazi.
• Derna Province, capital Derna.
• Misurata Province, capital Misrata.
• Southern Military Territory, capital Hun

The general provincial commissionerships were further divided into wards (circondari). On 9 January 1939, a decree law transformed the commissariats into provinces within the metropolitan territory of the Kingdom of Italy. Libya was thus formally annexed to Italy and the coastal area was nicknamed the "Fourth Shore" (Quarta Sponda). Key towns and wards of the colony became Italian municipalities (comune) governed by a podestà.

• Italo Balbo 1 January 1934 to 28 June 1940
• Rodolfo Graziani 1 July 1940 to 25 March 1941
• Italo Gariboldi 25 March 1941 to 19 July 1941
• Ettore Bastico 19 July 1941 to 2 February 1943
• Giovanni Messe 2 February 1943 to 13 May 1943

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File:Libia-Tripoli-1935-Suk-el-Turk.jpg

File:Italo Balbo welcomes Italian Colonists in Libya (1938).jpg welcomes arriving Italian colonists in Tripoli, 1938]]

In 1939, key population figures for Italian Libya were as follows:

Population of the main urban centres:

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{{main|Italian colonization of Libya}}

File:Battah, Libya.jpg) in Cyrenaica]]

Many Italians were encouraged to settle in Libya during the Fascist period, notably in the coastal areas.[http://www.ernandes.net/prestopino/cason.htm Italian colonists in Libia (in Italiano)] The annexation of Libya's coastal provinces in 1939 brought them to be an integral part of metropolitan Italy and the focus of Italian settlement.Jon Wright. History of Libya. P. 165.

The population of Italian settlers in Libya increased rapidly after the Great Depression: in 1927, there were just about 26,000, by 1931 44,600, 66,525 in 1936 and eventually, in 1939, they numbered 119,139, or 13% of the total population.

They were concentrated on the Mediterranean coast, especially in the main urban centres and in the farmlands around Tripoli, where they constituted 41% of the city's population, and in Benghazi 35%. Settlers found jobs in the construction boom fuelled by Fascist interventionist policies.

In 1938, Governor Italo Balbo brought 20,000 Italian farmers to settle in Libya, and 27 new villages were founded, mainly in Cyrenaica.[http://www.architecturebeyond.eu/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/vittoria-capresi_I-centri-rurali-libici.pdf New villages in coastal Libya (in Italian)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720153207/http://www.architecturebeyond.eu/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/vittoria-capresi_I-centri-rurali-libici.pdf |date=2011-07-20 }}

File:GAL-Arab Lictor Youth in uniforms.PNG (GAL) members]]

File:Parafromitalianlibya.jpg, Libyan paratroopers of the Italian Army]]

After the campaign of reprisals known as the "pacification campaign", the Italian government changed policy toward the local population: in December 1934, individual freedom, inviolability of home and property, the right to join the military or civil administrations, and the right to freely pursue a career or employment were promised to the Libyans.Sarti, p 190

In a trip by Mussolini to Libya in 1937, a propaganda event was created where Mussolini met with Muslim Arab dignitaries, who gave him an honorary sword (that had actually been made in Florence) which was to symbolize Mussolini as a protector of the Muslim Arab peoples there.Sarti, p194.

In January 1939, Italy annexed territories in Libya that it considered Italy's Fourth Shore with Libya's four coastal provinces of Tripoli, Misurata, Bengazi, and Derna becoming an integral part of metropolitan Italy. At the same time indigenous Libyans were granted "Special Italian Citizenship" which required such people to be literate and confined this type of citizenship to be valid in Libya only.

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). This allowed the creation of Libyan military units within the Italian army.Sarti, p196. In March 1940, two divisions of Libyan colonial troops (for a total of 30,090 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 the British Empire's Egypt:[http://xoomer.virgilio.it/ramius/Militaria/colonie_italiane-libia.html 30,000 Libyans fought for Italy in WWII] 1st Libyan Division and 2nd Libyan Division.

In 1936, the main sectors of economic activity in Italian Libya (by number of employees) were industry (30.4%), public administration (29.8%), agriculture and fishing (16.7%), commerce (10.7%), transports (5.8%), domestic work (3.8%), legal profession and private teaching (1.3%), banking and insurance (1.1%).

File:Arch of the Philaeni 01.jpg at the Marble Arch in 1937]]

Italians greatly developed the two main cities of Libya, Tripoli and Benghazi,[https://dadfeatured.blogspot.com/2018/09/bengasi-italiana.html Italian Benghazi] with new ports and airports, new hospitals and schools and many new roads & buildings.

File:Berenice Hotel, Benghazi.jpg

Also tourism was improved and a huge & modern "Grand Hotel" was built in Tripoli and in Bengasi.

The Fascist regime, especially during Depression years, emphasized infrastructure improvements and public works. In particular, Governor Italo Balbo greatly expanded Libyan railway and road networks from 1934 to 1940, building hundreds of kilometers of new roads and railways and encouraging the establishment of new industries and a dozen new agricultural villages.[http://www.fedoa.unina.it/1881/01/Santoianni_Progettazione_Architettonica.pdf Chapter Libya (in Italian)] The massive Italian investment did little to improve Libyan quality of life, since the purpose was to develop the economy for the benefit of Italy and Italian settlers.

The Italian aim was to drive the local population to the marginal land in the interior and to resettle the Italian population in the most fertile lands of Libya.

The Italians did provide the Libyans with some initial education but minimally improved native administration. The Italian population (about 10% of the total population) had 81 elementary schools in 1939–1940, while the Libyans (more than 85% of total population) had 97.

There were only three secondary schools for Libyans by 1940, two in Tripoli and one in Benghazi.Africa Under Colonial Domination 1880-1935, Professor A Adu Boahen, Unesco. International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of Africa, page 800, 1985

The Libyan economy substantially grew in the late 1930s, mainly in the agricultural sector. Even some manufacturing activities were developed, mostly related to the food industry. Building construction increased immensely. Furthermore, the Italians made modern medical care available for the first time in Libya and improved sanitary conditions in the towns.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

{{Blockquote|The Italians started numerous and diverse businesses in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. These included an explosives factory, railway workshops, Fiat Motor works, various food processing plants, electrical engineering workshops, ironworks, water plants, agricultural machinery factories, breweries, distilleries, biscuit factories, a tobacco factory, tanneries, bakeries, lime, brick and cement works, Esparto grass industry, mechanical saw mills, and the Petrolibya Society (Trye 1998). Italian investment in her colony was to take advantage of new colonists and to make it more self-sufficient. (General Staff War Office 1939, 165/b).[http://cgsc.cdmhost.com/cgi-bin/showfile.exe?CISOROOT=/p4013coll2&CISOPTR=597&filename=591.pdf. Economic development of Italian Libya]{{dead link|date=January 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}}}

By 1939, the Italians had built {{convert|400|km|mi}} of new railroads and {{convert|4000|km|mi}} of new roads. The most important and largest highway project was the Via Balbia, an east–west coastal route connecting Tripoli in western Italian Tripolitania to Tobruk in eastern Italian Cyrenaica. The last railway development in Libya done by the Italians was the Tripoli-Benghazi line that was started in 1941 and was never completed because of the Italian defeat during World War II.[http://www.gips.unisi.it/files/wp18.pdf Italian railways in colonial Libya (in italian)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722063813/http://www.gips.unisi.it/files/wp18.pdf |date=July 22, 2011 }}

File:TripoliGrandPrix1937.jpg]]

Classical archaeology was used by the Italian authorities as a propaganda tool to justify their presence in the region. Before 1911, no archeological research was done in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. By the late 1920s the Italian government had started funding excavations in the main Roman cities of Leptis Magna and Sabratha (Cyrenaica was left for later excavations because of the ongoing colonial war against Muslim rebels in that province). A result of the Fascist takeover was that all foreign archaeological expeditions were forced out of Libya, and all archeological work was consolidated under a centralised Italian excavation policy, which exclusively benefitted Italian museums and journals.Dyson, S.L (2006). In pursuit of ancient pasts: a history of classical archaeology in the 19th and 20h centuries. pp. 182–183.

After Cyrenaica's full 'pacification', the Italian archaeological efforts in the 1930s were more focused on the former Greek colony of Cyrenaica than in Tripolitania, which was a Punic colony during the Greek period. The rejection of Phoenician research was partly because of anti-Semitic reasons (the Phoenicians were a Semitic people, distantly related to the Arabs and Jews). Of special interest were the Roman colonies of Leptis Magna and Sabratha, and the preparation of these sites for archaeological tourism.

Tourism was further promoted by the creation of the Tripoli Grand Prix, a racing car event of international importance.{{YouTube|KEtz-wzbs9Y|Video of Tripoli Grand Prix}}

{{Main|Italy–Libya relations}}

File:LA CATTEDRALE DI TRIPOLI 1960.jpg and the former FIAT centre (Meydan al Gaza'ir) during the 1960s.]]

After independence, many Italian settlers still remained in Libya; there were 35,000 Italo-Libyans in 1962. However, the Italian population virtually disappeared after the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi ordered the expulsion of remaining Italians (about 20,000) in 1970.[http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/10/21/news/italy.php Italians plan to see Libya once again] This event was celebrated in Libya as a holiday named "Day of Revenge", which was first cancelled in 2004 after Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi apologized for Italian colonization, and later reintroduced with the new name "Day of Friendship" due to improvement in Italy–Libya relations.{{cite journal |last1=Zoubir |first1=Yahia H. |title=Libya and Europe: Economic Realism at the Rescue of the Qaddafi Authoritarian Regime |journal=Journal of Contemporary European Studies |date=2009 |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=401–415 [403, 411] |doi=10.1080/14782800903339354|s2cid=153625134 }}{{cite journal |last1=Brambilla |first1=Chiara |title=Shifting Italy/Libya Borderscapes at the Interface of EU/Africa Borderland: A "Genealogical" Outlook from the Colonial Era to Post-Colonial Scenarios |journal=ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies |date=2014 |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=220–245 |url=https://www.acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/1005 |language=en |issn=1492-9732}}{{cite book |last1=Van Genugten |first1=Saskia |title=Libya in Western Foreign Policies, 1911–2011 |date=2016 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |isbn=978-1-137-48950-0 |pages=127–146 |language=en |chapter=Reconciliation and Fighting Islamic Extremism Together}} Only a few hundred settlers were allowed to return to Libya in the 2000s.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}} In 2004, there were 22,530 Italians in Libya.{{cite web |url=http://www.axl.cefan.ulaval.ca/afrique/libye.htm. |title= Libye|website=www.axl.cefan.ulaval.ca |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190606083425/http://www.axl.cefan.ulaval.ca/afrique/libye.htm |archive-date=2019-06-06}}

Italy maintained diplomatic relations with Libya and imported a significant quantity of its oil from the country.{{cite book|last=Janni|first=Paolo|title=Italy in the European Monetary Union|year=1999|publisher=CRVP|isbn=1-56518-128-X|page=29}} Relations between Italy and Libya warmed in the first decade of the 21st century, when they entered co-operative arrangements to deal with illegal immigration into Italy. Libya agreed to aggressively prevent migrants from sub-Saharan Africa from using the country as a transit route to Italy, in return for foreign aid and Italy's successful attempts to have the European Union lift its trade sanctions on Libya.{{cite news|title=Out of Africa|last=Yaghmaian|first=Behzad|date=11 March 2011|work=Foreign Affairs}}

File:Bouri NC 41 DP4 platform.jpg Oil Bouri DP4 in Bouri Field, the biggest platform in the Mediterranean Sea. Italy is now Libya's most important trading partner.]]

On 30 August 2008, Gaddafi and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi signed a historic cooperation treaty in Benghazi.{{cite web|url=http://www.senato.it/parlam/leggi/09007l.htm |title=Ratifica ed esecuzione del Trattato di amicizia, partenariato e cooperazione tra la Repubblica italiana e la Grande Giamahiria araba libica popolare socialista, fatto a Bengasi il 30 agosto 2008 |publisher=Parliament of Italy |date=2009-02-06 |access-date=2009-06-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090618082911/http://www.senato.it/parlam/leggi/09007l.htm |archive-date=2009-06-18 }}(in Italian){{cite news|url=http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2009-06-09_109379246.html|publisher=ANSA|title=Gaddafi to Rome for historic visit|date=2009-06-10|access-date=2009-06-10|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090616155752/http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2009-06-09_109379246.html|archive-date=2009-06-16}}{{cite news|url=http://www.tripolipost.com/articledetail.asp?c=1&i=2335 |title=Berlusconi in Benghazi, Unwelcome by Son of Omar Al-Mukhtar |publisher=The Tripoli Post |date=2008-08-30 |access-date=2009-06-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202225659/http://www.tripolipost.com/articledetail.asp?c=1&i=2335 |archive-date=2013-12-02 }} Under its terms, Italy would pay $5 billion to Libya as compensation for its former military occupation.[http://nguoi-viet.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=83541 Ý bồi thường $5 tỉ, xin lỗi Libya về hậu quả thời đô hộ]{{Dead link|date=July 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} {{in lang|vi}} In exchange, Libya would take measures to combat illegal immigration coming from its shores and boost investments in Italian companies.{{cite news|publisher=La Repubblica|url=http://www.repubblica.it/2008/05/sezioni/esteri/libia-italia/accordo-firmato/accordo-firmato.html|title=Italia-Libia, firmato l'accordo|date=2008-08-30|access-date=2009-06-10}} The treaty was ratified by Italy on 6 February 2009, and by Libya on 2 March, during a visit to Tripoli by Berlusconi.{{cite news|url=http://www.alarabonline.org/english/display.asp?fname=2009%5C03%5C03-02%5Czbusinessz%5C988.htm&dismode=x&ts=02/03/2009%2004:42:49%20ã |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090618080801/http://www.alarabonline.org/english/display.asp?fname=2009%5C03%5C03-02%5Czbusinessz%5C988.htm&dismode=x&ts=02/03/2009%2004:42:49%20%C3%A3 |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 18, 2009 |title=Libya agrees pact with Italy to boost investment |date=2009-03-02 |access-date=2009-06-10 |publisher=Alarab Online }} Cooperation ended in February 2011 as a result of the Libyan Civil War which overthrew Gaddafi. At the signing ceremony of the document, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi recognized historic atrocities and repression committed by the state of Italy against the Libyan people during colonial rule, stating: "In this historic document, Italy apologizes for its killing, destruction and repression of the Libyan people during the period of colonial rule." and went on to say that this was a "complete and moral acknowledgement of the damage inflicted on Libya by Italy during the colonial era".The Report: Libya 2008. Oxford Business Group, 2008.Pp. 17.

{{History of Libya}}

{{Portal|Italy|Libya}}

• List of governors-general of Italian Libya
• Italian invasion of Libya
• Italian Libya Railways
• Tripoli Grand Prix
• Frontier Wire (Libya)
• Italian Libyans
• Massacres during the Italo-Turkish War
• Aozou Strip
• Italian Libyan Colonial Division
• 1st Libyan Division Sibelle
• 2 Libyan Division Pescatori
• Savari
• Spahis

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |author= |publisher=Ministry of Foreign Affairs Archivio Storico Diplomatico |location=Rome |url=http://www.esteri.it/mae/it/ministero/servizi/uapsds/storico_diplom/inventarionline.html |language=it |title=Inventario dell'Archivio Storico del Ministero Africa Italiana: Libia (1859–1945) |volume=II |year=1975 |access-date=2017-08-07 |archive-date=2017-12-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171212074106/http://www.esteri.it/mae/it/ministero/servizi/uapsds/storico_diplom/inventarionline.html |url-status=dead }}
• {{cite book |last=Bearman |first=Jonathan |title=Qadhafi's Libya |publisher=Zed Books |location=London |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-86232-434-6 }}
• Chapin Metz, Helen, ed., Libya: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1987.
• Del Boca, Angelo. Gli italiani in Libia. Vol. 2. Milano, Mondadori, 1997.
• {{cite book |first=Federica |last=Saini Fasanotti |title=Libia 1922-1931 le operazioni militari italiane |publisher=Stato Maggiore dell'Esercito ufficio storico |location=Rome |year=2012 |language=it}}
• Sarti, Roland. The Ax Within: Italian Fascism in Action. Modern Viewpoints. New York, 1974.
• Smeaton Munro, Ion. Through Fascism to World Power: A History of the Revolution in Italy. Ayer Publishing. Manchester (New Hampshire), 1971. {{ISBN|0-8369-5912-4}}
• Tuccimei, Ercole. La Banca d'Italia in Africa, Foreword by Arnaldo Mauri, Collana storica della Banca d'Italia, Laterza, Bari, 1999.
• Taylor, Blaine. Fascist Eagle: Italy's Air Marshal Italo Balbo. Montana: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, 1996. {{ISBN|1-57510-012-6}}
• {{cite book |last=Vandewalle |first=Dirk |title=A History of Modern Libya |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0521615549 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofmodernl0000vand }}

• {{cite book |editor-first=Carlo |editor-last=Giglio |title=Inventario delle fonti manoscritte relative alla storia dell'Africa del Nord esistenti in Italia |trans-title=Inventory of Manuscript sources Relating to the History of North Africa extant in Italy |year=1971–1983 |language=it |location=Leiden |publisher=Brill |oclc=906099149}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110324073409/http://www.airl.it/photo.php Photos of Libyan Italians and their villages in Libya]
• {{in lang|it}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20110722063813/http://www.gips.unisi.it/files/wp18.pdf Italian colonial railways built in Libya]
• {{in lang|it}} [http://airl.previewapps.com/storage/articolis/January2019/Celz0b2KvLBGzyIa4qJs.pdf Italian Tripolitania in early 1930s]

{{Italian Libya}}

{{Italian colonial empire}}

{{coord missing|Libya}}

Libya

Category:Former Italian-speaking countries

Category:World War II occupied territories

Category:Former colonies in Africa

Libya

Category:1910s in Libya

Category:1920s in Libya

Category:1930s in Libya

Category:1940s in Libya

Category:Italy–Libya relations

Category:1911 establishments in Africa

Category:1943 disestablishments in Africa

Category:States and territories disestablished in 1943