Italian Libya
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Italian Libya was a unified Italian North African colony established in 1934[1] in what represents present-day Libya, from the colonies of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania which were taken by Italy from the Ottoman Empire in 1912 after the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-1912 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.
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[edit] Colonial Policy under Fascism
Initially the Fascist regime took a hardline 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 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 honourary "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]
[edit] World War II
A number of major battles took place in Libya during World War II. In 1940, Italian forces were pushed far back into Libya with Operation Compass requiring Italy to ask for German assistance to aide the failing North African campaign. With German support, 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. In February 1943, German and Italian forces were forced to abandon Libya in the North African campaign as they were pushed out of Tripoli, thus ending Italian jurisdiction over Libya.
