History of Libya - Italian Rule (1911-1943)

Italian Rule (1911-1943)

See also Italo-Turkish War and Italian Colony (1911–1947)

The Italian rule in Libya started with the Italian conquest of coastal Tripolitania and Cyrenaica from the Ottomans in 1911.

It lasted more than thirty years until February 1943, when western Tripolitania was conquered by the Allies in the North African Campaign.

Officially Italy renounced to Libya in 1947, in the Peace Treaty after World War II.

The colony expanded after concessions from the British colony of Sudan and a territorial agreement with Egypt. The Kingdom of Italy at the 1919 Paris "Conference of Peace" received nothing from German colonies, but as a compensation Great Britain gave it the Oltre Giuba and France agreed to give some Saharan territories to the Italian Libya.

After prolonged discussions through the 1920s, it was not until 1935 that the Mussolini-Laval agreement was reached and Italy received the Aouzou strip that was added to Libya (but this agreement was not ratified later by France).

Probably the most important legacy of the Italian rule -according to historians like Chapin Metz- is the political creation of "Libya" with the unification of Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan in 1934, done by Governor Italo Balbo. He promoted a huge colonization of Italians in Libya: total native Italian population for Libya was 110,575 out of a total population of 915,440 in 1939