Background: The beginning of colonization in Libya
The conquest of Libya took place in two phases; the first was considered a more superficial and approximate stage, it began on the 4th of October 1911 under Giovanni Giolitti’s command. The expansionism would have ensured raw materials and a new land to migrate for Italians. Additionally, Italy would have benefited economically from the conquest because it could gain control of the Sahra trade. However, the most determinant argument to conquer Libya was the southern question that took place in Italy during the 1890s.[1]
The landless and sharecropping peasants in the south were putting pressure on the Italian ruling elites claiming land and voting rights. Following a series of riots and rebellions in the south, the ruling classes attempted to find a solution to this problem by relocating Italian peasants in colonies.[3]
Giolitti assumed that since Libyans had resented Ottoman rule from 1551 until 1911, Italians would be welcomed by the local population, however, this was not the case. Libyans for a long time placed a strong resistance against the occupation and fought anti-colonial resistance with an army of volunteers from 1911 to 1915, then they managed to defeat the Italian army that in 1916 made a truce.[4]
Mussolini Regime and the integration of Fascism
The second phase started with the arrival of Benito Mussolini, an Italian politician, leader and founder of the National Fascist Party. He rose to power as Prime Minister of Italy from March 1922 until his deposition in 1943. With his arrival, he took control over the colonization expenditure and the scale of the occupation escalated.[5]
He referred to Libya as “The Fourth Shore” because it represented the fourth side of the national quadrilateral completed by the three coasts of the Adriatic where there are Trieste, Bari and Durazzo.[6] Deadly instruments of war were used because it was clear that in order to empty the land, the native population had to be defeated.
The motive behind this colonization was that fascists dreamed of settling 500,000 to 1 million Italians in the “fourth shore”.
The state financed and officially organized a mass migration of peasant-farming families on the African coast of the Mediterranean. Amongst the 6,000 families who were admitted “to plead” only 1,800 of them were selected. The requirements were clear, working units - which did not include friends or relations but only close family members - had to be composed of at least 10 members, all healthy and loyal. Additionally, the family had to be experienced in the field of agriculture.[5]
The settlers desired to migrate as Italy was becoming over-crowded and there was a strong urge to “own land”. These farms were ready in seven months; the colonists walked into efficiently constructed white farmhouses with irrigating aqueducts, asphalt roads and private lands that averaged thirty-seven acres.[7]
Families were also allowed to visit their village centres, which included churches, cinemas, sports and co-operatives.
Italy was enthusiastic about this project because the country wished to achieve self-sufficiency in the production of corn and oil and furthermore because they had estimated that by 1943 the national population living in Libya would reach 100,000 of which an approximate 40,000 men representing a strong military reserve in a strategic corner of the Mediterranean.[6]
Popular Resistance
Omar al-Mukthar
However, the Italians had underestimated the resistance of the Ottoman army and in particular of the Libyan population. In fact, even if the government of the country was apparently weak, the society was used to self administrate itself based on religious or sectarian organizations. Once arrived in Libya, the fascists faced a poor yet organized and stubborn resistance that they had to fight for 20 years.[2]
The face of the armed Arab opposition mainly happened in Cyrenaica under the leadership of Omar Mukhtar, where Italian forces under the Generals Pietro Badoglio and Rodolfo Graziani waged punitive pacification campaigns which turned into brutal and bloody acts of repression.[3]
However, with the arrival of Mussolini, the generals were given the command to stop compromising with the resistance and to defeat it with violence at whatever cost in order to free the land for settlement.[3]
The Frontier Wire, a barbed wire fence was built from the Mediterranean to the oasis of Al-Jaghbub to sever lines critical to the resistance. Soon afterwards, the colonial administration began the wholesale deportation of the people from the mountains of Jebel Akhdar, to deny the rebels the support of the local population.[5]
Mass deportation
Members of the nomadic tribes of Cyrenaica with their herds during their forceful transfer to the Italian concentration camps.
Fascist Italy maintained several concentration camps in Cyrenaica (Eastern Libya) during the later phase of its occupation of that country. In order to win against the resistance in Libya, the Italian troops were ordered to isolate the native troops.[8]
Furthermore, Italy felt that they had the right to colonize the whole Mediterranean because they are the successors of the Roman empire. Mussolini desired to transplant a new Roman and Fascist civilization within the African land.
Firstly a fence along 300,000 miles of the Egyptian border was built in order to cut the supply of primary resources. Shortly after between 100,000 and 110,000 children, women, and elderly people and 600,000 animals were moved to the Sirte desert in concentration camps in Suluq, El Magrun, Abyar and El Agheila where 16 concentration camps had been built and tens of thousands died in squalid conditions.[2]
Fascist Italy maintained several concentration camps in Cyrenaica (Eastern Libya) during the later phase of its occupation of that country. After the initial invasion in 1911, the Italian control over much of the country remained ineffective.
This destructive period went on from 1929 until 1934. The local population died of starvation, untreated diseases and overall deprivation of support and aid. In addition to starvation and disease, people in the camps were traumatized by the continuous public executions of prisoners and by “marad”. This word describes the physical and psychological trauma caused by the separation of the herds from the seminomad population. In their culture, animal/human unity was essential and seeing that their herds were being left to die of hunger was unbearable.[9] Almost 168,000 animals were captured and killed.[7]
The Libyan population used the word “shar” to describe the horror of the genocide in the death camps. This word comes from the religious book of the Qur’an and it means evil, the opposite of good.
The survivors released in 1934 were less than 40,000. They were free but stayed under surveillance for 2 years as they could not go back to their houses because they were occupied by Italians.[1]
Estimates of deaths in concentration camps
Italian concentration camps in Libya 1930–1933
By the end it was estimated that a total number of 60,000 to 70,000 people died. The total number of Libyans who died either through combat or mainly due to starvation and disease is unclear, however, in 1910 the Libyan population was made up of around 1.5 million people while in 1943 it had significantly decreased to 800,000.[8]Ilan Pappé estimates that between 1928 and 1932 the Italian military "killed half the Bedouin population (directly or through disease and starvation in camps)."[10] Italian historian Emilio Gentile estimates 50,000 deaths resulting from the suppression of resistance.[11]
Genocide recognition
Since the first phase of colonization, Italian media reported a distorted narrative of the conflict. The Italians were depicted as liberators from Ottoman rule, and the repression campaigns, such as the ones following the battle of Sciara Sciat, were hidden from the population. On the other side, the Arabs were described as 'beasts' that needed to be civilized by the Europeans.[1]
For this reason, it was difficult to convince the Italian population of the genocidal nature of the National Fascist colonization campaign in Libya. This part of colonial history is almost an erased memory. Internationally, the Italian people are recognised as people of culture, arts, and beauty, and hence they are thought to be incapable of committing such crimes.[12]
Italian Fascism is still today considered moderate in comparison to the Nazi party in Germany, when the truth is that the latter took inspiration from Italian concentration camps and methods of repression.
However, the Libyan colonization can be considered genocide because the population was killed intentionally and the cultural, biological and economic basis of the community was completely destroyed and replaced.[8]
2008 Cooperation Treaty
On 30 August 2008, Gaddafi and ItalianPrime MinisterSilvio Berlusconi signed a historic Friendship, Partnership and Cooperationtreaty in Benghazi 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. The treaty was ratified by Italy on 6 February 2009, and by Libya on 2 March, during a visit to Tripoli by Berlusconi.[13]
The intent was therefore, to put an end to the disputes related to colonialism, but contemporarily, create an advantageous economic condition for Italy.
Related Research Articles
The Senusiyya, Senussi or Sanusi are a Muslim political-religious Sufi order and clan in Libya and surrounding regions founded in Mecca in 1837 by the Grand Sanussi, the Algerian Muhammad ibn Ali al-Sanusi. Sanusi was concerned with what he saw as both the decline of Islamic thought and spirituality and the weakening of Muslim political integrity.
Rodolfo Graziani, 1st Marquis of Neghelli, was a prominent Italian military officer in the Kingdom of Italy's Royal Army, primarily noted for his campaigns in Africa before and during World War II. A dedicated fascist and prominent member of the National Fascist Party, he was a key figure in the Italian military during the reign of Victor Emmanuel III.
Pietro Badoglio, 1st Duke of Addis Abeba, 1st Marquess of Sabotino, was an Italian general during both World Wars and the first viceroy of Italian East Africa. With the fall of the Fascist regime in Italy, he became Prime Minister of Italy.
Omar al-Mukhṭār Muḥammad bin Farḥāṭ al-Manifī, called The Lion of the Desert, known among the colonial Italians as Matari of the Mnifa, was an Imam and leader of native resistance in Cyrenaica under the Senussids, against the Italian colonization of Libya. A teacher-turned-general, Omar was a prominent figure of the Senussi movement and is considered the national hero of Libya and a symbol of resistance in the Arab and Islamic worlds. Beginning in 1911, he organised and led the Libyan resistance movement against the Italian colonial empire during the First and Second Italo-Senussi Wars. Externally, he also fought against the French colonization of Chad and the British occupation of Egypt. After many attempts, the Italian Armed Forces managed to capture Al-Mukhtar near Slonta when he was wounded in battle by Libyan colonial troops, and hanged him in 1931 after he refused to surrender.
Italian war crimes have mainly been associated with Fascist Italy in the Pacification of Libya, the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, the Spanish Civil War, and World War II.
Lion of the Desert is a 1981 epic historical war film about the Second Italo-Senussi War, starring Anthony Quinn as Libyan tribal leader Omar Mukhtar, a Bedouin leader fighting the Regio Esercito, and Oliver Reed as Italian General Rodolfo Graziani, who defeated Mukhtar. It was directed by Moustapha Akkad and funded by the Libyan government under Muammar Gaddafi.
The Italian colonizationof Libya began in 1911 and it lasted until 1943. The country, which was previously an Ottoman possession, was occupied by Italy in 1911 after the Italo-Turkish War, which resulted in the establishment of two colonies: Italian Tripolitania and Italian Cyrenaica. In 1934, the two colonies were merged into one colony which was named the colony of Italian Libya. In 1937, this colony was divided into four provinces, and in 1939, the coastal provinces became a part of metropolitan Italy. The colonization lasted until Libya's occupation by Allied forces in 1943, but it was not until the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty that Italy officially renounced all of its claims to Libya's territory.
Libya was a colony of Fascist Italy located in North Africa, in what is now modern Libya, between 1934 and 1943. It was formed from the unification of the colonies of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania, which had been Italian possessions since 1911.
Imperialism, colonialism and irredentism played an important role in the foreign policy of Fascist Italy. Among the regime's goals were the acquisition of territory considered historically Italian in France and Yugoslavia, the expansion of Italy's sphere of influence into the Balkans and the acquisition of more colonies in Africa. The pacification of Libya (1923–32), the invasion of Ethiopia (1935–36), the invasion of Albania (1939), the invasion of France (1940), the invasion of Greece (1940–41) and the invasion of Yugoslavia (1941) were all undertaken in part to add to Italy's national space. According to historian Patrick Bernhard, Fascist Italian imperialism under Benito Mussolini, particularly in Africa, served as a model for the much more famous expansionism of Nazi Germany in Eastern Europe.
Italian Tripolitania was an Italian colony, located in present-day western Libya, that existed from 1911 to 1934. It was part of the territory conquered from the Ottoman Empire after the Italo-Turkish War in 1911. Italian Tripolitania included the western northern half of Libya, with Tripoli as its main city. In 1934, it was unified with Italian Cyrenaica in the colony of Italian Libya. In 1939, Tripolitania was considered a part of the Kingdom of Italy's 4th Shore.
Italian Cyrenaica was an Italian colony, located in present-day eastern Libya, that existed from 1911 to 1934. It was part of the territory conquered from the Ottoman Empire during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911, alongside Italian Tripolitania.
The Libyan resistance movement was the rebel force opposing the Italian Empire during its Pacification of Libya between 1923 and 1932.
The Zuwayya are an independent Murabtin tribe, one of the major Arab Bedouin tribes of Cyrenaica and Fezzan, Libya.
The Magarha is one of the major Arab tribes of Libya. They originate from Fezzan province of Libya and have been an influential supporters and beneficiaries of Muammar Gaddafi during his long rule and then Libya's 2011 civil war. Some Magarha have relocated to Sirte and elsewhere along the coast.
The Second Italo-Senussi War, also referred to as the Pacification of Libya, was a conflict that occurred during the Italian colonization of Libya between Italian military forces and indigenous rebels associated with the Senussi Order. The war lasted from 1923 until 1932, when the principal Senussi leader, Omar al-Mukhtar, was captured and executed. The Libyan genocide took place during and after the conflict.
Conditions worsened for the Jews of Libya after the passage of Italy's Manifesto of Race in 1938. Following the German intervention in 1941, some Jews were sent to camps in continental Europe, where those who survived stayed until the end of World War II.
The Fourth Shore or Italian North Africa was the name created by Benito Mussolini to refer to the Mediterranean shore of coastal colonial Italian Libya and, during World War II, Italian Tunisia in the fascist-era Kingdom of Italy, during the late Italian colonial period of Libya and the Maghreb.
The Kingdom of Italy was governed by the National Fascist Party from 1922 to 1943 with Benito Mussolini as prime minister and dictator. The Italian Fascists imposed totalitarian rule and crushed political opposition, while promoting economic modernization, traditional social values and a rapprochement with the Roman Catholic Church.
The Libyan genocide, also known in Libya as Shar, was the genocide of Libyan Arabs and the systematic destruction of Libyan culture, particularly during and after the Second Italo-Senussi War between 1929 and 1934. During this period, between 83,000 and 125,000 Libyans were killed by Italian colonial authorities under Benito Mussolini. Near 50% of the population of Cyrenaica had been killed, with the majority taking place in concentration camps, resulting in a population decline from 225,000 to 142,000 civilians. In totality, Libyan deaths during the entire Italian colonial period is estimated to be much higher, with estimates placing the number at 250,000–300,000, 500,000 and up to 750,000.
References
1 2 3 4 Aruffo, Alessandro (2007). Storia del Colonialismo Italiano: da Crispi a Mussolini. Rome: DATANEWS Editrice. pp.48–65. ISBN978-88-7981-315-0.
1 2 3 Ahmida, Ali Abdullatif (1994). The Making of Modern Libya: State Formation, Colonization, and Resistance, 1830-1832. Albania: State University of New York Press. pp.104–106. ISBN0-7914-1762-X.
↑ Ahmida, Ali Abdullatif (2005). Forgotten Voices: Power and Agency in Colonial and Postcolonial Libya. New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group. pp.36–39. ISBN0-415-94987-4.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
