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Libya
The Fourth Shore
Once pacification had been accomplished, fascist Italy endeavored
to convert Libya into an Italian province to be referred to popularly
as Italy's Fourth Shore. In 1934 Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were
divided into four provinces--Tripoli, Misratah, Benghazi, and
Darnah--which were formally linked as a single colony known as
Libya, thus officially resurrecting the name that Diocletian had
applied nearly 1,500 years earlier. Fezzan, designated as South
Tripolitania, remained a military territory. A governor general,
called the first consul after 1937, was in overall direction of
the colony, assisted by the General Consultative Council, on which
Arabs were represented. Traditional tribal councils, formerly
sanctioned by the Italian administration, were abolished, and
all local officials were thereafter appointed by the governor
general. Administrative posts at all levels were held by Italians.
An accord with Britain and Egypt obtained the transfer of a corner
of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, known as the Sarra Triangle, to Italian
control in 1934. The next year, a French-Italian agreement was
negotiated that relocated the 1,000-kilometer border between Libya
and Chad southward about 100 kilometers across the Aouzou Strip
(see Glossary), but this territorial concession to Italy was never
ratified by the French legislature. In 1939 Libya was incorporated
into metropolitan Italy.
During the 1930s, impressive strides were made in improving the
country's economic and transportation infrastructure. Italy invested
capital and technology in public works projects, extension and
modernization of cities, highway and railroad construction, expanded
port facilities, and irrigation, but these measures were introduced
to benefit the Italian-controlled modern sector of the economy.
Italian development policy after World War I had called for capital-intensive
"economic colonization" intended to promote the maximum exploitation
of the resources available. One of the initial Italian objectives
in Libya, however, had been the relief of overpopulation and unemployment
in Italy through emigration to the undeveloped colony. With security
established, systematic "demographic colonization" was encouraged
by Mussolini's government. A project initiated by Libya's governor,
Italo Balbo, brought the first 20,000 settlers--the ventimilli--to
Libya in a single convoy in October 1938. More settlers followed
in 1939, and by 1940 there were approximately 110,000 Italians
in Libya, constituting about 12 percent of the total population.
Plans envisioned an Italian colony of 500,000 settlers by the
1960s. Libya's best land was allocated to the settlers to be brought
under productive cultivation, primarily in olive groves. Settlement
was directed by a state corporation, the Libyan Colonization Society,
which undertook land reclamation and the building of model villages
and offered a grubstake and credit facilities to the settlers
it had sponsored.
The Italians made modern medical care available for the first
time in Libya, improved sanitary conditions in the towns, and
undertook to replenish the herds and flocks that had been depleted
during the war. But, although Mussolini liked to refer to the
Libyans as "Muslim Italians," little more was accomplished that
directly improved the living standards of the Arab population.
Beduin life was disrupted as tribal grazing lands--considered
underutilized by European standards but potentially fertile if
reclaimed--were purchased or confiscated for distribution to Italian
settlers. Complete neglect of education for Arabs prevented the
development of professional and technical training, creating a
shortage of skilled workers, technicians, and administrators that
had not been alleviated in the late 1980s. Sanusi leaders were
harried out of the country, lodges broken up, and the order suppressed,
although not extinguished.
Data as of 1987
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