Italian Cyrenaica
Encyclopedia
Italian Cyrenaica was an African colony, in present day eastern Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

, of the Kingdom of Italy
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...

 from 1927 to 1934. It was part of the Italian North Africa
Italian North Africa
Italian North Africa was the aggregate of territories and colonies controlled by Italy in North Africa from 1911 until World War II...

  territory conquered from the Ottoman empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 in 1911.

History

Italian Cyrenaica was formed in 1927, after it and Italian Tripolitania
Italian Tripolitania
Italian Tripolitania was an African colony, in present day western Libya, of the Kingdom of Italy from 1927 to 1934. It was part of the Italian North Africa territory conquered from the Ottoman empire in 1911...

 became independent colonial entities within Italian North Africa. In 1934, Italian Cyrenaica became part of Italian Libya
Italian Libya
Italian Libya was a unified colony of Italian North Africa established in 1934 in what represents present-day Libya...

.

In the 1920s, Cyrenaica
Cyrenaica
Cyrenaica is the eastern coastal region of Libya.Also known as Pentapolis in antiquity, it was part of the Creta et Cyrenaica province during the Roman period, later divided in Libia Pentapolis and Libia Sicca...

  was the scene of fighting between Italian colonial forces and Libyan rebels who were fighting for independence from colonial rule. In 1931, the rebel independence leader Omar Mukhtar
Omar Mukhtar
Omar Mukhtar , of the Mnifa, was born in the small village of Janzour, near Tobruk in eastern Barqa in Libya. Beginning in 1912, he organized and, for nearly twenty years, led native resistance to Italian colonization of Libya. The Italians captured and hanged him in 1931...

 was captured and executed.

Cyrenaica was populated by more than 20,000 Italian colonists in the late 1930s, mainly around the coast. As a consequence there was a large economic development effort in the second half of the 1930s.

In Cirenaica were founded -for the Italian colonists- the rural villages of Baracca, Maddalena, Oberdan, D’Annunzio and Battisti in 1938, successively Mameli and Filzi in 1939.

For Libyan families (who contributed with many soldiers enrolled in the two Italian-libyan Divisions: 1st Libyan Division Sibelle and 2 Libyan Division Pescatori
2 Libyan Division Pescatori
The 2 Libyan Division Pescatori was a Infantry Division of the Italian Army during World War II. In December 1940, it was in Libya part of the Italian XXIII Corps a together with the 1 Blackshirt Division 23 Marzo and 2 Blackshirt Division 28 Ottobre, took part in the Italian invasion of Egypt and...

) were created in Cyrenaica the villages of Gedida-Nuova, Nahida-Risorta, Zahra- Fiorita and el-Fager-Alba.

Infrastructures

The Italians implemented major infrastructure projects in Italian Cyrenaica, mainly in the 1930s; the most important were the coastal road between Tripoli and Benghazi
Benghazi
Benghazi is the second largest city in Libya, the main city of the Cyrenaica region , and the former provisional capital of the National Transitional Council. The wider metropolitan area is also a district of Libya...

, the railways Benghazi-Barce and Benghazi-Soluch
Italian Libya Railways
Italian Libya Railways was a group of small railways built in the Italian colony of Libya between the two World Wars.-History:The Kingdom of Italy built in Italian Libya nearly 400 km of railways with 950 mm gauge.-Projects:...

, and the enlargement of the Port of Benghazi
Port of Benghazi
The Port of Benghazi is a major seaport in the city of Benghazi, Libya, on the Mediterranean Sea coast within the Gulf of Sidra.-History:A natural seaport, it was founded as Euesperides by the ancient Greeks of Cyrenaica in the 6th Century BC. After passing it to the Egyptian pharaoh Ptolemy III,...

.

A group of villages with all the needed communications (and infrastructures) for Italians and Libyans were established in coastal Cyrenaica during the 1930s.

See also

  • Italian Libya
    Italian Libya
    Italian Libya was a unified colony of Italian North Africa established in 1934 in what represents present-day Libya...

  • Italian Libya Railways
    Italian Libya Railways
    Italian Libya Railways was a group of small railways built in the Italian colony of Libya between the two World Wars.-History:The Kingdom of Italy built in Italian Libya nearly 400 km of railways with 950 mm gauge.-Projects:...

  • Italo-Libyans
  • Italian concentration camps in Libya
    Italian concentration camps in Libya
    Fascist Italy maintained several concentration camps in 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...

  • Jebel Akhdar Mountains
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