Italian Cyrenaica – Wikipedia

The Cyrenaic colony It was one of the two Italian colonies in Libyan land. Its territory corresponded to that of today’s Cyrenaica. Created after the Italian-Turkish war, in 1934, it merged into Italian Libya.

The Italian-Turkish war [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

On October 4, 1911, the Italian Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti began the conquest of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, in possession of the Ottoman Empire, sending 1732 sailors to the command of Captain Umberto Cagni to Tripoli. Subsequently, the contingent employed against the Turks and Arabs of Enver Pascià and Aziz Bey reached the number of over 100 000 soldiers.

The Italians managed to obtain from Turkey those regions currently definable Libyan in the Lausanne Treaty of 18 October 1912, but only Tripolitania, limited to the coastal strip, was actually controlled by the Royal Army, under the iron guide of the governor Giovanni Ameglio.

Inside the current Libya (mainly in Fezzan), the indigenous guerrilla continued for years, so much so that in 1922 still a sort of “reconquest” had to begin.

Reconquest it [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Between 1923 and 1925 Italian control over Tripolitania was restored and between 1928 and 1930 the troops of General Rodolfo Graziani occupied the southern regions Fezzan. The problem of the immense and arid Cyrenaica remained. In 1923 the fascist government undertaken the conquest of the Gebel, installing a series of forts with eritree garrisons ^[first] . In the meantime, the boundaries of the colony had been redefined in favor of Italy with some bilateral treaties, such as the Italian-French agreement of 12 September 1919 (Tunisian border), the delimitation of the Egyptian Libyan border, with the sale of the Oasis of Giarabub (Treaty of the Cairo of 6 December 1925), in addition to the northern triangle of Sudan Anglo-Egyptian to the south of Italian Libya, sold in 1926. On February 1, 1926 the challenge against the desert was collected in Giarabub: after a shaded march the Italians They reached the oasis, astonishing the chief room Senussita, who subjected himself spontaneously.

However, in Cyrenaica Italian successes encountered unexpected difficulties. The Gebel at the Akhdar (“The green mountain”) – the plateau that rises up to a thousand meters almost overlooking the Mediterranean, and then slowly digesting towards the desert – was in fact lent itself to the guerrilla and the senussia guaranteed the compact support of the population and a political-military direction unitary, which found a great leader in the elderly Omar al-Mukhtar, ” the desert lion “.

Rome could not accept this challenge to his Rinascente Empire and, in 1930, General Rodolfo Graziani, back from the successes in Fezzan, was called in Cyrenaica as deputy governor to give a turn to the operations. Since June 1930, the new governor kicked off with large raking operations, deporting all the semi-nomadic populations of the Gebel, in order to deprive the guerrillas of all support. Next to the wide use of modern armored vehicles and aviation, Graziani also resorted to ruthless reprisals and the use of asphyxiating gases. With the capture of Omar at Mukhtàr and its execution, the Libyan resistance collapsed, and in January 1932 Badoglio was able to announce with a solemn proclaimed the complete and definitive pacification of Libya ^[2] .

Colonization and development [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

At the end of the 1930s, Cyrenaica was populated by more than 20 000 Italian settlers, who are mainly installed along the fertile coast, often at the expense of the natives ^[3] . Consequently, in the second half of the decade there was a great effort for economic development, which materialized above all in massive investments in the infrastructure of Libya ^[3] .

Among the most important projects were the coastal road between Tripoli and Benghazi, the Benghase-Barca and Bengase-Soluch railway lines and the enlargement of the port of Benghazi.

The construction of the first new villages for Italians and Libyans was started ^[4] , equipped with all the necessary infrastructures and communication routes, the result of accurate architectural studies, made in rationalist style ^[5] .

With the Royal Decree of 3 December 1934, all the territories of Italian African Italian were gathered in the General Governorate of Libya. On January 9, 1939, the Libya colony was incorporated into the metropolitan territory of the Kingdom of Italy and consequently considered part of the great Italy, with the name of Fourth bank And all their inhabitants obtained Italian citizenship.

In 1919 the Cyrenaica was granted, with the Royal Decree of 3 April 1919, a coat of arms having the following emblazoning ^[6] :

‘ of blue, at the silfio of cut gold, cut and surmounted by a silver star. The shield stamped by ancient Roman crown »

The color of the bottom of the shield later became (between 1932 and 1937) red and in the latter version it appears in the weapon granted to Libya Italian on 16 December 1940. ^[7]

After the reconquest, the Italian Cyrenaica was definitively reorganized in six commissioners and two area commands ^[8] , with capital Benghazi. The automotive theme, employed until 1935, was “CNA”.

With the decree law n. 99 of January 24, 1929, while maintaining the two separated entities, a unique government of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica was established, held by the Governor of Tripolitania alone, while the Cyrenaica had a vice-governor subordinate to them.

After the merger in the General Governorate of Libya, the first governor, Italo Balbo, divided the Italian Libya in four provinces in 1937 (in 1939 annexed to the Kingdom of Italy) and a Saharan territory; The Cyrenaica in particular was divided in the province of Benghazi and in the province of Derna.

Since January 1914 the colonial troops of Cyrenaica were brought together in the royal body colonial troops of Cyrenaica, then merged into the Royal Corps Colonial Troops of Libya (from 21 April 1939 Libyan Troops Royal Troops 1939-1943).

Governors :

Vice -overcoverners of Cyrenaica (dependent on the Governor of Tripolitania) :

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• Graziani, Rodolfo. Roman peace in Libya , Mondadori, Milan 1937.
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• Sword, Franco. After the war. From the Losanna Treaty to the departure of the first governor of Cyrenaica , Zanichelli, Bologna 1914.
• Teruzzi, Attilio. Cyrenaica Verde , Mondadori, Milan 1931.