Ottoman Rule, the Sanusis, and Italian Colonization
In the years following the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815, the European powers forcefully eradicated Mediterranean piracy and put an end to the system of paying tribute to the Barbary states.8 Deprived of the revenue derived from piracy, Tripoli’s economy declined and the country slipped into civil war. In 1835 the Ottomans forced the Qaramanli ruler, Ali II, into exile and reestablished direct rule over Tripoli. The Ottomans combined the three regions of the country into one vilayet or province—Tripolitania—ruled by an Ottoman wali (governor general) who was appointed by the sultan. In 1879 Cyrenaica became a separate province. Ottoman rule in the two provinces was for the most part turbulent, repressive, and corrupt.9
In the early nineteenth century Muhammad ibn Ali as-Sanusi, a highly respected Islamic scholar and marabout (holy man) from present-day Algeria, preached a message of Islamic revival based on the purity and simplicity of the early faith. He won many followers among Cyrenaican Bedouins who were attracted to his message of personal austerity and moral regeneration. In 1843 the Grand Sanusi, as he came to be known, founded the first of many lodges in Cyrenaica, which became the center of the new religious order. By the end of the nineteenth century virtually all of the Bedouin tribes in the region had pledged their allegiance to the Sanusi brotherhood. In the next century the Sanusis spearheaded the nascent Libyan nationalist movement.10
A late starter among European powers in the race for overseas colonies, Italy coveted the Ottoman provinces of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. In 1911 the Italian government sent an ultimatum to the sultan, demanding to occupy the two provinces to protect Italy’s growing commercial interests. When Constantinople ignored the demand, Rome declared war. Italian forces invaded and captured Tripoli and occupied several coastal cities in Cyrenaica. Libyan tribesmen fought alongside Ottoman troops to resist the Christian invaders, but with war looming in the Balkans the Ottoman government had no choice but to sue for peace. Under the ambiguous terms of the Treaty of Lausanne signed in 1912, the sultan gave up his political dominion in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica but retained the right to supervise Libya’s religious affairs. Rome’s annexation of the provinces, recognized by the other European powers, marked the start of a colonial war that lasted off and on for two decades.11
Fighting for both Islam and their independence, Sanusi tribesmen prevented the Italians from expanding beyond their enclaves on the Cyrenaican coast. By contrast, in Tripolitania the Italians had greater success subduing and controlling large portions of the region because many local leaders lacked the will to continue armed resistance. After Italy’s entry into the First World War on the side of the Allies, Sanusi leader Ahmad ash-Sharif sided with the Central Powers. Following a disastrous raid into British-occupied Egypt in 1916, ash-Sharif turned the leadership of the movement over to the young, pro-British Muhammad Idris as-Sanusi. In 1917 Idris negotiated a truce with the Allies whereby Italy and Great Britain recognized him as the ruler over the interior of Cyrenaica, while he agreed to halt attacks on Italian-held coastal cities and Egypt.12
After the war Italy attempted to govern the country with a colonial policy that was both moderate and accommodating. The Italians recognized the autonomous Tripolitanian Republic and accepted Idris’s hereditary rule in Cyrenaica.13 Nevertheless, in 1922 when Idris reluctantly accepted Tripolitania’s suggestion that he become the ruler over all of Libya, the fascist leader Benito Mussolini responded by launching a brutal campaign of military conquest. The Second Italo-Sanusi War began later that year, and by the end of 1924 the Italians had subdued northern Tripolitania and most of coastal Cyrenaica. Southern Tripolitania was pacified in 1928, Fezzan in 1930. The fiercest action took place in the interior of Cyrenaica where the aged but vigorous Shaykh Umar al-Mukhtar led Sanusi tribesmen in a relentless guerrilla campaign against the larger and technologically superior Italian forces. The Italians completed the conquest of Libya in 1931 when they captured Mukhtar in the Green Mountains of northern Cyrenaica and defeated the remnant of his rebel army at al-Kufrah Oasis in southern Cyrenaica. During the last stages of the war the Italians executed more than twenty-four thousand Cyrenaicans, herded most of the civilian population into concentration camps, and forced the remaining population to flee into the desert.14
In 1934 Mussolini formally established the Italian colony of Libya, which was comprised of four provinces—Tripoli, Misratah, Benghazi, and Darnah—in addition to a military district in Fezzan. In 1939 Libya became part of metropolitan Italy. During the 1930s the Italians invested large amounts of capital and launched several public works projects to modernize Libya’s economy, especially the agricultural sector. They set out to improve the country’s irrigation systems, roads, and port facilities. Significant progress was made, but the improvements primarily benefited the Italian colonists (who numbered over 110,000 by 1940) and a few upper-class Libyans, not the vast majority of Libya’s population. In many respects the Libyans suffered under Italian rule. Tribal grazing lands were transferred to Italian settlers, tribal government was abolished, the Sanusis were repressed, education and training programs were not established, and Libyans were excluded from the administration of their country.15
World War II and the United Nations
When Italy entered the Second World War in June 1940, Idris and other Libyan leaders declared their support for the Allies and began consulting with British military authorities. Idris pressed the British to endorse Libyan independence, but the government responded that it could not make a commitment while the war was still in progress. Idris accepted the British position, urged his followers to be patient, and continued the program of military cooperation. The British raised five Libyan battalions largely from Cyrenaica. The Libyan Arab Force (or “Sanusi Army,” as the Libyan contingent was popularly known) served under British command during the epic desert battles that raged between the German Afrika Korps of Gen. Erwin Rommel and the British Eighth Army of Gen. Claude Auchinleck and his successor, Gen. Bernard L. Montgomery. In November 1942 British forces liberated Cyrenaica from Axis control. By February 1943 all of Libya was free of Axis troops.16
The war was a traumatic experience for many Libyans, who found themselves mere pawns in a major conflict between colossal military powers. Lillian Craig Harris, an analyst with the U.S. Department of State, pointed out that for Qaddafi and many of his countrymen, “World War II is no mere historical event but a living reality that must be remembered and used. Thousands of Libyan Arabs, out of a population of less than one million were killed. The country’s economic structure, such as it had been, was devastated. Qaddafi, whose sense of history is infused with the Bedouin idea of blood debt, to this day frequently repeats his demand that Italy and Britain pay reparations for damage to Libya during World War II.”
During the war the British established military governments in Cyrenaica and Tripolitania, and Free French forces from the French colony of Chad set up a military administration in Fezzan. After the war conflicting interests among the victorious powers, conflicts that were exacerbated by the onset of the Cold War, prevented agreement among the Allies on the form and administration of a trusteeship for Libya. Consequently, the issue was referred to the United Nations for a solution. In November 1949 the General Assembly passed a resolution that called for the establishment