Italian Colonial Era
After Italy took the area from the Ottoman Empire in 1912 it was administered as a single administrative unit called Italian North Africa. Then from 1927 to 1934, the territory was split into two separate colonies, each run by their own Italian governor: Italian Cyrenaica and Italian Tripolitania.
In 1934 Italy adopted the name "Libya" (Italian Libya) as the official name of the reunified area, and administratively divided it up into the three provinces of Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan. In 1937 the Cyrenaica and Tripolitania provinces split, with northern Cyrenaica becoming Benghazi Province and Derna Province, and northern Tripolitania splitting into Tripoli Province and Misurata Province.
Fezzan was not split in 1937, but the whole southern Sahara Desert area was militarily administered as the Libyan Sahara Territory (Territorio del Sahara Libico or Il Territorio Militare del Sud Libico).
The Libyan Sahara Territory was divided into four military districts administered from the desert oases towns of Ghat, Brak, Murzuk and Hun. The Senussi order Kufra oasis area in the southeastern Libyan Desert was not separately administered by the Italians, although in 1932 they built a fort at the holy place of El Tag above it. This territory was administrered only by the Italian military, and in 1936 was increased with the Aouzou Strip from France's Chad.
Read more about this topic: Provinces Of Libya
Famous quotes containing the words italian, colonial and/or era:
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)
“The North will at least preserve your flesh for you; Northerners are pale for good and all. There’s very little difference between a dead Swede and a young man who’s had a bad night. But the Colonial is full of maggots the day after he gets off the boat.”
—Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1894–1961)
“This, my first [bicycle] had an intrinsic beauty. And it opened for me an era of all but flying, which roads emptily crossing the airy, gold-gorsy Common enhanced. Nothing since has equalled that birdlike freedom.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)