Not a Happy History — Italy & Libya

Abstract

Italy “ruled” Libya for 32 years (1911–43), and both still largely resent the experience. Italy, “the least of the Great Powers”, lacked the necessary capacity and experience to conquer and rule foreign colonies, particularly one as poor and unpromising as Turkish North Africa — the “Crate of Sand”. And Libyans, far from welcoming Italians as “liberators from Turkish oppression” defended their own for years of violent “anti-colonial struggle”, and particularly against Italian fascist ideology. Episodes and personalities from that conflict have since been appropriated by successive Libyan regimes to enhance their own historical legitimacy and contemporary credibility, while some modern Italian historians have also manipulated Italo-Libyan historical memories. Italy’s passive acceptance of the resultant historical “guilt” seems partly intended to ensure continuing access to Libyan resources, as well as better management of the flow of African migrants across the central Mediterranean.