Italian North Africa

Italian Libya
Libia Italiana ليبيا
Protectorates of Italy (1912–1934) Colony of Italy (1934–1943)
1911–1943
Flag Coat of arms
Green: Territory annexed by Italy. Light green: Libyan Sahara territory. Dark grey: Other Italian possessions and occupied territory. Darkest grey: Kingdom of Italy.
Capital		Tripoli
Languages		Italian (official) Libyan Arabic, Berber languages, Domari
Religion		Islam, Coptic Orthodoxy, Judaism, Catholicism
Government		Colonial administration
Monarch
•	1911-43	King Victor Emmanuel III
History
•	Established	1911
•	Disestablished	1943
Area
•	1939	1,759,541 km² (679,363 sq mi)
Population
•	1939 est.	893,774
Density		0.5 /km²  (1.3 /sq mi)
Currency		Italian lira
Preceded by Succeeded by Ottoman Tripolitania Kingdom of Egypt French Algeria French West Africa French Equatorial Africa Anglo-Egyptian Sudan British Military Administration (Libya) Fezzan-Ghadames (French Administration)
Today part of		Libya

Italian Libya (Italian: Libia Italiana; Arabic: ليبيا الإيطالية‎‎ Lībyā al-Īṭālīya) was a unified colony of Italian North Africa (Africa Settentrionale Italiana, or ASI) established in 1934 in what is now modern Libya. Italian Libya was formed from the colonies of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania which were taken by Italy from the Ottoman Empire in 1912 after the Italo-Turkish War of 1911 to 1912.

The history of Libya as an Italian colony started in 1911 and was characterized initially by a major struggle with Muslim native Libyans that lasted until 1931. During this period, the Italian government controlled only the coastal areas of the colony. Between 1911 and 1912, over 1,000 Somalis from Mogadishu, the then capital of Italian Somaliland, served as combat units along with Eritrean and Italian soldiers in the Italo-Turkish War. Most of the troops stationed never returned home until they were transferred back to Italian Somaliland in preparation for the invasion of Ethiopia in 1935.

After the Italian Empire's conquest of Ottoman Tripolitania (Ottoman Libya), in the 1911–12 Italo-Turkish War, much of the early colonial period had Italy waging a war of subjugation against Libya's population. Ottoman Turkey surrendered its control of Libya in the 1912 Treaty of Lausanne, but fierce resistance to the Italians continued from the Senussi political-religious order, a strongly nationalistic group of Sunni Muslims. This group, first under the leadership of Omar Al Mukhtar and centered in the Jebel Akhdar Mountains of Cyrenaica, led the Libyan resistance movement against Italian settlement in Libya. Italian forces under the Generals Pietro Badoglio and Rodolfo Graziani waged punitive pacification campaigns which turned into acts of repression after the massacres of Italian soldiers at Sciara Sciat and other localities. Resistance leaders were executed or escaped into exile. The forced migration of more than 100,000 Cyrenaican people ended in Italian concentration camps. After two decades, Italy predominated.