British Military Administration (Libya)

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British Military Administration of Libya
Amministrazione Militare Britannica della Libia (
Arabic
)
1942–1951
Flag of
Map of the allied occupation of Libya showing Tripolitania and Cyrenaica
Map of the allied occupation of Libya showing Tripolitania and Cyrenaica
StatusBritish Military Administration (1943–1950)
British Civil Administration (1950–1951)
CapitalTripoli
Common languagesEnglish, (Official)
Arabic
Chief Administrator (Tripolitania) 
• 1943-1951
Travers Blackley
Chief Administrator (Cyrenaica) 
• 1942–1945
Peter Acland
• 1946–1948
James Haugh
• 1948 (acting)
Arthur Parker
• 1948–1949
Eric de Candole
History 
• 
Fezzan-Ghadames to form the Kingdom of Libya
(with autonomy)
24 December 1951
• Autonomy ended
27 April 1963
CurrencyMilitary Authority Lira (Tripolitania)
Egyptian pound (Cyrenaica)
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Italian Libya
1949:
Emirate of Cyrenaica
1951:
Kingdom of Libya
Today part ofLibya
Part of a series on the
History of Libya
Second Civil War
 2014–2020
Government of National Accord 2016–2021
Government of National Unity 2021–present
flag Libya portal

The British Military Administration of Libya was the control of the regions of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania of the former Italian Libya by the British from 1943 until Libyan independence in 1951. It was part of the Allied administration of Libya.

History

See also:
Allied occupation of Libya
British tanks and crews line up on Tripoli's waterfront after capturing the city during World War II - December 1942

In November 1942, the Allied forces retook Cyrenaica. By February 1943, the last German and Italian soldiers were driven from Libya and the Allied occupation of Libya began.

King George VI

Tripolitania and Cyrenaica remained under

Fezzan. In 1944, Idris returned from exile in Cairo but declined to resume permanent residence in Cyrenaica until the removal in 1947 of some aspects of foreign control. Under the terms of the 1947 peace treaty with the Allies, Italy, which hoped to maintain the colony of Tripolitania and France, which wanted the Fezzan
, relinquished all claims to Libya. Libya so remained united.

Following the liberation of North Africa by Allied troops, over 130 Jews were killed in

moved to Israel.[3]
By the 1970s, the rest of Libyan Jews (some 7,000) were evacuated to Italy.

Disposition of Italian colonial holdings was a question that had to be considered before the peace treaty officially ending the war with Italy could be completed. Technically, Libya remained an Italian possession administered by Britain and France, but at the Potsdam Conference in 1945 the Allies—Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States—agreed that the Italian colonies seized during the war should not be returned to Italy. Further consideration of the question was delegated to the Allied Council of Foreign Ministers, which included a French representative; although all council members initially favored some form of trusteeship, no formula could be devised for disposing of Libya. The United States suggested a trusteeship for the whole country under control of the United Nations (UN), whose charter had become effective in October 1945, to prepare it for self-government. The Soviet Union proposed separate provincial trusteeships, claiming Tripolitania for itself and assigning Fezzan to France and Cyrenaica to Britain. France, seeing no end to the discussions, advocated the return of the territory to Italy. To break the impasse, Britain finally recommended immediate independence for Libya.[4]

In 1949, the

Senussi
Muslim Sufi order, represented Libya in the UN negotiations, and on 24 December 1951, Libya declared its independence.

Independence

In 1951, with representatives from Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan declaring a

federal government with the three states of Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan having autonomy. The kingdom also had three capital cities: Tripoli, Benghazi and Bayda. Two years after independence, on 28 March 1953, Libya joined the Arab League. When Libya declared its independence it was the first country to achieve independence through the United Nations and one of the first former European possessions in Africa
to gain independence.

See also

References

  1. ISBN 9780226300924
    .
  2. ^ Shields, Jacqueline."Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries" in Jewish Virtual Library.
  3. ^ History of the Jewish Community in Libya Archived July 18, 2006, at the Wayback Machine". Retrieved July 1, 2006
  4. ^ Library of Congress: United Nations and Libya
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