Tripolitania

Coordinates: 32°54′00″N 13°11′00″E / 32.9000°N 13.1833°E / 32.9000; 13.1833
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Tripolitania
طرابلس (
Arabic)
Historical definitions of Tripolitania
Historical definitions of Tripolitania
CapitalTripoli

Tripolitania

Arabic: طرابلس), historically known as the Tripoli region, is a historic region and former province of Libya
.

The region had been settled since antiquity, first coming to prominence as part of the Carthaginian empire. Following the defeat of Carthage in the Punic Wars, Ancient Rome organized the region (along with what is now modern day Tunisia and eastern Algeria), into a province known as Africa, and placed it under the administration of a proconsul. During the Diocletian reforms of the late 3rd century, all of North Africa was placed into the newly created Diocese of Africa, of which Tripolitania was a constituent province.

After the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, Tripolitania changed hands between the Vandals and the Byzantine Empire, until it was taken during the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb in the 8th century. It was part of the region known to the Islamic world as Ifriqiya, whose boundaries roughly mirrored those of the old Roman province of Africa Proconsularis. Though nominally under the suzerainty of the Abbasid Caliphate, local dynasties such as the Aghlabids and later the Fatimid Caliphate were practically independent. The native Berbers, who had inhabited the area locally for centuries before the arrival of the Arabs, established their own native Hafsid dynasty over Ifriqiya in the 13th century, and would control the region until it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century, who established Ottoman Tripolitania as a distinct province. Tripolitania became an Italian colony in 1911.

After the 1934 formation of Libya, the Tripolitania province was designated as one of the three primary provinces of the country, alongside Cyrenaica province to the east and Fezzan province to the south.

Definition

1818 Pinkerton map of Northern Africa, excerpt

Historically, the name Tripoli designated a region rather than a city, just as today in Arabic the same word Tarablus (طرابلس) is used for both the city and the region. The Arabic word used alone would be understood to mean only the city; in order to designate Tripolitania in Arabic, a qualifier such as "state", "province" or "sha'biyah" is required.

The region of Tripoli or Tripolitania derives from the Greek name Τρίπολις "three cities", referring to Oea, Sabratha and Leptis Magna. Oea was the only one of the three cities to survive antiquity, and became known as Tripoli. Today Tripoli is the capital city of Libya and the northwestern portion of the country.

In addition to

Khoms (near ancient Leptis Magna), Tarhuna and Sirte
.

History

Antiquity

The city of Oea, on the site of modern

.

Middle Ages

In the 7th century, Tripolitania was conquered by the

Hafsids would control the region until the Ottoman
conquest of 1553.

Modern history

Detailed map of Tripolitania
Tripolitania Vilayet
(1864–1911)
Official coat of arms of the Italian Tripolitania

Ottoman Turkish: ایالت طرابلس غرب) extended beyond the region of Tripolitania proper, also including Cyrenaica. Tripolitania became effectively independent under the rulers of the Karamanli dynasty from 1711 until Ottoman control was re-imposed by Mahmud II in 1835. Ottoman rule persisted until 1911–12, when it was captured by Italy in the Italo-Turkish War
. Italy officially granted autonomy after the war, but gradually occupied the region.

After

Paris Peace Conference (Treaty of Versailles). This was the first formally declared republican form of government in the Arab world, but it gained little support from international powers, and disintegrated by 1923. Italy under Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini
managed to reestablish full control over Libya by 1930.

Originally administered as part of a single colony, Italian Tripolitania was a separate colony from 26 June 1927 to 3 December 1934, when it was merged into Libya. The Italian fascists constructed the Marble Arch as a form of an imperial triumphal arch at the border between Tripolitani and Cyrenaica near the coast.

Tripolitania experienced a huge development in the late 1930s, when the Italian

4th shore was created with the Province of Tripoli and with Tripoli as a modern "westernized" city. The Tripoli Province ("Provincia di Tripoli" in Italian) was established in 1937, with the official name: Commissariato Generale Provinciale di Tripoli. It was considered a province of the Kingdom of Italy
and lasted until 1943.

During

Allies, the British moving west from Egypt after their victory at El Alamein in October 1942 against German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps, and the Americans from the west after landings in Operation Torch in Morocco and Algeria in November 1942. From 1942 continuing to the end of the war in 1945 until 1951, when Libya gained independence, Tripolitania and the region of Cyrenaica were administered by the British Military Administration
. Italy formally renounced its claim upon the territory in 1947.

Tripolitania retained its status as a

.

Modern Latin missionary jurisdiction:

Apostolic Vicariate of Tripolitana (later renamed after its see
, Benghazi).

References

External links

32°54′00″N 13°11′00″E / 32.9000°N 13.1833°E / 32.9000; 13.1833