Territorio Militare del Sud Libico (called even "Territorio Sahara Libico") was the "Southern Military Territory" of Italian Libya, established in 1937. It lasted until 1943.
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In 1934, Italy adopted the name "Libya" (used by the Romans for all of North Africa, except Egypt) as the official name of the colony (made up of the three Provinces of Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan).
The Italian colony -with capital Tripoli- was administered with four provincial governatorates ("Commissariato Generale Provinciale"); and later was added the "Southern Military Territory" (called in Italian "Territorio del Sahara Libico"):[1] This Sahara territory was administered only by the Italian military.
The "Territorio del Sahara Libico" was officially created only in 1937. It was not part of the Fourth Shore (coastal Italian Libya, integrated in the "metropolitan area" of Italy) and was subdivided in four "Military areas":
The main city was Hun. This small town was the administrative capital of the Italian region of Fezzan, called officially Territorio del Sahara Libico. Hun was even the Italian military center of the area, that was not part of the national territory of the Kingdom of Italy (like Tripolitania and Cyrenaica).
A small Italian community of 1,156 people lived in Hun, called "Homs" in those years, and they were 3% of the total population of 35,316 of the city in the 1939 census. The most important of these Libyan Italians (who disappeared from Hun after World War II) was the internationally renowned painter Mario Schifano (1934-1998), born in Hun.
The Italian government in the 1930s made important improvements to the small town, that was connected by a new road to the coast.
The Italian Army made some Forts in the area. The most famous were in Ghat, Ghadames and Kufra (they were attacked during World War II, like in the small Battle of Kufra between French and Italian troops). The Senussi Kufra area in the southeast was not separately administered by the Italians, although in 1932 they built a fort at El Tag.
Furthermore, Sabha is famous for the "Fort Elena" castle,[2] which is the castle featured on the reverse of the ten dinars banknote of Libya. Fort Elena was previously known as "Fortezza Margherita", built during the Italian colonial period. The Italian-built fort is now a military institution.
The population of the Military Territory was mostly made of Muslim Arabs and Berbers. Most of the Italians were concentrated in Ghadames and Ghat, where there were important Forts, and the administrative capital of Hun.
In 1943 all the area was occupied by the Allies and assigned to France. After the French and British occupied Libya in 1943, most of the territory was part of the French occupied Fezzan-Ghadames province in the southwest.[3]
In 1938 it had an area of 1.100.000 km², nearly all a desert. There were the important oasis of Kufra and Jaghbub in the eastern area, and the oasis of Ghadames with those small oasis where lived in Roman times the Garamantes in the western area.
On the borders with Niger and Chad there were some mountains, like "Gebel Nefusa" of 980 m. and the first elevations of the Tibesti. When was added the Aouzou Strip, the area included some of the highest Tibesti mountains.
The Territorio Sahara Libico was increased with the 114,000 km² of the Aouzou Strip, in the late 1930s.
Indeed in 1935 a Franco-Italian Agreement was signed between Benito Mussolini and Pierre Laval, which included a provision under which Italy would receive the Aouzou Strip, which was to be added to Italian Libya from French Chad.[4] Italian colonial troops occupied the strip in 1936 (until World War II).
But the "Instruments of Ratification" of the "Mussolini-Laval Treaty" were never exchanged with France. Despite this the new border was conventionally assumed to be the southern boundary of independent Libya until 1955.
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