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U.S.-Libyan Relations - 1806-1945 - Colonial Libya

From the 1796 treaty of peace to World War I, U.S.-Tripolitan relations centered upon trade and consular affairs; however, Tripoli and the neighboring regions of Cyrenaica and Fezzan became European colonies. Qaramanli abdicated in favor of his son Ali in 1832, but Ali was deposed in 1835 by the Ottoman Government, ending a dynasty that had ruled Tripoli with Ottoman consent since 1711. Tripolitania became a vilayet (province) of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1911, Italy declared war on the Ottoman Empire and took control of Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and Fezzan. A peace treaty was signed in 1912, but neither side rescinded its claims to the area. The United States conformed to "de facto conditions" in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica in 1912 (i.e., Italian control), and U.S. Secretary of State Philander C. Knox placed the U.S. Consulate in Tripoli under the supervision of the U.S. Embassy in Rome. This U.S. action, however, was not formal recognition of Italian control. When World War I began, Italy declared neutrality, but in the secret 1915 Treaty of London, Italy agreed to join the Triple Entente (Great Britain, France, and Russia) in exchange for recognition of Italian sovereignty over Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and Fezzan, as well as other territorial gains, including Tyrol, Trieste, and the Dodecanese Islands.

Present-day Libya's earlier status as a colony of Fascist Italy eventually resulted in it again being a theater of war for the United States. In 1920, facing local resistance to Italian rule, Italy granted Sayyid Idris al-Sanusi, leader of the resistance in Cyrenaica, the title of Amir of Cyrenaica. Two years later, native Tripolitan leaders offered -- and Sayyid Idris accepted -- the Amirate of Tripoli. After Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy in October 1922, his Fascist government instituted a stricter colonial policy and began a "reconquest" of the "Fourth Shore," as Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and Fezzan were called. Sayyid Idris fled into exile in British-controlled Cairo. In 1934, Italy officially named the colony Libya, and in 1939, the Italian Government declared that Libya was part of metropolitan Italy.

Closed during World War I, the U.S. Consulate in Tripoli reopened in 1935, but was closed again in 1937. In September 1940, a year after Adolph Hitler's forces invaded Poland and started World War II, Mussolini launched an attack on British-held Egypt, using Italian troops stationed in Libya. The British counterattack, Operation Compass, defeated the Italians, forcing Hitler to send General Erwin Rommel and the German Afrika Korps to reinforce Italian forces. During the Second Battle of El-Alamein (October-December 1942), Allied forces led by British Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery defeated Rommel and the Afrika Korps. By early 1943, Nazi forces were driven from Libya, and Libya was placed under British and French military administration. The U.S. Army Air Force established bomber bases around Benghazi. Most of the 9th Bomber Command's missions were flown against targets in Italy, but on August 1, 1943, it conducted a costly raid on Axis oil refineries in Ploesti, Romania.