On the formation of Libya's borders during the Italian colonial period (1911-1943)

The article examines the issue of the formation of Libya's modern borders under Italy's colonial rule. The study is based on the analysis and summary of data from Italian archives, intergovernmental agreements, and other documents. The Ottoman Empire, as the sovereign of Libyan territories was not strongly interested in expanding, or fixing the Saharan boundaries of Libya. The article examines the colonial policies of France and Britain in their colonies which surrounded the Ottoman territories of Tripoli and Cyrenaica. It demonstrates how critical events, such as the Fashoda crisis, underpinned the evolving discussion among European states which informed their policies in Saharan Africa. Italy was a late-comer to colonial politics among European nations, and even before it began the conquest of Libya, it began to pursue a policy designed to deter potential European competitors from encroaching on what successive Italian governments viewed as a future colony. France and Britain were inclined to acquiesce to this state of affairs. Accordingly, while Libya was an Ottoman territory, Italy and France had already negotiated an agreement that regulated its borders. Following the conquest of Libya by Italy, the question of Libyan borders became even more intimately connected to that of European politics in general. It was during this period that the key treaties between Italy, France, and Britain, which delineate Libya's borders to this day were signed. Italy's alliance with France and Britain during the First World War led to the signing of the Treaty of London in 1915, which promised Italy territorial compensation in the colonies, in the event that it did not take possession of any former German colonies. This created a political context in which France and Britain found it was acceptable to resolve border uncertainties in Italy's favour. Via this process, Libya's border with Algeria was drawn up in a manner that was more advantageous to the Italian side and the Sarr triangle was transferred from Anglo-Egyptian Sudan to Libya. Due to changes in the European political climate, which took place in the 1930's such as the rise of Italian revisionism and German Nazism, the two Western allies - France and Britain, formulated a policy known as appeasement (though the origins of this policy can be found earlier). As part of this policy of appeasement, the French foreign minister, Pierre Laval negotiated an agreement with Benito Mussolini, which called, among other things, for the transfer of a part of French Equatorial Africa (today's Chad) to Libya - the so-called Aouzou strip. The treaty, due to its unpopularity in France and its inadequacy in Italian eyes, was not ratified and thus did not enter into force, but Italy did not abandon its attempts to secure the Aouzou strip.

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