British Military Administration of Libya | |||||||||||
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| 1942–1951 | |||||||||||
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 Map of the allied occupation of Libya showing Tripolitania and Cyrenaica | |||||||||||
| Status | British Military Administration (1943–1950) British Civil Administration (1950–1951) | ||||||||||
| Capital | Tripoli | ||||||||||
| Common languages | English, (Official)Italian,Arabic | ||||||||||
| Chief Administrator (Tripolitania) | |||||||||||
• 1943-1951 | Travers Blackley | ||||||||||
| Chief Administrator (Cyrenaica) | |||||||||||
• 1942–1945 | Duncan Cumming | ||||||||||
• 1945–1946 | Peter Acland | ||||||||||
• 1946–1948 | James Haugh | ||||||||||
• 1948 (acting) | Arthur Parker | ||||||||||
• 1948–1949 | Eric de Candole | ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
| 13 May 1943 | |||||||||||
| 10 February 1947 | |||||||||||
• Emirate of Cyrenaica created | 1 March 1949 | ||||||||||
• UN administration | 10 December 1949 | ||||||||||
• JoinedFezzan-Ghadames to form theKingdom of Libya (with autonomy for Tripolitania and Cyrenaica) | 24 December 1951 | ||||||||||
• Autonomy ended | 27 April 1963 | ||||||||||
| Currency | Military Authority Lira (Tripolitania) Egyptian pound (Cyrenaica) | ||||||||||
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| Today part of | Libya | ||||||||||
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| History ofLibya | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Libya portal | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
TheBritish Military Administration of Libya was the control of the regions ofCyrenaica andTripolitania of the formerItalian Libya by theBritish from 1943 untilLibyan independence in 1951. It was part of theAllied administration of Libya.
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.
Tripolitania and Cyrenaica remained underBritish administration, while theFrench controlledFezzan. In 1944,Idris as-Senussi returned from exile inCairo 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 theAllies, Italy, which hoped to maintain the colony ofTripolitania and France, which wanted theFezzan, relinquished all claims to Libya. Libya so remained united.
Following the liberation of North Africa by Allied troops, over 130 Jews were killed inanti-Jewish disturbances across Tripolitania in November 1945.[1] In June 1948, anti-Jewish rioters in Libyakilled another 12 Jews and destroyed 280 Jewish homes.[2] The fear and insecurity which arose from these anti-Jewish attacks and thefounding of the state of Israel led many Jews toflee Libya. From 1948 to 1951, 30,972 Libyan Jewsmoved 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, theEmirate of Cyrenaica was created and only Tripolitania remained under direct British military administration. A year later, in 1950, it was granted civil instead of military administration. Idris as-Senussi, theEmir of Cyrenaica and the leader of theSenussi Muslim Sufi order, represented Libya in the UN negotiations, and on 24 December 1951, Libya declared its independence.
In 1951, with representatives from Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan declaring aunion and with the country being called theUnited Kingdom of Libya, Idris was offered the crown. In accordance with the constitution the new country had afederal government with the three states of Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan havingautonomy. The kingdom also had three capital cities:Tripoli,Benghazi andBayda. Two years after independence, on 28 March 1953, Libya joined theArab League. When Libya declared its independence it was the first country to achieve independence through theUnited Nations and one of the first former European possessions inAfrica to gain independence.
