Administrative subdivision of Italian Libya

Benghazi Province, or ''Provincia di Bengasi'' in Italian, was one of the

provinces of Libya The Provinces of Libya were prescribed in 1934, during the last period of colonial Italian Libya, and continued through post-independence Libya until 1963 when the Governorates system was instituted. The three main provinces of the country follo ...

under Italian rule. It was established in 1937.

Characteristics

Benghazi Province was located in northern

Italian Libya Libya (; ) was a colony of Fascist Italy (1922–1943), Italy located in North Africa, in what is now modern Libya, between 1934 and 1943. It was formed from the unification of the colonies of Italian Cyrenaica, Cyrenaica and Italian Tripolitan ...

, in western

Cyrenaica Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika (, , after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between the 16th and 25th meridians east, including the Kufra District. The coastal region, als ...

. Its administrative center was the city of

Benghazi Benghazi () () is the List of cities in Libya, second-most-populous city in Libya as well as the largest city in Cyrenaica, with an estimated population of 859,000 in 2023. Located on the Gulf of Sidra in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, Ben ...

on the Mediterranean coast. It was divided in three sections ("Circondari" in Italian) called in Italian language: * Bengasi. * Agedabia * Barce The Italians conquered from the Ottomans in 1911 a region around Benghazi that was very poor and underdeveloped: it had no asphalted road, no telegraph services, no sewage systems, and no hospitals (in 1874 Benghazi had been depopulated by the

bubonic plague Bubonic plague is one of three types of Plague (disease), plague caused by the Bacteria, bacterium ''Yersinia pestis''. One to seven days after exposure to the bacteria, flu-like symptoms develop. These symptoms include fever, headaches, and ...

). In ten years they built all these infrastructures and by the early 1930s a new port & airport and a railways station were created in Benghazi. Indeed in those years in Benghazi were created -for the first time in Cyrenaica's History- the first manufacturing industries, that included salt processing, oil refining, food processing, cement manufacturing, tanning, brewing and sponge and tuna fishing. In the 1920s in the Benghazi province was created a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

between Benghazi (called ''Bengasi'' in Italian) and Barce: a 750 mm (2 ft 5 1⁄2 in) (later 950 mm) gauge railway was built east from Benghazi; the main route was long to Marj and was opened in stages between 1911 and 1927. Benghazi also had a branch to Suluq opened in 1926. In the late 1930s in the Benghazi province were settled thousands of

Italians Italians (, ) are a European peoples, European ethnic group native to the Italian geographical region. Italians share a common Italian culture, culture, History of Italy, history, Cultural heritage, ancestry and Italian language, language. ...

as farmers in special villages. Most of the Italians were concentrated in Italian Benghazi, where they were in 1939 nearly one third of the population. According to the 1939 Census Benghazi had 66,801 inhabitants, of whom 23,075 were Italians.Censimento 1939. TCI "Libia" In the late 1930s the province had a huge economic development, mainly in agriculture and commerce, but

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

destroyed it.

Demographics

According to the 1936 census, which allowed citizens to declare their ethnicity, Benghazi's native population was made up of 95.8%

Arabs Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of yea ...

, 0.3%

Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic of Turkey * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic lang ...

, 0.3%

Blacks Black is a racial classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid- to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin and often additional phenotypical ch ...

, 0.2%

Berbers Berbers, or the Berber peoples, also known as Amazigh or Imazighen, are a diverse grouping of distinct ethnic groups indigenous to North Africa who predate the arrival of Arab migrations to the Maghreb, Arabs in the Maghreb. Their main connec ...

, and 3.6% Others..

Notes

Bibliography

* Capresi, Vittoria. ''I centri rurali libici. L´architettura dei centri rurali di fondazione costruiti in Libia – colonia italiana – durante il fascismo (1934-1940)''. Vienna University of Technology. Vienna, 2007 * Chapin Metz, Helen, ed., ''Libya: A Country Study''. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1987 * Guida d'Italia del TCI. ''Possedimenti e colonie'' Edizioni Touring Club. Milano, 1929

Characteristics

Demographics

Notes

Bibliography

See also