Fascist Violence and the ‘Ethnic Reconstruction’ of Cyrenaica (Libya), 1922–1934

Abstract

This chapter examines Fascist Italy’s war against the Senussi anticolonial resistance fighters of Cyrenaica (Libya) between 1923 and 1934. It demonstrates how Italian colonial authorities’ use of military, economic, cultural, and social or ethnic violence functioned not simply to defeat the Bedouins’ resistance and take possession of their land, but also to destroy and refashion anew the people of Cyrenaica. Throughout the ‘re-conquest’ of Cyrenaica, Italian colonial officials acknowledged over and over that their policies might lead to the destruction of the entire civilian population. By the time the regime established concentration camps for civilians, colonial authorities began talking about the ‘ethnic reconstruction of Cyrenaica’, revealing an important motive behind Fascist colonial policy: creating submissive colonial subjects through atrocity.