Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T05:09:44.086Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Violence and the politics of prestige: the fascist turn in colonial Libya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2016

Eileen Ryan
Eileen Ryan*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
*
∗Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In 1922–1923, Fascist Party leaders hoped to define a sharp break from previous approaches to colonial rule and imperial expansion in Italy's Libyan territories. Mussolini's nomination of Luigi Federzoni, a leading figure of the Italian Nationalist Association, as the Minister of Colonies at the end of 1922 signalled a new era in Italian colonial administration focused on aggressive expansion and the institution of what was known as a ‘politics of prestige’. This definition of a fascist style of colonial rule appealed to the enthusiasm for violence among blackshirt militias and early fascist supporters in the Libyan territories. This definition of a fascist style of colonial rule, however, inspired immediate reaction from both colonial officials, with stakes in maintaining a measure of continuity and stability, and from those within the nascent Fascist Party who wanted to promote an alternative model of fascism in the colonies. This article examines contests to define fascism and fascist colonial rule in the Libyan territories through the employment of voluntary militias, the competing voices of Fascist Party outposts, and various programmes for the development of a colonial culture.

Keywords

colonialismviolenceLibyamodern ItalyFederzonisquadrismofascism
Type
Articles
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , May 2015 , pp. 123 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the study of Modern Italy 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baldinetti, A. 2010. Origins of the Libyan Nation. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bosworth, R. 2006. Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Dictatorship 1915–1945. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Casmirri, S. 1980. “Luigi Federzoni.” In Uomini e volti del fascismo , edited by Cordova, Ferdinando. Rome: Bulzoni.Google Scholar
Choate, M. I. 2008. Emigrant Nation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Corner, P. 2012. The Fascist Party and Popular Opinion in Mussolini's Italy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cresti, F. 1996. Oasi d'italianità: La Libia della colonizzazione agraria tra fascismo, guerra e indipendenza (1935–1956). Turin: Società Editrice Internazionale.Google Scholar
Cresti, F. 2011. Non desiderare la terra d'altri: La colonizzazione italiana in Libia. Rome: Carocci.Google Scholar
Del Boca, A. 1986–88. Gli italiani in Libia. Vol. I–II. Rome: Laterza.Google Scholar
Duggan, C. 2013. Fascist Voices: An Intimate History of Mussolini's Italy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dumasy, F. 2004–05. “Démographie et repartition spatiale à Tripoli sous la colonization italienne, 1911–1943.” Bulletin d'études orientates 56, January 2004.Google Scholar
Dumasy, F. 2008. “Le fascisme est-il un ‘article d'exportation’?” Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine 55 (3): 85–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ebner, M. 2011. Ordinary Violence in Mussolini's Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Finaldi, G. M. 2009. Italian National Identity in the Scramble for Africa. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Goglia, L., and Grassi, F.. 1993. Il colonialismo italiano da Adua all'impero. Rome: Laterza.Google Scholar
Labanca, N. 2002. Un nodo: Immagini e documenti sulla repressione coloniale italiana in Libia. Manduria: Piero Lacaita.Google Scholar
Labanca, N. 2005. “Italian Colonial Internment.” In Italian Colonialism , edited by Ben-Ghiat, Ruth and Fuller, Mia, 27–36. New York: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Labanca, N. 2012. La guerra italiana per la Libia 1911–1931. Bologna: il Mulino.Google Scholar
Lyttelton, A. 1973. The Seizure of Power: Fascism in Italy 1919–1929. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Pergher, R. 2012. “The Consent of Memory: Recovering Fascist-Settler Relations in Libya.” In The Society of Fascists: Acclamation, Acquiescence, and Agency in Mussolini's Italy , edited by Albanese, Giulia and Pergher, Roberta. New York: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Romano, S. 1993. Luigi Federzoni 1927: Diario di un ministro del fascismo. Florence: Passigli.Google Scholar
Saini Fasanotti, F. 2012. Libia 1922–1931: Le operazioni militari italiane. Rome: Stato Maggiore dell'Esercito Ufficio Storico.Google Scholar
Segré, C. G. 1974. The Fourth Shore: The Italian Colonization of Libya. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Wright, J. 2005. “Mussolini, Libya, and the Sword of Islam.” In Italian Colonialism , edited by Ruth, Ben-Ghiat and Fuller, Mia, 121–130. New York: Palgrave.Google Scholar