Tripolitania

This article is about a battlefield of Desert War of North African Campaign during World War II.

Tripolitania is a historical region and geographical area inWest Libya. Strictly speaking area is concentrated around the coastal city of Tripoli. Extensively for Tripoli which occupies the western coast ofLibyameans an area of approximately 350,000 km². It is bounded on the north by the Mediterranean, north-west of Tunisia, south-west from Algeria, south of the region of Fezzan, and east of Cyrenaica.

TripoliThe word comes from Greek words Τρίπολις three cities: they were the three major cities of Punic origin of the western coast ofLibya, or OAS, Sabratha and Leptis Magna, the latter two of which were abandoned during the decline and fall of Roman Empire, which allowed the former to change their name toTripoli.

Originally, the region was inhabited by Berbers (and still the Berber language is spoken both on the coast, Zuara, both in Jebel Nefusa).

In the seventh century BC, the Phoenicians settled in colonies along the coast which later came under the control of the Carthaginians and the first ofNumidia.

A century later, the Romans became very prosperous area of Tripolitania, which was then incorporated into the province of Africaand the Royal Syria: one of the main consequences of this reorganization was the abolition of the privilege of minting self, hitherto recognized in the region.

After the occupation of the Vandals, arrived in the 435 or so, the region was incorporated in theByzantine Empirein the sixth century.

The Arab conquest took place in the next century.

It was then the turn of the Ottoman Turks, who kept control of the area (where they founded the ” Vilayet of Tripoli”) from 1553 to 1911, the year Italian occupation ofLibyafollowing the Italo-Turkish War .

Initially, the Italian authorities promised a degree of autonomy to the region, which, however, was first administered as a colony in its own right (from 26 June 1927 to 3 December 1934) and then joined the colony of “Libya”.

From series “Propagation of the Faith” in October 1923, theItalyissued stamps in both regular and commemorative series with “Tripoli”.

The first stamps issued for the colony were the semi-postal Colonial Institute in 1926, followed by several series of airmail stamps from 1931 to 1933.

In October 1934 the only regular stamps ofTripolitaniawere issued, a set of six (along with six others by airmail) to celebrate the Second Exhibition of Colonial Art.