SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Libya has remained a relatively neglected field for academic historians since the collapse of Italy's African Empire in 1943.This is particularly the case with regard to the effect of colonial rule upon the indigenous population itself. In seeking to examine, through the use of the surviving secondary sources and the available archival material, the effect of colonial policies in education upon the Moslem population, it is hoped that a start has been made in opening up this important area to the mind of the historian. After a brief background chapter dealing with Italian colonial policy and its chief determinants, there follow two chapters which examine the initial policies of Italian rule in respect of the indigenous institutions and the government's own schools. The main policies of Italian rule, however, are examined in chapters four, five and six, for in the period 1919-1922 Italy was confronted with the need to formulate an educational policy for Libya, which made sense in terms of the overriding concern to avoid a further colonial war in the country. Nationalist determination to avoid conceding Italy's colonial future in Libya for the sake of a temporary truce with the Libyan Independence Movement causes the Colonial Ministry to take a long hard look at the existing policies and their possible political implication for the future. As a result the educational policies that characterise Italian educational activity under fascism emerge. Chapters seven, eight and nine deal with the government's attempt to implement the educational policies of the Fundamental Law of 1919 in both Tripolitania and Cirenaica. The concluding chapter deals briefly with the main strands of fascist policy, which are telescoped for the remaining years of colonial rule, to provide the necessary educational perspective upon the period as a whole.