ITALIAN COLONIZATION OF TRIPOLITANIA.

Italian policymakers conceived of vast, empty, ‘cultivable.’ steppe lands in northern Tripolitania which were available for colonization, although Libyans were using them for cereal cultivation and pastoralism. The Italians adapted the principle of state land grants from Islamic law to their colonial land codes, and proceeded to build a colonial domain reserved for Italians. Dispossession of the Libyans was considered in the public interest. They were excluded from even larger areas as Italian settlement expanded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]