| This Mere Men article has not been expanded past 1952 yet. |
| Cyrenaica برقة (Arabic) Timeline: Mere Men
OTL equivalent: Emirate of Cyrenaica | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||
| Anthem: النشيد الوطني لإمارة برقة |
||||
| Capital | Benghazi, Bayda | |||
| Largest city | Benghazi | |||
| Official languages | Arabic | |||
| Other languages | Awjila Berber | |||
| Religion | Islam | |||
| Demonym | Cyrenaican | |||
| - | Prime Minister | |||
| Legislature | Parliament | |||
| Independence | from Italy | |||
| - | Division of Libya | 1947 | ||
| - | Declaration of independence | 1951 | ||
| Currency | Cyrenaican pound | |||
| Time zone | CET | |||
Cyrenaica is a country located in North Africa. It is located between Tripolitania and Algerian to the west and Egypt to the east. It also borders Chad and Sudan to the south in the Sahara Desert.
History[]
At the time of the Second World War, Cyrenaica was part of Italian North Africa. When Italy entered the war against the Allies, Cyrenaica became involved in the North African campaign as the Italian and German forces fought against the Allied troops from Egypt. In 1944, British troops occupied Cyrenaica and entered Tripolitania together with American units arriving from French Algeria and Tunisia. In later years, a plan was drafted for the division of the Italian colony between Italian, French and British trusteeships until the region was ready for independence as an united Libya. As the plan came into effect in 1947 at the Potsdam Conference, Cyrenaica was granted to the United Kingdom.
Although Libya was supposed to be reunited as an independent state in 1958, it soon became clear the intentions of the occupying powers were different. Both France and Italy hoped to retain their respective occupation zones, with France soon beginning to attach its Fezzan-Ghadames territory to Algeria, setting up a provisional government in 1950. Seeing this, the British government decided to also try and retain its influence in Cyrenaica. In 1951, they approached Sayyid Idris of the powerful Senoussi clan offering him to become the ruler of Cyrenaica. Idris agreed, and in 1951 the Emirate of Cyrenaica declared independence with British support. Shortly after Cyrenaica declared independence, a group of representatives from Italian Tripolitania led by Bashir Saadawi approached Idris with the proposal of annexation of Tripolitania under Idris' rule, but although the Cyrenaican Prime Minister Omar Faiek Shennib supported unification, Idris, possibly under British influence, rejected rejected the proposal. Saadawi and his delegation returned disappointed back to Tripoli and soon in 1952 Tripolitania became an independent republic, shattering hopes for unified Libya.