Editing Tripoli, Libya (section)

===Italian era (1912–1947)===
[[File:Tripoli-Stemma (1919-1947).svg|thumb|Coat of arms used from 1919 to 1947]]
{{Main|:simple:Tripoli}}
Italy had long claimed that Tripoli fell within its zone of influence and that Italy had the right to preserve order within the state.<ref>{{cite journal |author= Charles Wellington Furlong |date= December 1911 |title= The Taking of Tripoli: What Italy Is Acquiring |journal=[[World's Work|The World's Work: A History of Our Time]] |volume= XXIII |pages= 165–176 |access-date= 10 July 2009 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Vv--PfedzLAC&pg=PA165 |author-link= Charles W. Furlong }}</ref> Under the pretext of protecting its own citizens living in Tripoli from the Ottoman government, it [[Italo-Turkish War|declared war]] against the Ottomans on 29 September 1911, and announced its intention of annexing Tripoli. On 1 October 1911, a naval battle was fought at [[Prevesa]], Greece, and three Ottoman vessels were destroyed.

[[File:Tripoli, Suk el Turk.jpg|thumb|[[Italian settlers in Libya|Italian settlers]] and indigenous Libyans in Tripoli, 1930s]]

By the [[Italo-Turkish War#Treaty of Ouchy|Treaty of Lausanne]], Italian sovereignty over [[Italian Tripolitania|Tripolitania]] and [[Italian Cyrenaica|Cyrenaica]] was acknowledged by the Ottomans, although the [[caliph]] was permitted to exercise religious authority. Italy officially granted autonomy after the war, but gradually occupied the region. Originally administered as part of a single colony, Tripoli and its surrounding province were a separate colony from 26 June 1927 to 3 December 1934, when all Italian possessions in North Africa were merged into one colony.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://dadfeatured.blogspot.com/2018/10/was-capital-of-italian-libya.html|title=Dadfeatured: ITALIAN TRIPOLI|date=17 October 2018}}</ref> By 1938, Tripoli<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ernandes.net/ricordi/rionelido/cap01/tripolimap30.jpg|title=Map of Italian Tripoli in 1930}}</ref> had 108,240 inhabitants, including 39,096 Italians.<ref>''The Statesman's Yearbook 1948''. [[Palgrave Macmillan]]. p. 1040.</ref>

Tripoli underwent a huge architectural and urbanistic improvement under Italian rule:<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_lrYlxdX7DIC&pg=PA17|title=Architecture and Tourism in Italian Colonial Libya: An Ambivalent Modernism|first=Brian|last=McLaren|date=29 January 2017|publisher=University of Washington Press|isbn=9780295985428}}</ref> the first thing the Italians did was to create in the early 1920s a sewage system (that until then it lacked) and a modern hospital.

In the coast of the province was built in 1937–1938 a section of the [[Via Balbia|Litoranea Balbia]], a road that went from Tripoli and Tunisia's frontier to the border of [[Egypt]]. The [[car tag]] for the Italian province of Tripoli was "TL".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.targheitaliane.it/index_i.html?/italy/colonie/libia_i.html|title=Benvenuto in Targhe a Roma|language=it|publisher=targheitaliane.it|first=Michele|last=Berionne|access-date=8 July 2019}}</ref>

[[File:TIF.Tripoli,Libya.jpg|thumb|right|280px|''Fiera internazionale di Tripoli'' ([[Tripoli International Fair]]) in 1939]]

Furthermore, in 1927, the Italians founded the [[Tripoli International Fair]], with the goal of promoting Tripoli's economy. This is the oldest trade fair in Africa.<ref>{{cite news|title=Tif History|url=http://www.gbf.com.ly/tif37/english/tifhistory.php|work=gbf.com.ly|year=2008|access-date=6 March 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090330161805/http://www.gbf.com.ly/tif37/english/tifhistory.php|archive-date=30 March 2009}}</ref> The so-called ''Fiera internazionale di Tripoli'' was one of the main international "Fairs" in the colonial world in the 1930s, and was internationally promoted together with the [[Tripoli Grand Prix]] as a showcase of [[Italian Libya]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cronologia.leonardo.it/storia/a1937f.htm|title=MUSULMANI – 1937 – L'ITALIA IN MEDIO ORIENTE|access-date=1 September 2013|archive-date=25 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130925120216/http://cronologia.leonardo.it/storia/a1937f.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The Italians created the [[Tripoli Grand Prix]], an international motor racing event first held in 1925 on a racing circuit outside Tripoli. The Tripoli Grand Prix took place until 1940.<ref>{{YouTube|KEtz-wzbs9Y|Video of Tripoli Grand Prix}}</ref> The first airport in Libya, the [[Mellaha Air Base]] was built by the [[Italian Air Force]] in 1923 near the Tripoli racing circuit. The airport is currently called [[Mitiga International Airport]].

Tripoli even had a railway station with some [[Italian Libya Railways|small railway connections to nearby cities]], when in August 1941 the Italians started to build a new {{convert|1040|km|0|abbr=off|adj=on|sp=us}} railway (with a {{convert|1435|mm|ftin|1|abbr=on}} gauge, like the one used in Egypt and Tunisia) between Tripoli and [[Benghazi]]. But the war stopped the construction the next year.

Tripoli was controlled by Italy until 1943 when the provinces of [[Tripolitania]] and [[Cyrenaica]] were captured by Allied forces. The city fell to troops of the British [[Eighth Army (United Kingdom)|Eighth Army]] on 23 January 1943.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://olive-drab.com/od_history_ww2_ops_battles_1943tunisia.php| title = Tunisia and Kasserine Pass}}</ref> Tripoli was then governed by the British until independence in 1951. Under the terms of the [[Treaty of peace with Italy (1947)|1947 peace treaty]] with the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]], Italy relinquished all claims to Libya.<ref>Hagos, Tecola W. (20 November 2004). [http://www.tecolahagos.com/part4.htm "Treaty Of Peace With Italy (1947), Evaluation And Conclusion"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121207051037/http://www.tecolahagos.com/part4.htm |date=7 December 2012 }}. ''Ethiopia Tecola Hagos''. Retrieved 18 July 2006.</ref>