“Reconquest” and Rebirth in Italian Libya: Fascist Militias and the Culture of Colonial Violence

After the March on Rome in October 1922, dissatisfaction with the slow pace of penetration into the Libyan interior informed an immediate push for direct military control, a drive that came to be known as the “reconquest” of the Libyan interior. The idea of “reconquest” fit neatly into the concept of Italian occupation of the Libyan territories as a return to an idealized past of the Roman Empire and a key piece in the completion of the Italian Risorgimento, or resurgence, that led to national unification in the 1860s. In one of his earliest acts as Mussolini’s first Minister of Colonies, Luigi Federzoni implemented an initiative to use fascist militias, groups of enthusiastic volunteers inspired by a message of violence as a source of unity and strength. The fascist militias in the Libyan territories promised to offer colonial troops a cheap and easy fix for broader colonial objective, but from the perspective of career colonialists, the arrival of the fascist militias disturbed a delicate balance. This paper will examine the tension between fascist militias, eager to drive forward a “resurrection” of the Roman Empire in the Libyan territories, and the career imperialists, many of whom preferred a gradual approach to expanding Italian influence in the region.