Costs, investments, and Italian enterprises in Libya: From colony to developing country

In this article, we examine Italy’s colonization of Libya against the backdrop of more well-known European colonial histories in Africa, building on a vast body of historical literature in Italian concerning Italy’s imperial experiences. We present previously unknown archival statistics to measure both private and public colonial activities and to assess their actual impact on Libya’s development compared with the outcomes predicted by leading theories on the effects of colonialism. Through this analysis, we aim to answer several research questions to determine whether there was continuity or change between the colonial and post-colonial periods. For this purpose, we have chosen a specific historical timeframe, from Italy’s conquest of Libya to Gaddafi’s rise to power, focusing on how the different phases of colonial occupation related to one another in terms of investment patterns and whether Libya was an exception within the Italian empire.