Day of Revenge settlers by the 1960s. The Italian population was concentrated in the coast around the cities of Tripoli (37 percent of its population) and Bengasi (31 percent). With the Italian defeat in World War II, Italian influence waned. After several years under British mandate, on 24 December 1951 Libya declared its independence as the United Kingdom of Libya (a constitutional, hereditary monarchy under King Idris). Although many Italians had already left the former colony, many remained (primarily farmers and craftsmen). King Idris was a tolerant monarch, and generally treated the Italian population well. Libyan Jews (who had lived in Libya since
Italian irredentism in Malta quo ante" returning Malta to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, but British interests in the Mediterranean changed it abruptly. So Malta became a British Crown Colony in 1813 even if with diplomatic protests from southern Italian authorities, which was confirmed a year later through the Treaty of Paris. Cultural changes were few even after 1814. In 1842, all literate Maltese learned Italian while only 4.5% could read, write and/or speak English. However there was a huge increase in the number of maltese magazines and newspapers in Italian language during the 1800s and early 1900s, so as a consequence the