Italian Libya Italian Libya Italian Libya (; , ) was a colony of the Kingdom of Italy located in North Africa, in what is now modern Libya. Italian Libya was formed from the Italian colonies of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania that were taken by the Kingdom of Italy from the Ottoman Empire in 1911, during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911 to 1912. The unified colony was established in 1934 by governor Italo Balbo, with Tripoli as the capital. The territory of Italian Libya was also called Italian North Africa ("Africa Settentrionale Italiana", or ASI), both before and after its unification. Since 1923, indigenous
Italian Empire also mentioned to Italo Balbo his ambitions of capturing British and French territories in the Cameroons and founding an "Italian Cameroon", in the hope that Italy could establish a colony on the Atlantic coast of Africa. On 10 June 1940, Mussolini declared war on Britain and France; both countries had been at war with Nazi Germany since September of the previous year. In July 1940, Italian foreign minister Count Ciano presented Hitler with a document of Italy's demands that included: the annexation of Corsica, Nice, and Malta; protectorates in Tunisia and a buffer zone in Algeria; independence with Italian military