Italian refugees from Libya Italy and soon most of them emigrated in the early 1950s to the Americas (mainly to Canada, Venezuela, Argentina and the United States) and to western Europe (France, Benelux, etc..). After several years under British mandate, on December 24, 1951 Libya declared its independence as the United Kingdom of Libya (a constitutional, hereditary monarchy under King Idris). In 1952 started the exodus of most of the remaining Italian colonial settlers, mainly those in areas away from the main cities. Although in the late 1950s most of the 110000 Italians living in 1940 Italian Libya had already left the former colony,
Eritrean–Ethiopian border conflict capital Addis Ababa. The occupied country was annexed into the Italian East African colony together with the other Italian east African colonies. On 10June 1940, Italy declared war on Britain and France; in March 1941 Britain began a campaign to capture the Italian-held territory in the region. By November, the British had occupied the whole Italian East African colony. However thousands Italian soldiers started a guerrilla warfare in their former colony which lasted until October 1943. Ethiopia regained its independence, and Eritrea was placed under Britain military administration. After the war there was a debate as to what would happen