Fezzan-Ghadames (French Administration) country to achieve independence through the United Nations and one of the first former European possessions in Africa to gain independence. Fezzan-Ghadames (French Administration) The Military Territory of Fezzan-Ghadames was a territory in the southern part of the former Italian colony of Libya controlled by the French from 1943 until Libyan independence in 1951. It was part of the Allied administration of Libya. Free French forces from French Chad occupied the area that was the former Italian Southern Military Territory and made several requests to annex administratively their Fezzan to the French colonial Empire. The administrative personnel remained the former
History of Africa about one-third of the eligible white men). As early as 1857, the French established volunteer units of black soldiers in sub- Sahara Africa, termed the "tirailleurs senegalais." They served in military operations throughout the Empire, including 171,000 soldiers in World War I and 160,000 in World War II. About 90,000 became POWs in Germany. The veterans played a central role in the postwar independence movement in French Africa. authorities in West Africa declared allegiance to the Vichy regime, as did the colony of French Gabon Vichy forces defeated an Free French Forces invasion of French West Africa in the two