Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 December 1940 — Page 8

ibya, Ancient |

By UNITED PRESS The entry of British troops into Libya, Italy’s richest African colony, carried the: war today across one of the world’s oldest and most forbidding battlegrounds. Since the days of the Phoenicians, the ancient Greeks, Romans and Carthaginians, the lands comprising what is now Libya have been fought over by armies under scores of flags. And no expedition was more spectacular than that led by William Eaton in 1805 under the United States Stars and Stripes, over the same route that the British moved today.

Eaton, a Dartmouth college graduate, soldier of fortune ahd United States naval agent sto the Barbary States during the American war with the Tripolitan pirates, rounded ‘up a force of 500 Americans, Greeks, Arabs and others and marched 600 miles across the Libyan desert from Alexandria, Egypt, to capture the port of Derna. Although Eaton far exceeded his authority, United States warships assisted him in the capture. Later, American Naval authoriti forced Eaton to abandon his conquest but it was quickly followed by peace, with Tripoli dropping,her

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demand for annual tribute for not molesting United States ships. Eaton returned home a hero, was given ‘a large New England land grant by the Government and his exploit was commemorated in Whittier’s poem, “Derna.” Eaton’s objective . was 150 miles farther along the Libyan coast than Bardia, the immediate British objective. ! Libya includes the former North African . districts of Tripolitania and Cpyrenaica, dominated: by Turkey for centuries until just before the World War. As constituted today, Libya’ comprises 679,358 square

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miles and has 888,000 inhabitants, of whom 89,000: are Italian colonists; 763,000 Moslems; 30,000 Jews. Except for a coastal strip and a few interior oases, it is ‘a ‘barren wasteland. : : “. Territorial adjustments continued as recently at 1931. Italy. did not subdue the native tribes until 1928. The period of real development began under the governorship of the late Marshal Italo Balbo, when air and naval bases were built at Tobruk, Benghazi and other places and 20,000 Italian ‘colonists . were moved in with the admonition: “Mussolini wants to transform the

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: 32 ‘Libyan desert into a ' blossoming garden. Obey his commands!” The colonists were settled mostly on the Cyrenaica plateau, near the Egyptian border, from which Arabs were transferred. Each family was given 75 acres of shrub land on which to raise hard wheat, grapes and olives from the rich, red soil. _ Libya, thé term once applied to North Africa generally; was the granary of ancient Rome. In Cyrenaica, the eastern section, Italian troops today occupy fortifications built by the old Roman warriors. Siwa, an oasis on the Egyptian side, was colonized by the Egyp-

¢ tians as early as 1175 B. C. It was the seat of the oracle Jupiter Ammon, which Alexander the Great consulted to learn if he was of divine heritage. In 525 B. C. an Egyptian army of 50,000 marching toward Siwa was lost in the desert and every man died of thirst. | In Tripolitania, the Phoenicians founded the first coastal settlements. They were followed by the Greeks, The country was overrun in turn by Ptolemies, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs; pillaged in 1146 by Normans

from Sicily; conquered by .Tunisians, Spaniards and, in 1553 by the

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Turks. j : Under Turkish rule, Tripolitanian pirates. became the scourge of the Mggiterranean ang half the states of “Europe sent fleets: at various times to bombard the capital. The United States sent two expeditions, one in 1801 and another in 1815, headed by Captains Bainbridge and. Stephen Decatur, : Italy seized the region from the Turks, but when Italy entered the World War in 1915 the whole colony rebelled, at the instigation of Germany ang Turkey, and Italy had to abandon everything but the ports of Tripoli and Homs.

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