CHAPTER XIII 
THE REOCCUPATION OF NORTHERN AFRICA 
TRIPOLITANIA ! 
TRIPOLITANIA, the chief gateway to the Sahara, has been 
the last province of the North African littoral to be taken 
under the control of the European powers. It is large 
in area, but small in natural resources. While its area 
before the war was some 400,000 square miles, or about that 
of Egypt (leaving out the Sudan), its population hardly 
exceeded 500,000, and neither of its two chief cities — Tripoli 
and Ben Ghasi — had over 35,000 inhabitants. There are 
fertile agricultural districts, like the Djebel Gharian, which 
furnishes the grain and other produce for most of the cities 
and towns. The desert approaches too near the sea to 
permit of much cultivation, and there are no rivers like the 
Nile to furnish water for irrigation. The Atlas range does 
not run far enough to the east to afford Tripoli any pro- 
tection from the winds and heat of the Sahara; and what 
few mountains and hills the country possesses, outside of 
the Barca district, are so insignificant and so scattered that 
they are of little value as bulwarks against the ever-en- 
croaching desert. The chief exports of the region are 
ostrich feathers, ivory, oil, and esparto grass, the two 
former of which have been brought from Lake Chad and 
Central Africa for years over the famous caravan routes 
via Murzuk, Ghat, and Ghadames. Since the occupation 
1 The Italians call their colony Libia, reserving the name Tripolitania 
for its western province and Tripoli for the city; but, before the Italian 
occupation and since, this entire region has very generally been known 
as Tripolitania. The French employ ‘ Tripolitaine.” and sometimes 
“Libya ~