The attempted Italian colonization of the Ottoman provinces of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica was never wholly successful. Several reorganizations of the colonial authority were made necessary, in the face of an armed Libyan opposition. From 1919 (May 17) to 1929 (January 24) the Italian government maintained the two traditional provinces, with separate colonial administrations. A system of controlled local assembies with limited local authority was set up, but it was revoked 9 March 1927. In 1929 Tripoli and Cyrenaica were united as one colonial province, then in 1934, as Italy struggled to retain colonial power, the classical name "Libya" was revived as the official name of the colony, which was split into four provinces, Tripoli, Misurata, Bengasi, and Derna.

In 1920 (October 25) the Italian government recognized Sheikh Sidi Idris the hereditary head of the nomadic Senussi, with wide authority in Kufra and other oases, as Emir of Cyrenaica, a new title extended by the British at the close of World War I. The emir would eventually become king of the free Libyan state.

Sporadic fighting intensified after the accession to power in Italy of the dictator Benito Mussolini. Idris fled to Egypt in 1922. From 1922 to 1928, Italian forces under Gen. Badoglio slowly gained control over Libya. The Senussi leader in Cyrenaica surrendered to the Italians on January 3 1928, virtually ending the organized struggle for independence in eastern Libya, for the time. Resistance to the Italian occupation crystallized round the person of Sheik Idris, the Emir of Cyrenaica.

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