[LINK] Dividing Libya (?) and a divided Netherlands Antilles

[rfmcdonald]

Marginal Revolution links, in the post "The history of Libyan unity and partition", to a 1949 academic paper discussing how the great powers, after the Second World War, were divided on the subject of keeping Libya--united as a political entity only via Italian colonialism, that in the 1930s--a unified polity.

In 1949, Benjamin Rivlin wrote an instructive piece “Unity and Nationalism in Libya” (JSTOR), excerpt:

…the Big Four have been sharply divided on the question of Libyan unity…In supporting the Sanusi claims, Great Britain has become the chief advocate of a divided Libya…Similarly, the United States has given support to a divided Libya by abandoning its original proposal for an international trusteeship, in favor of support for the British position…Not to be forgotten is…France, also, advocated a partitioning of Libya, but a partition of its own special variety. Under the guise of “border rectifications,” France has laid claim to the Fezzan in southwestern Tripolitania and to all of Libya south of the Tropic of Cancer…The French claim is based primarily on the fact that Free French troops wrested this desert region from Italian control, and is an attempt to bolster the sagging prestige of France as a world power by a tangible reward for its role in the war.

The Soviet Union opposed a partition of Libya and favored Italian trusteeship. Back then, it seems that Europe took the lead role and the U.S. followed along. Here is one good sentence:

In examining the history of Libya one is struck with the fact that only on rare occasions has the area constituted a unified political entitity…there have never been firm bonds of union.

The difference between the two territories goes back to antiquity, when the territory was divided by rule by Greece and rule by Phoenicia. Even when Italy claimed the country in 1912, it effectively governed over two separate territories, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. What is the fundamental principle of division?:

The division of Libya into Cyrenaica and Tripolitania down through the ages is no mere quirk of history. It reflects, rather, the basic physiographic character of the territory. A great natural barrier — the Gulf of Sirte [now Sidra] and the projection of Libyan desert along its 400-mile shore — divides Cyrenaica from Tripolitania, limiting communication between the two territories and to a very large extent shaping their economies. Trade between the two territories has played a minor role, and the movement of the nomadic tribes in both territories has been and remains north-south, not east-west.

The commenters suggesting that a partition might be a good idea--especially the one suggesting a three-way division between Tunisia, Egypt, and Chad--don't seem to be sensible to me.

GeoCurrent Events' Martin Lewis, meanwhile, discusses how the Netherlands Antilles never made it as a separate and unified country, Dutch plans notwithstanding.

Like the unrest in Turks and Caicos, the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles has been little mentioned in the press. Indeed, an internet search under that name would lead one to believe it still exists, given the continuing stories on its sports teams, economy, maritime boundaries, and tourism prospects. Yet the Netherlands Antilles was officially disbanded half a year ago, on October 10, 2010. The six Dutch Caribbean islands now have independent relations with the Netherlands: three as “special municipalities,” and three as “constituent countries.”

The Netherlands Antilles was always a geographically and culturally awkward place. Its core originally consisted of the three “ABC” islands—Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao—lying off the Venezuelan coast. Having maintained close relations with the mainland, these islands developed a Portuguese-based language called Papiamentu (in Aruba, Papiamento). The remaining Dutch Antilles—Saba, Saint Eustatius (“Statia”), and Sint Maarten—lie far to the northeast in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles. Here the basic language is a Creole form of English. The northern islands are much smaller; Saba covers five square miles (thirteen square kilometers) and is home to fewer than 2,000 people, whereas Curaçao covers 171 square miles (444 square kilometers) and is home to more than 142,000. Sint Maarten is the giant of the northern Dutch possessions, with 37,000 people on thirteen square miles (thirty-four square kilometers), yet it covers only half of the island on which it is located; the rest forms the French “overseas collectivity” of Saint Martin.

During the Cold War, the Netherlands planned on relinquishing its holdings in the Caribbean to a single new country. Such plans were complicated by the historical enmity between Aruba and Curaçao, the most populous of the islands. Aruba had long agitated for separation from the Dutch Antilles, a status that it gained in 1986, with a provision that it would advance to full independence a decade later. But most Arubans, like most other residents of the Dutch Caribbean, soured on the notion of independence as they witnessed the political and economic turmoil that followed the gaining of sovereignty by the former Dutch possession of Suriname on the South American mainland. In 1994, the Netherlands’ government agreed that Aruba could remain an autonomous area under Dutch sovereignty, its official status becoming that of a “constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.”

Although the animosity between Aruba and Curaçao was the biggest obstacle to Dutch Antillian unity, the other islands also had their own disagreements. Dissention about the political future of the islands grew intense. Some islanders wanted more separation from the Netherlands, others more integration. In referendums held between 2000 and 2005, only Saint Eustatius voted to remain in the Netherlands Antilles. Curaçao and Sint Maarten opted to follow Aruba, becoming fully autonomous “constituent countries” within the Kingdom. The voters on Bonaire and Saba, meanwhile, chose closer ties with the Dutch homeland. In the end, they, along with Saint Eustatius, were transformed into “special municipalities” of the Netherlands.