A Stamp For Every Country Album

As part of my journey to create an AFSEC collection, my goal was to learn more about world history and geography.

I have gathered information from sources and very interesting how country locations are described. For example, I notice those in education call the areas of east Asia (Israel, Syria, Lebanon, etc) as Near East. The US government departments call the area Near East. This came into vogue after WWI, However, when the British occupied the region they called it the Middle East and includes Egypt (northeast Africa).

For my French area collection, I use the term "Greater Syria", which is basically the area between what is now the southern Turkish border and the Hejaz. This is the area that, before Britain and France engaged in their carve-up after WWI, included Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and what became Trans-Jordan, and constituted the independent kingdom proclaimed in Damascus in 1920. Then there's "Levant", which is an even less precise term.

Al, East Asia? Did you mean West Asia? If Israel, Syria and Lebanon are in East Asia, I wonder what would be West Asia. Only a part of Asian Turkey lies west of those countries.

I like using Levant as a category for the Ottoman Empire, European post offices in that empire, and the successor states.

Al, this is exactly why I chose to go alphabetical with my ASFEC album (well, sort of). I figured it would be easy to find something. But, of course, geographical has much to recommend it as well. I suppose it goes back to the notion that no two people will ever agree...

John

I was not going to organize by region but reading descriptions of countrues. I had mentioned before that the Caribbean used to be more specific (West Indies, Leeward Islands, Upper and Lower Antilles). The area between Australia and mainland Asia is another one.. Oceania can be anywhere in the Pacific.

I was looking at Libya and using some data from firstissues.org, I came up with a list for Libya. I put occupation stamps if unique to that country in the occupied country. Scott and SG treat these differently (how they are listed - main section, separate section, separate entity)

It looks like the Germans, Portuguese and Ottoman Empire ignored this area.


Libya British Occupation MAL Tripolitia 1948
Libya Cyrenaica 1923-1934 (o/p Italian stamps) 1923
Libya French Occupation - Fezzen 1949
Libya French Occupation - Fezzen-Ghadames 1946
Libya French Occupation - Ghadames 1949
Libya GB East Africa Forces MEF (common) 1943
Libya Italian Libia 1912-1951 1912
Libya Italian Offices in Benghazi 1901
Libya Italian Offices in Tripoli 1909
Libya Kingdom for use in Cyrenaica 1952
Libya Kingdom for use in Fezzan (o/p) 1951
Libya Libyan Arab Republic 1969
Libya People's Socialist Libyan Arab Republic 1977
Libya Tripolitania 1923-1934 (o/p Italian stamps) 1923
Libya United Kingdom for use in Tripolitania (op) 1951
Libya United Kingdom of Libya 1952

As for Germany ignoring Lybia: during WWII, Lybia was a colony of Italy, Being an ally of Germany, there would not be a reason for Germany to occupy it and issue stamps.

In the 14th and 15th centuries, Portugal and Castile contested territories in the Atlantic. The Portuguese dicovered the route to the East around the Cape of Good Hope. A treaty between the two Kingdoms gave the Atlantic to Portugal. Portugal established colonies along the route for the lucrative trade in spices. Spices was what it was about.

Castile retained the Canary Isles. After Columbus found the route to the Americas, a new treaty (Tordesillas 1494) was drafted, Portugal could colonise lands east of a line ca. 1,550 kilometres west of the Cape Verde Isles, Castile lands to the west of the line.

Would Portugal have been interested in Libya, it would first have to defeat the Ottoman Empire. The Mediterranean was dominated by the Ottomans until 1571. After the Battle of Lepanto, Spain and its allies dominated the Mediterranean. That would have led to another war between Portugal and the now very dominant Spain (if Portugal would not already be ruled by a Spanish king). Since the Suez Canal dates from after Portugal was a powerful nation, it would not have had any use for Libya.

As for the MEF stamps: the stamps were first used by the British forces in occupied Italian colonies in East Africa (Italian Somaliland and Eritrea). The use, later, extended to those forces in the Dodecanese Islands and Lybia. East African Forces (EAF) stamps were never used other than in Italian Somaliland.

Also, the EAF overprint, incorrectly has been catalogued as East Africa Forces, when these were used by East African Forces in the British Army. The Middle East Forces operated in a much wider area, but the use of the M.E.F. stamps was limited to the former Italian colonies.

Whereas generally treated in the same section of the catalogue, EAF <> MEF.

I don't think the Ottoman Empire "ignored" Libya. Ottoman stamps would have been used there. The French, I think, had a post office in Tripoli during the Ottoman period, so one would also find French stamps postmarked there.

Fezzan was the part of Libya held by the French.
Italian colonial issues for Libya were overprinted by the French.

Interesting and useful feedback. I did not expect the Germans to be involved in Mediterranean coast of Africa.

The Germans involved themselves in the Maghreb - notably in the Agadir incident of 1911 - but not postally.

One remaining task is to associate each "era" with country and cat numbers.

Like other major powers, Germany established postal agencies in Morocco. (Not, strictly speaking, the Med).

https://www.germanstamps.net/imp-aus-mor/

During WWII they were involved al along the Med, sometimes as occupiers, sometimes helping the Italians.
Field Marshall Erwin Rommel got his nickname Dessert Fox from his campaign in the area.

Oops, missed those, NSK!

In the pre-French "protectorate" period, there was a complex range of local postal services in Morocco. Listed in French catalogues, but I don't know if they appear in Scott.