Name of Conflict:
Italo-Turkish War
Dates of Conflict: September 29, 1911-
October 18, 1912
Alternate Names of Conflict: Italian-Turkish
War, Italian-Ottoman War , Turko-Italian War,
Trablusgarp Savasi (in Turkish), Guerra di Libia (in
Italian)
Belligerents: Italy vs. Ottoman Empire
(Turkey)
Type of Conflict: Inter-State, Colonial
Related Conflicts:
Predecessor: (Related conflicts that occurred
before or led up to the current conflict):
Concurrent: (Related conflicts occurring at
the same time):
Albanian Uprising of 1912 (against the Ottoman
Empire)
Successor: (Related conflicts which
occur later):
First Balkan War (1912-1913)
Second Balkan War (1913)
Libyan Resistance to Italian Occupation
(1912-1930s)
Causes of
Conflict:
The Ottoman Empire, long considered the "Sick Man
of Europe," was the ostensible ruler of the Muslim and
Arab-speaking North African provinces of Tripolitania
and Cyrenacia (now both known as Libya). Neighboring
Egypt was also technically an Ottoman possession, but
had been occupied and controlled by the British for
decades. The Ottomans thus had no land connection to
their Libyan provinces.
Italy, united into one nation only in the 1860s,
was late in joining the other nations of Europe in
conquering and occupying African land to turn into
colonies for the purposes of profit, glory and power.
After losing out on a claim to the North African
region of Tunisia, Libya turned to Tripolitania and
Cyrenacia for imperial expansion.
After securing the complicity or neutrality of the
other "Great Powers" of Europe, Italy presented the
Ottoman government with an ultimatum on September 28,
1911 demanding that Italy be allowed to occupy
Tripolitania and Cyrenacia under the pretext of
protecting Italian citizens living there from the
alleged threats of Muslim extremists. The Ottomans
rebuffed the Italians, but indicated that they were
open to negotiations. Obviously anticipating a
rejection of their demands, Italy declared war on
September 29, 1911.
Description of
Conflict:
The Italian Navy transported nearly 50,000 Army
troops to the Libyan coast, where they quickly
overcame light resistance and occupied the coastal
cities. The Ottomans only had light forces on the
ground, and were not able to put up an effective
resistance. Due to the weakness of their navy,
compared to the Italian naval forces, and the declared
neutrality of Egypt (which was under British control),
the Ottomans were not able to reinforce the defenders
in North Africa.
Because of this apparent weakness in the face of
Italian aggression, the Ottoman government had to do
something to show the ability to resist. This need was
largely a result of internal politics inside the
sprawling, multi-ethnic empire, where many different
groups were looking for an excuse to rebel against
imperial government in Constantinople. Unable to
actually send an expeditionary force to fight the
Italians, nearly 50 Army officers, led by the Young
Turks Enver Pasha and Mustafa Kemal, slipped into
Libya to provide professional military advice and
leadership to the growing local Arab resistance,
spearheaded by the Senussi tribe. Within a few short
months, the war developed into a stalemated guerrilla
conflict, with Italians holding the cities along the
coast, and the Turks and Libyan tribes holding the
southern deserts.
Unable to break the resistance on land, the
Italians used their unchallenged naval superiority to
take the war to the rest of the Ottoman Empire. The
Italians bombarded the Ottoman ports of Smyrna and
Beirut, the forts guarding the Dardanelles (April,
1912) and occupied the Ottoman-held islands of Rhodes
and Kos in the Dodecanese Islands chain (May, 1912) in
the Aegean Sea.
Faced with these new attacks and with upcoming
threats from its enemies in the Balkans, the Turks
sued for peace, signing a peace treaty with Italy in
Lausanne, Switzerland on October 18, 1912. The First
Balkan War, which pitted Serbia, Montenegro, Greece,
and Bulgaria against the Ottoman Empire, began the
next day.
Consequences of
Conflict:
Libya and the Dodecanese Islands passed to official
Italian control, though the local Arab population in
Libya continued to resist their new rulers for nearly
two decades after the Turks left. The Ottomans had no
time to worry about their lost North African
possessions, as the Balkan Alliance would soon strip
them of virtually all of their remaining European
lands.
The significance of Italian control over Libya
would become apparent during World War Two, when Italy
invaded Egypt in an attempt to drive the British out
and seize the Suez Canal. This invasion led to over
three years of back-and-forth warfare between the
Italians and their German allies on one side, and the
British on the other. Western Egypt, nearly all of
coastal Libya and large parts of Tunisia would become
battlegrounds for these quarrelling Europeans, with
the local populations the true losers in this part of
a vast global conflict.
A significant military development took place in
the Italo-Turkish War, with the first ever use of
armored cars and the new invention called the
airplane. On October 23, 1911, history's first aerial
bombardment took place when Italian pilots dropped
hand grenades on a Turkish army encampment.
Casualties of
the Italo-Turkish War:
Italy-6,000
Ottoman Empire-14,000
Source: Correlates of War (COW) http://cow2.la.psu.edu/
See also: Greco-Turkish
Wars
Wars of
the Middle East
New York, New York: Harper & Row. 1993.
