Name of
Conflict: Italo-Turkish WarDates 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, Italy 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.
