Italo-Turkish War Totally Explained

Everything about Turco-italian War totally explained

The Italo-Turkish or Turco-Italian War (also known in Italy as guerra di Libia, "the Libyan war", and in Turkey as Trablusgarp Savaşı) was fought between the Ottoman Empire and Italy from September 29, 1911 to October 18, 1912.
   Italy seized the Ottoman provinces of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, together forming what became known as Libya, as well as the Isle of Rhodes and the Greek-speaking Dodecanese archipelago near Anatolia.
   Although minor, the war was an important precursor of the First World War as it sparked nationalism in the Balkan states. Seeing how easily the Italians had defeated the disorganized Ottomans, the members of the Balkan League attacked the Empire before the war with Italy had ended.
   The Italo-Turkish War saw numerous technological advances used in warfare; notably the aeroplane. On October 23, 1911, an Italian pilot flew over Turkish lines on a reconnaissance mission, and on November 1, the first ever aerial bomb was dropped on Turkish troops in Libya.

Background

The claims of Italy over Libya dated back to discussions after the Congress of Berlin in 1878, in which France and Great Britain had agreed to the occupation of Tunisia and Cyprus respectively, both parts of the then declining Ottoman Empire. When Italian diplomats hinted about possible opposition by their government, the French replied that Tripoli would have been a counterpart for Italy. In 1902, Italy and France had signed a secret treaty which accorded freedom of intervention in Tripolitania and Morocco. However, the Italian government did little to realize the opportunity and knowledge of Libyan territory and resources remained scarce in the following years.
   The Italian press began a large-scale lobbying campaign in favour of an invasion of Libya at the end of March 1911. It was fancifully depicted as rich in minerals, well-watered, and defended by only 4,000 Ottoman troops. Also, the population was hostile to the Ottoman Empire and friendly to the Italians. The future invasion was described as little more than a "military walk".
   The Italian government was hesitant initially, but in the summer the preparations for the invasion were carried out and Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti began to probe the other European major powers about their reactions to a possible invasion of Libya. The Socialist party had strong influence over public opinion. However, it was in opposition and also divided on the issue. It acted ineffectively against a military intervention. (Ironically, the future Fascist leader Mussolini - at this time still a left-wing Socialist - took a prominent anti-war position.)
   An ultimatum was presented to the Ottoman government of Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) on the night of 26-27 September. Through Austrian intermediation, the CUP replied with the proposal of transferring control of Libya without warring, maintaining a formal Ottoman suzerainty. Giolitti refused, however, and war was declared on September 29, 1911.

Military actions

Despite the time it had had to prepare the invasion, the Italian Army was largely unprepared when the war broke out. The Italian fleet appeared off Tripoli in the evening of September 28, but only began bombarding the port on October 3. The city was conquered by 1,500 sailors, much to the enthusiasm of the interventionist minority in Italy. Another proposal of a diplomatic settlement was rejected by the Italians, and the Turks determined therefore to defend the province. The first disembarkation of troops occurred on October 10. The Italian contingent of 20,000 troops was deemed sufficient to accomplish the conquest at the time. Tobruk, Derna and Homs were easily conquered, but the same wasn't true for Benghazi. The first true setback for the Italian troops happened on October 23, when poor placement of the troops near Tripoli led them to be almost completely encircled by more mobile Arab cavalry, backed by some Turkish regular units. The attack was portrayed as a simple revolt by the Italian press, but it nearly annihilated much of the Italian expeditionary corps. The corps was consequently enlarged to 100,000 men who had to face 20,000 Arabs and 8,000 Turks. The war turned into one of position, and even the first use of aviation in a modern war had little effect.
   Italian troops landed at Tobruk after a brief bombardment on December 4th, 1911 and occupied the seashore and marched towards the hinterlands facing weak resistance. Small numbers of Turkish soldiers and Libyan volunteers were later organized by Captain Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk). The 22 December Battle of Tobruk resulted in Mustafa Kemal's victory. With this achievement, he was assigned to Dernah War quarters to coordinate the field on 6 March, 1912.
   The 3 March, 1912, near Dernah, 1,500 Libyan volunteers attacked Italian troops who were building trenchs. Italians - less in number, but superior in weapons - held the line. Lack of coordination between Italian units sent from Dernah in reinforcement and intervention af Turkish artillery put in crisis Italian line and Arabs attempted to surround Italian troops. Further Italian reinforcements stabilized situation and battle ended in the afternoon.
   On September 14, Italian command sent three columns of infantry to disband Arab Turkish camp near Dernah. Troops occupied a plateau, breaking off Turkish supply lines. Three days later, Turkish commander Enver Bey attacked Italian positions on the plateau. The larger Italian fire drove back Turkish soldiers, who were surrounded by a battalion of Alpini and suffered heavy losses. A later Turkish attack had the same outcome.
   After that, operations in Cyrenaica stopped, until the end of the war.

Moves towards a peace

With a decree of November 5, 1911, Italy declared its suzerainty over Libya, although it controlled only some coastal stretches which were almost under siege by the local troops, with the exception of Tripoli. Italian authorities adopted many repressive measures against the rebels, such as public hanging.
Italy, however, maintained total naval supremacy and could extend its control to almost all of the 2,000 km of the Libyan coast between April and early August of 1912. Italy began operations against the Turkish possessions in the Aegean Sea with the approval of the other powers that were eager to end a war that was lasting much longer than expected. Italy occupied twelve islands in the sea, the so-called Dodecanese, but this raised the discontent of the Austro-Hungarian Empire who feared that this could fuel the irredentism of nations such as Serbia and Greece, causing unbalance in the already fragile situation in the Balkan area.
The only other relevant military operation of the summer of 1912 was an attack of five Italian torpedo boats in the Dardanelles on July 18. In September, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece prepared their armies for the war against the Ottoman Empire, taking advantage of its difficulties in the war against Italy. On October 8, Montenegro declared war against the Turks, starting the Balkan Wars.

Treaty of Lausanne

Italian diplomats decided to take advantage of the situation to obtain a favourable peace deal. A treaty was signed at Lausanne at 16.45 on October 18, 1912.The terms were formally equal to those requested by Istanbul at the beginning of the war and maintained a formal Ottoman suzerainty over Libya, which received only an autonomous status under the judiciary rule of Qadis elected by the Sultan.

Aftermath

The invasion of Libya was a costly enterprise for Italy. Instead of the 30 million lire a month judged sufficient at its beginning, it reached a cost of 80 million a month for a much longer period than was originally estimated. This caused economical unbalance at home. From a political standpoint, it showed that the lobbying power of an active and organized minority could have great power in the country, as the advent of Fascism would show after World War I.
   As for Libya, the Italian control over much of its territory remained ineffective until the late 1920s, when forces under Generals Pietro Badoglio and Rodolfo Graziani waged punitive pacification campaigns which turned into brutal and bloody acts of repression. Resistance petered out only after the execution of the rebel leader Omar Mukhtar on September 15, 1931.
   Concerning the Dodecanese, because of WWI it remained under Italian military occupation. According to the Treaty of Sevres, most of the islands (except Rhodes) had to be ceded to Greece, in exchange for a vast zone of influence in southwest Anatolia.
   The Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War and the foundation of modern Turkey made this solution impossible. With the Treaty of Lausanne the Dodecanese was then formally annexed by Italy.

Bibliography

Paolo Maltese, "L'impresa di Libia", in Storia Illustrata #167, October 1971
"1911-1912 Turco-Italian War and Captain Mustafa Kemal". Ministry of Culture of Turkey, edited by Turkish Armed Forces-Division of History and Strategical Studies, pages 62-65, Ankara, 1985.
The Italian Turkish War 1911-1912

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