Italian Turkish War When Libya Becomes an Arena for Disputes

The Italian-Turkish War, When Libya Becomes an Arena for Disputes

Italy & Libya are 2 countries occupying different continents. Despite being on different continents, the two countries are by the Mediterranean Sea.

Italy in the past had ambitions to make Libya a part of its territory. As a result of this ambition, the Italian-Turkish War broke out.

The Italian-Turkish War was a war that clashed the Kingdom of Italy with the Ottoman Empire. The war that lasted from 1911 to 1912 occurred because Italy wanted to seize the territory of Libya, which at that time had the status of Ottoman territory.

After the war, Italy managed to become the new owner of Libya for the next decades. This war is also famous because in this war, for the first time aircraft were used to carry out air attacks & flown at night.

Since the 15th century, European countries sought as many colonies as possible on other continents. Italy is one of the countries that are late to follow this trend because the country was only formed in 1861 after the unification by the Kingdom of Sardinia.

The African continent is seen as a target for regional expansion considering its location is not far from Italy when compared to other continents

Libya became the main target of Italy to be conquered. The ambition to control Libya also reeks of history because the Ancient Roman territory in the past had indeed covered the northern coast of Africa

Libya at that time was still an area of the Ottoman Sultanate of Turkey under the name "Vilayet Tripolitania". Italy felt confident that it could control Tripolitania because the Ottomans had just lost their war against Russia

In 1902 Italy held talks with the European superpowers such as France & England, which at that time were in control of Morocco & Egypt.

On July 1, 1911, Germany sent the battleship Panther to Agadir, Morocco. Because of the conflict for influence with France, Germany's actions still made Italy feel stung.

Italy is suspicious that the Tripolitania region will also be targeted by Germany. Moreover, at the same time, the German company joint venture was in talks with the Ottomans to invest in Tripolitania.

Italy is worried that this moment will be used as a stepping stone by Germany to completely dominate Tripolitania.

In the same month the Italian government filed a protest & accusation against the Ottoman government that its citizens living in Tripolitania were treated unfairly.

On September 25, Italy accused the Ottomans of showing a hostile attitude in the midst of strained relations between the two countries.

On 28 September Italy announced it was sending its military to Tripolitania. This statement also marked the beginning of the Italian-Ottoman War.

The Italian naval fleet blocks the northern coast of Tripolitania. Italy thought that this invasion the Ottomans only had less than 10,000 troops in Tripolitania, while Italy deployed more than 44,000

On October 2, Italy requested that the Ottomans surrender immediately while firing their ship's cannons at the city of Tripoli.

Because the Italian ships had a longer firing range than the Ottoman land guns, the Ottoman troops were forced to retreat to the interior and let the Italians take control of the coast.

Some of Tripoli's civilians also fled their cities. when Italian troops landed in Tripoli on October 4, they encountered no resistance at all.

A number of Arab aristocrats chose to stay in the city & declared their allegiance to Italy. Arab nobleman who chose to ally with Italy was Hassuna Pasha.

After Tripoli was captured, the Italian troops then continued their conquests to other cities which were also located on the coast such as Derna, Homs, Tobruk, & Benghazi.

On October 20, the coast of Tripolitania was occupied by the Italians except for Benghazi. But the Italians did not know that the Ottomans withdrew not because they had thrown in the towel.

They retreated out of the city in order to gather sufficient strength while waiting for reinforcements from Turkey to launch a counterattack.

Ottoman troops in Tripolitania received assistance from Arab militias who did not want to be under Italian control.

On 23 October, the joint forces of the two made a surprise attack on Tripoli. However, the attack was contained and the Ottoman troops were forced to withdraw on 26 October.

Italian troops were superior in terms of weapons, the rebellion was suppressed quickly. Over the next 4 days, Italian troops also carried out house-to-house searches.

Italian troops also carried out military operations to the spring oasis in the middle of the desert k not far from Tripoli & used by pro-Ottoman troops for camping.