Italo-Turkish War (1911-12)

Blatant war of aggression launched by Italy against Turkey, with the aim of gaining Libya, in order to counterbalance French conquests in North Africa. Part of the general feeding frenzy that surrounded the decline of the Turkish Empire ('The Sick Man of Europe'). Italy declared war on 29 September 1911, and after preliminary naval bombardments, an Italian naval forces occupied Tobruk (4 October) and Tripoli (5 October). The army, under General Carlo Caneva, took over the occupation on 11 October, and promptly stalled under a combination of skilful Turkish religious propagande amongst the local population and the caution of Caneva. It was only the next summer, starting in July 1912, that the Italians advanced out of their coastal strongholds, slowly forcing the Turks back, and winning several victories over them. However, it was the threatened outbreak of the First Balkan War that forced Turkey to make peace, and by the Treaty of Ouchy (15 October 1912), Turkey gave Italy Libya, Rhodes and the Dodecanese islands.
Armies of the Italian-Turkish Wars – Conquest of Libya, 1911-1912, Gabriele Esposito. Focuses more on the war itself than the armies that fought it, with the main emphasis on the fighting in Libya, but also covers the conquest of the Dodecanese and the limited naval campaigns. Does include orders of battle and descriptions of the armies themselves, but these take up less space than is often the case in this series. The result is a useful introduction to this relatively little known but significant war (Read Full Review)
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How to cite this article: Rickard, J. (11 March 2001), Italo-Turkish War (1911-12), http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_italoturkish.html

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