Italo-Turkish War

The **Italo–Turkish War**, also known as the **War of Libya**, was a war between the Kingdom of Italy and the Ottoman Empire from 29 September 1911 to 18 October 1912. Italy won and took the Ottoman Empire's Tripolitania and also its sub-provinces of Fezzan, Cyrenaica and Tripoli, these territories would later be called Italian Libya.

Italy also took the Dodecanese in the Aegean Sea. They agreed to give the Ottomans back the Dodecanese in the 1912 Treaty of Ouchy but because of the treaty's context were superficial and careless plus the Ottoman's poor conditions at the time and later the Balkan and First World Wars led to Italy having the rights to own it.

The war was a big insult to the Ottoman Empire due to it being weak and defeated by a young Empire like Italy. Seeing the Ottomans weak, members of the Balkan League later attacked the Ottomans in the First Balkan War which will be World War I's predecessor.

Before war, the British, French and Russians always supported Italy about colonial problems in Libya causing troubles for the Ottoman Empire. This was one of the reasons why Italy didn't fully join the Central Powers in World War I.

## Why the war broke out

The Kingdom of Italy had already wanted to take Libya from the Ottoman Empire after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 and the many next treaties of the 1878 Congress of Berlin. With the French and British help against conflicts with Russia, the Ottomans agreed to let France to occupy Tunisia and Britain to control Cyprus. Later Italy committed a secret agreement with the British government in February 1887 through diplomacy. The agreement said the Italians would support the British control in Egypt and Britain would support Italy's Libyan control. In 1902, Italy and France signed a secret agreement which allowed the free intervention over Tripolitania and Morocco.

The agreement which were negotiated by Italian foreign minister Giulio Prinetti and French ambassador Camille Barrère ended the historical competitions between the two nations in order to gain control over North Africa. The same year, Britain promised Italy that any changes in Libya would be suitable for Italy, this promise aimed to ease the commitment of Italy with the Triple Alliance.

For Tripoli and Cyrenaica, to gain Italy's support over the sovereignty of Bosporus, Russia<nowiki/>accepted Italy's requests about Italy's Libyan problems. However, the Kingdom of Italy did not mention Libya's resources were rare and hard to be found. Nationalist Enrico Corradini led the public call in Libya and that was written by the nationalist newspaper L'Idea Nazio in 1911. The Kingdom of Italy began a mass lobbying campaign for an invasion of Libya in late March of 1911. It was exaggerately described Libyan resources as rich and had good water sources and were protected by four thousand Ottoman troops. In addition, its citizen was described to be hostile against the Ottomans and friendly with the Italians.

## Infobox (military conflict)

- **conflict**: Italo–Turkish War
- **image**: Italo-Turkish war collage.jpg
- **image size**: 300px
- **caption**: Some images of the war.
- **date**: 29 September 1911 – 18 October 1912
()
- **place**: Tripoli, Aegean Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea
- **territory**: Italy annexed Italian Libya, Libya and the Dodecanese.
- **result**: Kingdom of Italy's victory
* Treaty of Ouchy
- **combatant1**:
 Idrisid Emirate of Asir, Asir
- **combatant2**: *
* Ottoman Libya
* Senussi
- **commander1**: Carlo Caneva
 Augusto Aubry
- **commander2**: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Mustafa Kemal Bey
 Enver Pasha, İsmail Enver Bey
 Ahmed Sharif as-Senussi
 Omar Mukhtar
- **strength1**: 1911:
(September-December)
89,000 troops
14,600 armoured vehicles
2,550 wagons
132 field guns
66 mountain guns
28 siege guns
1912:
4 Alpini battalions,
7 Ascari battalions and a Meharisti squadron
- **strength2**: **Initially**:
~8,000 regular troops
~20,000 local troops
**Last**:
~40,000 Turkish and Libyan troops
- **casualties1**: 1,432 Killed in action, KIA
1,948 died from diseases.
4,250 Wounded in action, WIA.
- **casualties2**: 8,189 Killed in action, KIA
10,000 died from executions and diseases.