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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Libya
Index
Italy, which became a unified state only in 1860, was a late
starter in the race for colonies. For the Italians, the marginal
Turkish provinces in Libya seemed to offer an obvious compensation
for their humiliating acquiescence to the establishment of a French
protectorate in Tunisia, a country coveted by Italy as a potential
colony. Italy intensified its long-standing commercial interests in
Libya and, in a series of diplomatic manuevers, won from the major
powers their recognition of an Italian sphere of influence there.
It was assumed in European capitals that Italy would sooner or
later seize the opportunity to take political and military action
in Libya as well.
In September 1911 Italy engineered a crisis with Turkey
charging that the Turks had committed a "hostile act" by arming
Arab tribesmen in Libya. When Turkey refused to respond to an
ultimatum calling for Italian military occupation to protect
Italian interests in the region, Italy declared war. After a
preliminary naval bombardment, Italian troops landed and captured
Tripoli on October 3, encountering only slight resistance. Italian
forces also occupied Tobruk, Al Khums, Darnah, and Benghazi.
In the ensuing months, the Italian expeditionary force,
numbering 35,000, barely penetrated beyond its several beachheads.
The 5,000 Turkish troops defending the provinces at the time of the
invasion withdrew inland a few kilometers, where officers such as
Enver Pasha and Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) organized the Arab tribes
in a resistance to the Italians that took on the aspects of a holy
war. But with war threatening in the Balkans, Turkey was compelled
to sue for peace with Italy. In accordance with the treaty signed
at Lausanne in October 1912, the sultan issued a decree granting
independence to Tripolitania and Cyrenaica while Italy
simultaneously announced its formal annexation of those
territories. The sultan, in his role as caliph (leader of Islam),
was to retain his religious jurisdiction there and was permitted to
appoint the qadi of Tripoli, who supervised the sharia courts. But
the Italians were unable to appreciate that no distinction was made
between civil and religious jurisdiction in Islamic law. Thus,
through the courts, the Turks kept open a channel of influence over
their former subjects and subverted Italian authority. Peace with
Turkey meant for Italy the beginning of a twenty-year colonial war
in Libya.
Data as of 1987
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