|
Libya
ITALIAN COLONIALISM
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
|
