Libyan War 1911-1912

Question 1

Why did Giolitti invade Libya in 1911?

Answer 1

• He believed the invasion would be quick (only taking 3 months) and cheap (300 million)
• He made a deal with France that Italy would not interfere with Morocco and Tunisia (slap of Tunis) if France doesn’t interfere with Italy’s invasions of Libya.
• Giolitti wanted to establish an empire after the embarrassment of the invasion of Adwa.

Question 2

How successful were the Italians in invading Libya?

Answer 2

• Within the first couple of weeks Italy had taken all major coastline cities, including the capital - Tripoli.
• Italy bombed Libya using planes (the first nation to ever do this).
• Italy aimed to make the ottoman’s surrender by attacking their navy. They also decided they would invade Rhodes and the Dodeconese Islands as a way of making the Ottoman’s surrender.
• Italian occupation of the islands worked without opposition.

Question 3

How was Italy unsuccessful?

Answer 3

• Italy had little knowledge of Libya below the coastline.
• Giolitti had also assumed that the population of Libya would support the takeover. However, much of the population wanted complete independence from imperial occupation.
• Italian weaponry was inferior
• In November, Giolitti announced the annexation of Libya even though they had only controlled the coastline.
• Cholera and dysentry infected much of the army, this significantly lowered morale.
• In total 3,500 Italian soldiers died.
• The war ended up costing Italy 47% of their GDP (1.3 billion lire)
• It took over a year.