The Italian-Turkish War

An Influence of the Italo-Turkish war on Italy.

I have chosen the Italo-Turkish war, because I have always been interested in the history of Italy and this war was one of the reasons, which lead to the First World War. I expect to discover new facts and to open my mind.

Italy before the war.

At the end of the 19th century, the Italian lands, freed from other countries, united in the complete state. The new small country was looking for the new sales markets and colonies for the future territorial development. To Italians, Libya was the country with considerable inventories of minerals and a fine environment, being protected by only 4.800 thousand Turkish soldiers, while Italy had 34.000. In March 1911, Dzholitti undertook the reform, which increased the number of voters from 3 to 8 million people and created the life and property insurance and it’s the income went to pensions. The Italian economy had some defects: a narrowness of the market, a lack of workers, very slow development of different industries, bad life conditions for people. But the Italian government tried to fix these problems and it was rather successful at the beginning. Moreover, this war could distract the workers attention from different problems in the country.

Italy after the war.

The invasion into Libya was a very expensive event for Italy, because of a considerable reduction of the budget. Instead of the planned 30 million liras a month, this military walk cost 80 million liras a month and lasted longer, then the government planned. The total cost of war was 1,3 billion liras (one billion more, than Dzholitti thought). Indirect taxes and food prices grew up, grain and bread became very expensive. It caused serious problems in the Italy economy. There were also serious losses, though not so considerable in comparison with the rival’s losses, 7 630 Italian soldiers died and 15 370 Ottoman Empire soldiers. Democratic public started being nervous, the political struggle in the country began, there was a liberalism crisis, and strict censorship began. Even after the war Libya continued straggling. Unemployment increased, there was a ruin of small entrepreneurs, while the largest banks got very rich.

However, it should be noted, that in foreign policy the war strengthened the international position of Italy, its territory extended by accession of Libya and Dodecanese. Thanks to war mechanical engineering industry developed. The world saw possibilities of technical progress: first applications of radio, planes, and bombs. Italy allocated 35 planes, several airships and other military equipment. The new railroads were constructed, their total length grew from 1930 km in 1861 to 14,5 thousand km in 1911. The productivity of several lands increased because of using agricultural machinery, but sectors, which were not connected with military needs, were in a bad condition: paper, textile.

In general, the war showed a relative military and economic weakness of the Italian imperialism, the war has awakened the nationalist consciousness of new Italy: in general, the changes were more negative. That is why I refute, that Italy’s economy, political and social life had a lot of benefits from the war. This information was very useful for me.