‘At the turn of the nineteenth century, Italy, a newly unified upstart Great Power, was looking to expand its political and economic influence into neighbouring North Africa. Just a few years earlier, France had taken effective control of the North African coast from Tunisia to Morocco, while Egypt was a British protectorate. Just two areas of North Africa were unoccupied by Western European powers: Morocco and Ottoman Libya.

By 1910, Italian Nationalists and war hawks increasingly demanded some kind of Italian political action to occupy Libya, but Governor Giovanni Giolitti remained stalwart against war. That is until the balance of power in North Africa once again shifted. In July 1911, the Agadir Crisis, or the 2nd Moroccan Crisis, began, culminating in the joint annexation of Morocco by French and Spanish colonial authorities. This put Libya in the unique and uncomfortable position of being the last bastion against Western colonialism in North Africa.

Italian nationalists, this time with the support of most political leadership in the country, demanded war. The Italians were fearful that France or the United Kingdom would manufacture an excuse to occupy Libya swiftly, blocking Italian colonial expansion. Italian political leadership hoped that like other European colonial wars, their expedition to Libya would be quick, low intensity, and end after the occupation of a few major ports along the Libyan coast. Unfortunately for Italy, the war would last significantly longer and come with a huge loss of money and human life’.

This episode was written by Nicholas Morra

Nicholas is from Canada but now lives in Boston Massachusetts, and studied history in college. Today he largely focuses his reading on early 20th century military history.