Gaetano Salvemini - La politica estera italiana dal 1871 al 1915

l. The Diploma-tic Background Libya 1 is the most wretched of all the territories along the Mediterra– nean coasts. It is a vast wilderness of steppes, sand and stones, punctuated by occasionai small oases. Even from the standpoint of military strategy it is of no use to Italy. The existing naval bases on the Italian peninsula and on the islands are more than sufficient for the needs of the Italian fleet in the centrai Mediterranean. The barren coasts and the stormy seas of Libya are of no value in naval warfare. Italian land forces starting from Libya might constitute a threat to Tunisia and Egypt. But French forces from Tunisia, and Anglo-Egyptian forces from Egypt, could in their turn threa– ten Libya, and they would have the advantage of being backed by terrìtories rich in resources whereas the Italian forces in Libya would have to import all their supplies from Italy. The fate of European colonies is decided by war– fare in Europe and not in the colonies. Libya however occupies,.a vast a,;ea on the map. Color on maps has been one of the main sources of imperialistic infection since atlases have been in common use among the so-called cultivated classes. After France had seized Tunisia in 1881 and England had established herself in Egypt in 1882, Libya, wedged between Tunisia and Egypt, and abandoned to its own devices by the ·Ottoman Government, seemed to offer itself as a prey to whoever might want to occupy it. The Italian colonialists regarded themselves as the heirs presumptive of both the Roman and the Ottoman empires in Libya. They kept reiterating that were Italy to allow others to occupy Libya, Italy would be "suffocated" in the Mediterranean. Precisely why Italy 1 Before 1912, the terms "Tripoli" and "Tripolitania" were often used to designate the ~rour of territories lying between Tunisia and Egypt; that is, Cyrenaica on the east and Tripo– !J~_ma, properly speaking, on the west. In 1912 the Italian Government officially adopted the term tbya" to designate the two territories and their hinterlands as a unit, and reserved the term "Tripolitania" for the western .section alone. In the course of the present study, we bave !~+1<?we~ the officia! Italian terminology, even in the translation of texts anterior to 1912. By npolt" we mean not Tripolitania but merely the town of Tripoli. 437 BibliotecaGino Bianco