Can split background up into:

• Regency of Tripolitania
• the Senussi and other regional actors/groups. General landscape of Libyan people.
• General ottoman decline

• Italian inferiority complex, "the least great power", Third Rome (gentile la grande italia, among others)
• Initial colonial ambitions, talk about Mazzini and other early imperialists (origins of Libyan nation p. 31)
• Destination for large surplus emigration (Segre fourth shore)
• Gains Eritrea and Somalia, but rebuked by France in Tunisia and by Ethiopia at Adwa
• Attention moves to Libya, efforts at economic penetration (Origins of Libyan Nation p. 34-35)
• Imperialist rhetoric: D'Annunzio, Marinetti, the ANI and other imperialists/nationalists. Italian divisions, e.g. Giolitti, Salvemini.
• Ottoman empire was falling apart, Italians expected the Libyans to hate their overlords.
• Italo-Turkish War begins

• Describe the course of the war
• Italy struggles in Libya, makes gains in the Aegean, treaty as the Balkan Wars commence
• Occupation was a pain in the arse, they controlled little. Two colonies—don't be anachronistic. Make sure to delineate Tripolitania (and Fezzan) & Cyrenaica.
• Poor colonial governance, directives from Rome followed little by colonial governors. Quotes here?
• Noteables of resistance: al-Bahruni, Asswhely, Ahmed al-Senussi, etc
• Note Shari al-Shatt and deportations/internment on Islands (Ustica, Tremiti, etc). Foreshadowing. (origins of the libyan nation 36-39)
• WW1 starts, everything explodes
• Ottoman & central powers involvement, Jihad
• Italy needs help in the North vs Austria.
• Tripolitanian campaign poor, Misrata not controlled at all, bombed only 1918. Embarrasing
• Defeats: British swoop in as Senussi are attacking in Egypt too. Summarise British policy towards the Senussi
• Senussi Campaign, Italy saved, Idris, Acroma

• Tripolitanian Republic founded by Asswhely, others, and Azzam Pasha. Talk about treaties, in theory and in practice. Legge Fondamentale.
• Cyrenaica treaties, autonomy. Idris, the Emir
• Wilsonianism

• Things are going wrong
• Volpi appointed by nationalist liberal colonial minister Amendola, takes a harsher line
• By 1922 it was going awry
• Fascism arrives, Amendola replaced by Federzoni.
• Discuss fascist imperialist policy in general
• Fourth Shore fascist rhetoric

Italy, long seeking colonies to affirm its status as a great power, to avenge the humiliation of the Battle of Adwa, and to provide a destination for its large number of emigres[Segre, the Fourth Shore, pp. 3-6, 18], had invaded and occupied Libya during the Italo-Turkish war of 1911-1912. They struggled to maintain control of the province against local guerillas, however, and by 1915 controlled only the coastal strip.^[1] Conflict between Italy and the Libyans, especially the Senussi–a Muslim political-religious tariqa based in Libya–erupted into major violence during World War I, when the Libyans, supported materially by the Central Powers and encouraged by Caliph Mehmed V's declaration of jihad, began collaborating with the Ottomans against Italian troops.^[2] The Libyan Senussis also escalated the conflict by attacking British forces stationed in Egypt.^[3] Conflict between the British and the Senussis, known as the Senussi campaign, continued until 1917.^[4]

Resistance against the Italians was split, and had been since the start of the Italo-Turkish War[Origins of the Libyan Nation p. 39]: the Senussi operated in Cyrenaica, and various Tripolitanian and Fezzanese forces operated in the west of the country.[cite] The two groups frequently fought, and disagreements between them would inhibit effective opposition to Italian colonialism.[History of Modern Libya, p. 28]

(hmm, reserve this for the more detailed part?)Alongside the Senussi, who predominantly operated in Cyrenaica, resistance to Italian occupation also occurred widely in the western regions of Tripolitania and Fezzan. Though Italian control had briefly extended into Fezzan thanks to a campaign by [General] during the Italo-Turkish War, it had shrank severely due to anti-Italian guerilla action and support from the Central Powers. Confined only the coastal town of Tripoli, Tripolitanian forces controlled almost all of the region. Humiliatingly, a radio tower in Misrata had broadcasted anti-Italian propaganda uninterrupted since 1914, with the Italians unwilling and unable to stop it; it was eventually and reluctantly destroyed by Italian bombing in 1918.

By 1917, the Senussi, having suffered a string of defeats during the Senussi campaign that had prompted a change in leadership from Ahmed Sharif as-Senussi to his more diplomatically-inclined cousin Idris al-Senussi,[Empires at War p. 42] and Italy, still with very little control of the colony and desperately wanting troops for the Italian front, signed the modus vivendi of Acroma. It agreed a truce between the Senussi and the colonial powers and granted autonomy to the Senussi in exchange for disbanding their armies.^[5]

In Tripolitania, meanwhile, local leaders including Ramadan Asswehly, Sulayman al-Baruni, and Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam founded the Tripolitanian Republic in 1918, the first

The modus vivendi of Acroma marked the start of a period of conciliatory policy towards the Libyans, and several agreements were made that (on paper) granted significant concessions and representation to the population of Libya. This 'period of agreements' would last until the Fascist seizure of power in the 1922 March on Rome. Following a

In 1918, Tripolitanian rebels founded the Tripolitanian Republic, though the rest of the country remained under nominal Italian rule.^[6]

• Wilcox, Vanda (2021). The Italian Empire and the Great War. Oxford ; New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-882294-3. OCLC 1240305209.
• Baldinetti, Anna (2013). The Origins of the Libyan Nation. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-84562-5.