Thursday 30 June 2011

fairy tales told to illiterates

FIXED BAYONET SOLDIERS ALWAYS ON SALETHE WAR IN LIBYA


tEven after Adua the idea of a colonial empire still lingered. The disaster of Adua had left the memory of most and in 1911 the Italians had got round to thinking about a new enterprise .The so called promised land of LIBYA WAS A COUNTRY unknown to the Italian people, totally unknown.
Unknown before the war of unification and unknown afterwards. It remained like that up until the 1880's.
The Fathers of Italian unification , the so called liberals, the so called dreamers of freedom had in fact had their eyes on Libya even before the war of Liberation none more so than Mazzini.
Cesare Balbo said that after unification Italy would have to go east.

“It will be Tunis or Tripoli or some places in the Orient”Said Balbo.

For ordinary Italians these places meant nothing.Tripoli was totally unimportant ,much more important wasTunis.

Libya wasn't even a place where Victorian explorers went.From 1811 until 1875 only four Italians had been to Libya.

Anyway the Italians had the chaos of Italy to sort out after the wars of unification.Italy as regards its new government was unwilling to start a colonial adventure but the Suez canal made them sit up and think.The shorter journey to the East gave Italy the idea that they would be an important intermediary for Europe. It was a illusion but then in those years  it created hopes.
lancer of florence in libya
These places now nearer to Italy were considered natural colonies.Italy liked the idea of Tunisia but that country was suddenly invaded by France.Of all the people who stood up to defend what was the meaning of Italian liberation against the Austrians one was Mussolini. But the dream of freedom and liberty was dead.

At the start of 1911 Italy was at war with Turkey. The masses were in favour.Propaganda had done great work in a country where the people were still illiterate (now they are semi-illiterate).

The Italian nationalist party or group  wanted war at all costs and wanted someone elses country.

Italy had gained nothing from its liberation, it was morally bankrupt and whole regions suffered near famine.The newspaper “L'Idea Nazionale” put forward the idea that Libya would give Italy riches and breathing space. This newspaper was set up by the Nationalist party.It was purely propagandistic and its founders wanted a war at all costs.

They fantasized about Libyan resources, things that just didn't exist. Francesco Crespi was its leader.









Another ridiculous idea of these Nationalists was whoever ruled in the port of Tobruk then they would be masters of the area and the sea. They also said that Libya was not a nation and had no real Libyan population. This is the same reasoning as the Zionists in Israel as regards the land they stole from the Palestinians.Another idea was that Italy could get rid of its starving peasants (nearly all the country was on the level of the medieval peasant) by sending them to Libya where in reality they would find just desert.askari italian colonial trops . all figures by mma. Great figures from this company .Check out Steel Models
The dream of Garibaldi had died.

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