Page 369 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo II

1009
ActA
“Senussism is synonym of war to Western civilization, therefore systematic and unconditional opposi-
tion to Western people and their forms of progress.” 23
Without knowing it, L’Unità and La Voce point out one of the biggest issues Italian
colonization has to face, without any solution till the Fascist campaigns in Africa.
L’Unità asks which custom tax should be set in the new colony, and, of course, fights
for a Liberist one. The magazine points out the advantage of Italy, which could learn
from the experiences of other countries, by introducing immediately the “porta aperta”
(open door) economic regime in Libya:
”In France it is being discussed a reform of the catastrophic customs tax started in 1892. In Italy we are
in time for using other people’s experience, by avoiding the mistake and starting from the point to which
now France has to come back, if she wants to get again in good direction.” 24
L’Unità’s editorial efforts are collected in April 1914 in the volume Come siamo an-
dati in Libia, edited by G. Salvemini and printed by the Libreria della Voce: in his items
the director of the magazine deals with the geopolitical problems of the Libyan con-
quest. According to him, the war is wanted by the Italian government before the expire
of the Dreibund Pact (1913), in order to renegotiate with Austria-Hungary and Germany
or, eventually, to get closer to France and England:
“ […] the government wished to close this episode [the Italo-Turkish War] of our foreign policy before
the expire of the Dreibund Pact, in order to be free in choosing its future orientations. Everything makes us
believe that the government at the beginning of December 1911 didn’t want to commit itself to the Entente
nor to the Central Empires.” 25
G. Salvemini carefully analyzes the events that forerun and follow the war, con-
necting it with Italian foreign policy and European foreign policy: the naval pact be-
tween Italy, France and England (in 1900 and 1902), “price of Italian unfaithfulness to
Germany” , as a result of the weakness of the Dreibund Pact, leads to the awakening
26
of Italian interest in Africa, by intercepting any German wish to get strongholds in the
Mediterranean Sea:
“Sooner or later somebody had to occupy Libya, and in Italy it was a universally accepted dogma that
any occupation by another country would have resulted into a disaster for us, and therefore Libya had to be

23 U. Sabetta. 1912. “Inghilterra e Cirenaica II”. La Voce n° 47, 21 Nov.: “Senussismo è sinonimo di guerra alla
civiltà occidentale quindi sistematica ed incondizionata opposizione ai popoli occidentali ed alle loro forme
di progresso.”
24 A. De Viti De Marco. 1913. “Il regime doganale della Libia”. L’Unità n° 39, 26 Sep.: “In Francia è già
all’ordine del giorno la riforma del regime doganale coloniale inaugurato nel 1892, di cui si è fatto così
disastroso esperimento.
In Italia siamo in tempo di utilizzare l’altrui esperienza, per evitare l’errore e per cominciare dal punto, al
quale la Francia deve ora ritornare se vuole riprendere la buona rotta.”
25 U. Formentini, G. Salvemini. 1914. “L’impresa di Libia e la politica estera dell’Italia”. L’Unità n°12, 20
Mar.: “[…] il Governo si proponesse di chiudere quest’episodio [la Guerra di Libia] della nostra politica
estera prima della scadenza della Triplice, per avere le mani completamente libere nella scelta dei suoi futuri
orientamenti.
Tutto ci obbliga a ritenere che fino ai primi del dicembre del 1911 il nostro Governo cercasse di non
sbilanciarsi né verso la Triplice Intesa né verso il blocco austro-germanico.”
26 Idem: “ […] prezzo della infedeltà italiana verso la Germania.”