Stock Photo - Daring cavalry charge at Bengazi. The Italo Turkish War was launched by Italy against Turkey, with the aim of gaining Libya, in order to counterbalance French conquests in North Africa. Part of the general feeding frenzy that surrounded the decline of the Ottoman Empire ('The Sick Man of Europe'). Italy declared war on 29 September 1911, and after preliminary naval bombardments, an Italian naval forces occupied Tobruk (4th October) and Tripoli (5th October). The army, under General Carlo Caneva, took over the occupation on 11th October, and promptly stalled under a combination of skilful Turkish religious propaganda amongst the local population and the caution of Caneva. It was only the next summer, starting in July 1912, that the Italians advanced out of their coastal strongholds, slowly forcing the Turks back, and winning several victories over them. However, it was the threatened outbreak of the First Balkan War that forced Turkey to make peace, and by the Treaty of Ouchy (15th October 1912), Turkey ceded Libya, Rhodes and the Dodecanese islands to Italy.