Italian Libya Italian Libya Italian Libya (; , ) was a colony of the Kingdom of Italy located in North Africa, in what is now modern Libya. Italian Libya was formed from the Italian colonies of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania that were taken by the Kingdom of Italy from the Ottoman Empire in 1911, during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911 to 1912. The unified colony was established in 1934 by governor Italo Balbo, with Tripoli as the capital. The territory of Italian Libya was also called Italian North Africa ("Africa Settentrionale Italiana", or ASI), both before and after its unification. Since 1923, indigenous
Italian ironclad Formidabile December 1860, originally ordered by the Navy of the Kingdom of Sardinia. She was launched on 1 October 1861 and was completed in May 1862; by this time, the Sardinian fleet had been reformed as the "Regia Marina" (Royal Navy) of the newly unified Kingdom of Italy. In June 1866, Italy declared war on Austria, as part of the Third Italian War of Independence, which was fought concurrently with the Austro-Prussian War. The Italian fleet commander, Admiral Carlo Pellion di Persano, initially adopted a cautious course of action; he was unwilling to risk battle with the Austrian Navy, despite the