The Turco-Italian War - Part 1 - Introduction

'The Greatest War’ offers podcast lectures on topics covered in my books, already published and still forthcoming, on the history of the Great War, a.k.a. the First World War. These lectures provide geopolitical and military analyses of various episodes of the 'Greater Great War' in its widest sense, i.e. not only the conflict as formally defined by the four years’ war between the Great Powers waged, mainly in Europe, between August 1914 and November 1918, but also its prelude and aftermath, including the smaller wars fought before and after it, covering the twelve years between September 1911 and June 1923. These presentations, which tend to focus on the nowadays ideologically-distorted and much-neglected disciplines of diplomatic military history, will provide up-to-date topic-by-topic summaries based on both source materials and secondary literature. Although given in chronological order, these lectures will confine themselves to analyses of rather narrowly defined topics, allowing listeners to pick and choose episodes without being obliged to listen to all.The first three episodes of 'The Greatest War' start with a short general introduction to this new podcast series, explaining how the Turco-Italian War of 1911-12 effectively constitutes the first round of twelve-year long 'Greater Great War', the most intensive phase of which was the First World War. These three episodes highlight how the Turco-Italian War foreshadowed and shaped the First World War in many different ways: geopolitically, strategically, tactically and technically. The course and outcome of the much neglected Turco-Italian War are here analyzed in military as well as geopolitical terms – and shown to retain their relevance in contemporary international relations. Episode 1: This first episode starts with a short general introduction to my new podcast series ‘The Greatest War’, contextualizing the Turco-Italian War of 1911-12 as the first round of a single, twelve year-long global conflict, the most intensive phase of which was the First World War. This episode outlines the historical background, the diplomatic backdrop, the geographical setting and the military forces of the Turco-Italian War.