THE REOCCUPATION OF NORTHERN AFRICA 343 
gressive, and incompetent. During the administration of 
Marshal Redjet Pasha, Minister of War under the Young 
Turk régime from 1898 to 1908, some progress was made. 
But, with the exception of sanitary reforms in the sea- 
ports and improvements in the methods of taxation, his 
efforts were mainly directed to the reorganization of the 
military forces. Being suspicious of the growing interests 
of Italy in Tripoli, he increased the Turkish garrison to some 
20,000 men, constructed forts at Ghadames, Ghat, and 
Murzuk, and attempted to raise some 12,000 native troops 
by compulsory military service. But in spite of all these 
efforts, the Turkish military contingent never passed be- 
yond the stage of service represented by the protection of 
caravans and the collection of tribute. This policy was 
continued by Ibrahim Pasha, who ruled the country two 
years from the middle of 1910, and who substituted enlist- 
ment by lot for compulsory military service. In addition, 
he united the various native elements and rallied them to 
his support by a firm administration and the organization 
of a system of public relief during the famine of the year 
1911. 
Ever since the occupation of Egypt by England, and that 
of Tunis by France in 1881, Italy had kept an anxious eye 
upon Tripoli. While other powers were marking out vast 
colonial empires for themselves in Africa, she had to content 
herself with the two insignificant and barren tracts of 
Eritrea and Somaliland. At length nothing remained un- 
occupied, outside of Abyssinia and Liberia, whose in- 
tegrity is guaranteed by the powers, except Morocco and 
Tripoli; while the events of 1910-11 indicated clearly that 
Morocco would soon pass under the direct control of France. 
As a Mediterranean and a naval power, it is a matter of 
considerable economic importance and genuine national 
pride that Italy should share in the partition of the African