Italian immigrant women atEllis Island. In 1913 872,598 Italians left the country of which 376,776 migrated to the United States.
TheFirst Balkan War (October 1912 – May 1913) of theBalkan League (Bulgaria,Serbia,Greece andMontenegro) against theOttoman Empire. As a result of the war, the allies captured and partitioned almost all remaining European territories of the Ottoman Empire. Ensuing events also led to the creation of an independentAlbanian state. Despite its success, Bulgaria was dissatisfied over the division of the spoils in Macedonia, which provoked the start of theSecond Balkan War (June–August 1913). After the withdrawal of the Ottoman army fromLibya after theItalo-Turkish War the Italians could easily extend their occupation of the country, seizing East Tripolitania,Ghadames, the Djebel andFezzan withMurzuk during 1913.[1]
May 16 – At Sidi Garba inTripolitania, 1,000 Italian soldiers were killed or wounded in fighting with the Libyan natives. After forcing a group of Libyans to retreat, the men rested and were surrounded and attacked. General Ganbretti would later describe the loss as "the bloodiest day in the whole Italo-Turkish War".[4]
August 9 – A diplomat fromAustria-Hungary told representatives from Italy and Germany that his Empire intended to plan an invasion ofSerbia. The private discussion would be revealed on December 5, 1914, by Italian Prime MinisterGiovanni Giolitti, who said that Italy refused to participate.[6] Austria-Hungary and Italy strongly opposed the arrival of Serbian army on theAdriatic Sea because they perceived it as a threat to their domination of the Adriatic and feared that Serbian Adriatic port could become aRussian base.[7]
August 11 – The London ambassadors conference, of Europe's six "Great Powers" (Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the United Kingdom), settled on the boundaries of the newPrincipality of Albania, created from former Turkish territory by the Balkan League during theFirst Balkan War.
October 26 – First round ofItalian general election. Changes in the electoral law made in 1912 widened the voting franchise to include all literate men aged 21 or over who had served in the armed forces. For those over 30 the literacy requirement was abolished.[8] This raised the number of eligible voters from 2,930,473 in1909 to 8,443,205.[9] Due to theGentiloni pact, a secret deal in the run-up to the 1913 general election between Prime MinisterGiovanni Giolitti andOttorino Gentiloni, the president of theCatholic Electoral Union, Catholic voters supported Giolitti's Liberal candidates in return for support for Catholic policies, especially funding of Catholic private schools and opposition to a law permitting divorce.[10][11] It was estimated that over 200 deputies were elected through the Pact, sufficient to provide a majority for Giolitti.[10][12]
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