British Somaliland

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The British Somaliland was a British protectorate in the north part of the Horn of Africa, and later part of Somalia and presently the unrecognized Republic of Somaliland.

Egypt dominated the area in the 1870s, but withdrew in 1884, upon which the British established a protectorate and garrisoned it from Aden. The protectorate was administered from British India until 1898, then by the Foreign Office, and after 1905 the Colonial Office.

During the East African Campaign, the protectorate was "occupied by Italy" in August 1940, but recaptured by the British in March 1941.

The protecorate gained independence as the State of Somaliland on 26 June 1960. Days later, as a referendum indicated support for unification with Italian Somaliland, it joined with that territory to form a new Somali Republic (Somalia) on 1 July 1960.

After the breakdown of Somalia's central government in 1991, the former area of British Somaliland declared independence in May 1991 as the Republic of Somaliland which regards itself as a successor to the briefly independent State of Somaliland.