Italian Colonial Empire

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The Italian Colonial Empire in 1939 (olive), territories occupied during World War II (orange)

The Italian colonial empire was created after the Kingdom of Italy joined other European powers in establishing colonies overseas during the "scramble for Africa". Italy as a unified state had only existed since 1861, by which time Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Britain, and France had already carved out large empires over several hundred years, and one of the last remaining areas open to colonisation was on the African continent. By the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Italy had annexed Eritrea and Somalia, and had wrested control of portions of the Ottoman Empire, including Libya, though it was defeated in its attempt to conquer Ethiopia. The Fascist government under Italian dictator Benito Mussolini which came to power in 1922 sought to increase the size of the empire further, which it did so via force or threat of force. Ethiopia was successfully taken, four decades after the previous failure, and Italy's European borders were expanded at the expense of its neighbours. Italy sided with Nazi Germany during World War II and initially enjoyed successes. However, Allied forces eventually captured Italian overseas colonies and by the time Italy itself was invaded in 1943, its empire had all but ceased to exist.

[edit] Birth of a Nation and Scramble for an Empire (1861-1914)

Francesco Crispi, Italian Prime Minister and advocate of the annexation of Abyssinia.

The unification of Italy in 1861 brought with it a belief that Italy deserved its own overseas empire, alongside those of the other powers of Europe, and a rekindling of the notion of mare nostrum.^[1] However, Italy had arrived last to the colonial race, and its weakness in international affairs meant that it was dependent on the acquiescence of Britain, France and Germany towards its empire-building.^[2]

Italy had long considered the Ottoman province of Tunisia, where a large community of Italians lived, within its economic sphere of influence. It did not consider annexing it until 1879 when it became apparent that Britain and Germany were encouraging France to add it to its colonial holdings in North Africa.^[3] A last minute offer by Italy to partition Tunisia between the two countries was refused, and France, confident in German support, ordered its troops in from French Algeria, imposing a protectorate over Tunisia in May 1881 under the Treaty of Bardo.^[4] The shock of the "Tunisian bombshell", as it was referred to in the Italian press, and the sense of Italy's isolation in Europe, led it into signing the Triple Alliance in 1882 with Germany and Austro-Hungary.^[5]

Italy's search for colonies continued until February 1885, when by secret agreement with Britain it annexed the port of Massawa on the Red Sea from the crumbling Egyptian Empire, denying the Emperor Yohannes an outlet to the sea for his Abyssinian Empire,^[6] and preventing any expansion of French Somaliland.^[7] At the same time, Italy occupied territory in the south of the horn of Africa, forming what would become Italian Somaliland.^[8] However, Italy coveted Ethiopia itself, and in 1887, Italian Prime Minister Agostino Depretis ordered an invasion, which was halted after the loss of five hundred Italian troops at the Battle of Dogali.^[9] Depretis's successor, Francesco Crispi signed the Treaty of Wuchale in 1889 with Menelik II, the new emperor, which ceded Ethiopian territory around Massawa to Italy to form the colony of Eritrea, and - at least, according to the Italian version of the treaty - made Ethiopia an Italian protectorate.^[10]

Relations between Italy and Menelik deteriorated over the next few years until the First Italo-Abyssinian War broke out in 1895 after Crispi ordered Italian troops into the country. Outnumbered and poorly equipped^[11], the result was a humiliating defeat for Italy at the hands of Ethiopian forces at the Battle of Adwa in 1896, the first defeat by an indigenous people of a colonial power^[12], and a major blow to the Italian empire in East Africa, as well as to Italian prestige.

On 7 September 1901, a concession in Tientsin was ceded to the Kingdom of Italy by Imperial China. It was administered by Rome's Consul. Several ships of the Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina) were based at Tietsin.^{[citation needed]}

A wave of nationalism that swept Italy at the turn of the twentieth century led to the founding of the Italian Nationalist Association, which pressed for the expansion of Italy's empire. Newspapers were filled with talk of revenge for the humiliations suffered in Ethiopia at the end of the previous century, and of nostalgia for the Roman era. Libya, it was suggested, as an ex-Roman colony, should be "taken back" to provide a solution to the problems of south Italy's population growth. Fearful of being excluded altogether from North Africa by Britain and France, and mindful of public opinion, Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti ordered the declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire, of which Libya was part, in October 1911.^[13] As a result of the Italo-Turkish War Italy gained Libya and the Dodecanese Islands.

Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando (second from left) with the leaders of Britain, France and the USA at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.

[edit] World War I and its aftermath (1914-1922)

In 1915, Italy agreed to enter World War I on the side of Britain and France, and in return was guaranteed territory at the Treaty of London, both in Europe and, should Britain and France gain Germany's African possessions, in Africa.^[14] However, at the concluding Treaty of Versailles in 1919, Italy received far less in Europe than had been promised, and none overseas. In April 1920, it was agreed between the British and Italian foreign ministers that Jubaland would be Italy's compensation, but Britain held back on the deal for several years, aiming to use it as leverage to force Italy to cede the Dodecanese to Greece.^[15]

[edit] Fascism and the "Italian Empire" (1922-1940)

Benito Mussolini, whose fascist policies sought the expansion of Italian territories, but he ultimately led Italy to defeat during World War II.

In 1922, the leader of the Italian fascist movement, Benito Mussolini, became Prime Minister of Italy after a coup d'état. Mussolini resolved the question of Dodecanese sovereignty at the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which formalized Italian administration of both Libya and the Dodecanese Islands, in return for a payment to Turkey, the successor state to the Ottoman Empire, though he failed in an attempt to extract a mandate of a portion of Iraq from Britain.

The month following the ratification of the Lausanne treaty, Mussolini ordered the invasion of the Greek island of Corfu after the murder of an Italian general there. The Italian press supported the move, noting that Corfu had been a possession of the Republic of Venice for four hundred years.^[16] Though the matter was taken by Greece to the League of Nations, Mussolini successsfully resisted its pressure, and it was only the threat of war with Britain that convinced him to evacuate Italian troops,^[17] in return for reparations from Greece. The confrontation over Corfu, and Italy's obvious determination never to give up Dodecanese sovereignty, led Britain and Italy to resolve the question of Jubaland in 1924: it was merged into Italian Somaliland.^[18]

In 1935, the Second Italo-Abyssinian War occurred in which Italy captured Ethiopia in 1936, and merged Italian Eritrea, Italian Somalia and newly captured Ethiopia into Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana, A.O.I.). The invasion had the tacit approval of France and Great Britain, who did not wish to alienate Italy as a potential ally against Nazi Germany.^{[citation needed]} Victory was announced on 9 May 1936, and Mussolini declared the creation of the "Italian Empire".^[19] Mussolini dreamed of sending millions of Italian settlers to Italian East Africa, and Italians had high hopes of turning the area into an economic asset.^{[citation needed]} However, by overrunning Ethiopia, a member of the League of Nations, Italy attracted widespread international hostility.^{[citation needed]}

During the 1930s, emigration to the colonies was encouraged due to a belief that Italy was suffering from "excess population". Most went to Libya which by 1938 contained 89,098 Italians, primarily concentrated in the coastal cities of Tripoli and Benghazi. The coastline of Libya was referred to as Italy's "Fourth Shore" (in Italian: quarta sponda). According to the 1931 census, there were 4,188 Italians in Eritrea and 1,631 in Italian Somaliland.^[20]

In 1939, Italy invaded and captured Albania and made it a protectorate. The region of modern-day Albania had been an early part of the Roman Empire, which had actually been held before northern parts of Italy had been taken by the Romans, but had long since been populated by Albanians, even though Italy had retained strong links with the Albanian leadership and considered it firmly within its sphere of influence.^[21] It is possible the Italian dictator simply wanted a spectacular success over a smaller neighbour to match Germany's absorption of Austria and Czechoslovakia.^[22] Italian King Victor Emmanuel III took the Albanian crown, and a fascist government under Shefqet Verlaci was established.

[edit] World War II (1940-1943)

Main article: Military history of Italy during World War II

Mussolini entered World War II on Hitler's side with plans to enlarge Italy's territorial holdings: he had designs on an area of southern France, Corsica, Malta, Tunisia, part of Algeria, an Atlantic port in Morocco, French Somaliland and British Egypt and Sudan.^[23]

The Italian Army.

On June 10, 1940, Mussolini declared war on Britain and France, which had been at war with Nazi Germany since the prior year. Mussolini's troops invaded southern France, but an armistice was soon signed between France and Germany, and Italian troops pressed no further than a few miles into France. Two days later, a separate agreement between France and Italy ceded Nice and parts of the Savoy to Italy.^[24] In October that year, keen to emulate the successes that Hitler was enjoying, Mussolini ordered the invasion of Greece, but the invasion faltered, and the Italians were pushed back into Albania.^[25].

Germany and Italy launched a joint attack on Greece and Yugoslavia in April 1941. Despite British support, the German and Italian armies overran Yugoslavia and Greece by the end of April. During the height of The Battle of Britain, the Italians launched an attack on Egypt in hope of capturing the Suez Canal, and advanced 60 miles across the border. However, the British launched Operation Compass and the Italians were forced to retreat deep back into Libya. ^[26].

The East African Campaign started with Italian advances into British-held Kenya, British Somaliland, and the Sudan. In the summer of 1940, Italian armed forces successfully invaded all of British Somaliland. ^[27] But, by the end of 1941, the British had counter-attacked and all organized military resistance in Italian East Africa had ceased. On 5 May, Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia had returned to Addis Ababa to reclaim his throne. The last organised Italian resistance did not end until November 1941.^[28]

[edit] End of Empire (1943-1960)

By the fall of 1943, the Italian Empire effectively came to an end. On May 7, the surrender of Axis forces in Tunisia and other near continuous Italian reversals, led King Victor Emmanuel III to plan the removal of Mussolini. On July 24, at a meeting of the Grand Council of Fascism, Mussolini was deposed by the King and Dino Grandi. Afterwards Mussolini was arrested.

Outwardly, the new Italian government under the King and Field Marshal Pietro Badoglio remained part of the Axis. But secretly it started negotiations with the Allies. On the eve of the American landings at Salerno which started the Allied invasion of Italy, the new Italian government secretly signed an armistice with the Allies. On September 8, the armistice was made public. In Albania, the Dodecanese, and other territories still held by the Italians, German military forces successfully attacked their erstwhile Italian allies and ended Italy's rule. Some Italian troops in the Balkans chose to join the resistance fighting against the Germans there. During the Dodecanese Campaign, an Allied attempt to take the Dodecanese with the cooperation of the Italian troops ended in total German victory.

In 1947, the Republic of Italy formally lost all her overseas possessions as a result of the Treaty of Peace with Italy. In November of 1949, Italian Somaliland was made a United Nations Trust Territory under Italian administration. This lasted until July 1, 1960, when Italian Somaliland was granted its independence along with British Somaliland to form the Somali Republic.

[edit] See also

• Mare Nostrum
• Greater Italia
• Albania under Italy
• Dodecanese Campaign
• Italian East Africa and List of colonial heads of Italian East Africa
• Axis occupation of Greece during World War II
• History of Libya as Italian Colony
• Concessions in Tietsin

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Betts, Raymond (1975). The False Dawn: European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century. 
• Calvocoressi, Peter (1999). The Penguin History of the Second World War. Penguin. 
• Howard, Michael (1998). The Oxford History of the Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press. 
• Fry, Michael (2002). Guide to International Relations and Diplomacy. Continuum International Publishing Group. 
• Killinger, Charles (2002). The History of Italy. Greenwood Press. 
• Lowe, C.J. (2002). Italian Foreign Policy 1870-1940. Routledge. 
• Packenham, Thomas (1992). The Scramble for Africa: White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912. Harper Collins. 
• Dickson, Keith (2001). World War II For Dummies. 

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Speech of the proclamation of the empire, 9 May 1936