| Trust Territory of Somalia Amministrazione Fiduciaria della Somalia |
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| United Nations Trust Territory | |||||
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| Trust Territory of Somalia | |||||
| Capital | Mogadiscio | ||||
| Religion | Islam | ||||
| Political structure | United Nations Trust Territory | ||||
| Historical era | Cold war | ||||
| - Established | November 1949 | ||||
| - Independence | July 1, 1960 | ||||
| Currency | Italian lira | ||||
The Trust Territory of Somalia (long form: Trust Territory of Somaliland under Italian administration) was a United Nations Trust Territory inside the territory of modern-day Somalia. It was administered by Italy from 1949 to 1960, following the dissolution of the former Italian Somaliland.
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In 1941, Italian Somaliland was occupied by British and South African troops as part of the East African Campaign of World War II. The British continued to administer the area until November 1949, when Italian Somaliland was made a Trust Territory by the United Nations, under Italian administration.
During the 1950s, with UN aid money pouring in and the presence of experienced Italian administrators who had come to see the region as their home, infrastructural and educational development blossomed in the region. The decade passed relatively without incident, and was marked by positive growth in virtually all aspects of local life.
The conditional return of Italian administration to southern Somalia gave the new trust territory several unique advantages compared with other African colonies. To the extent that Italy held the territory by UN mandate, the trusteeship provisions gave the Somalis the opportunity to gain experience in political education and self-government. These were advantages that British Somaliland, which was to be incorporated into the new Somali state, did not have. Although in the 1950s British colonial officials attempted, through various development efforts, to make up for past neglect, the protectorate stagnated. The disparity between the two territories in economic development and political experience would cause serious difficulties when it came time to integrate the two parts.[1]
Italian was an official language in Italian Somaliland during the Fiduciary Mandate as well as the first years of independence. In 1954, the Italian government established post-secondary institutions of law, economics and social studies in Mogadishu, the territory's capital. These institutions were satellites of the University of Rome, which provided all the instruction material, faculty and administration.
In 1960, the Trust Territory of Somalia (the former Italian Somaliland) became independent, following in the footsteps of the briefly extant State of Somaliland (the former British Somaliland) which had gained indepence five days earlier, with Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal as Prime Minister on June 26, 1960.[2] On July 1, 1960, the two territories united as planned to form the Somali Republic.[3][4] A new government was formed with Haji Bashir Ismail Yusuf as the first President of the Somali National Assembly, Abdullahi Issa as Prime Minister, Aden Abdullah Osman Daar as President and Abdirashid Ali Shermarke as Prime Minister, later to become President (from 1967–1969). On July 20, 1961 and through a popular referendum, the Somali people ratified a new constitution, which was first drafted in 1960.[5]