Italian East Africa

Italian East Africa
Africa Orientale Italiana
Colony of the Kingdom of Italy
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1936–1941 ↓
Flag Royal Coat of arms
Motto
Foedere et Religione Tenemur
"We are held together by Pact and by Religion"
Anthem
None
Royal anthem
Marcia Reale d'Ordinanza
"Royal March of Ordinance"
Green: Italian East Africa (1936)
(White lines designate territorial divisions)
Light Green: Absorbed in 1940
Dark gray: Other Italian possessions and occupied territory
Darkest gray: Kingdom of Italy
Capital Addis Ababa
Language(s) Italian, Amharic, Somali
Political structure Colony
Emperor
 - 1936–1941 Victor Emmanuel III
Viceroy1
 - 1936 Pietro Badoglio
 - 1936–1937 Rodolfo Graziani
 - 1937–1941 Amedeo Umberto
 - 1941 Pietro Gazzera
 - 1941 Guglielmo Nasi
Historical era Interwar Period / WWII
 - Established 09 May 1936
 - Disestablished 27 November 1941
Area
 - 1936 1,750,000 km2(675,679 sq mi)
Population
 - 1936 est. 10,000,000 
     Density 5.7 /km2  (14.8 /sq mi)
Currency Italian East African lira
Preceded by 		Succeeded by
Italian Eritrea
Italian Somaliland
Ethiopian Empire
British Somaliland
Trust Territory of Somalia
Eritrea
British Somaliland
Ethiopian Empire
French Somaliland
Today part of  Ethiopia
 Djibouti
 Somalia
 Eritrea
1: Viceroy and Governor-General.

Italian East Africa (Italian: Africa Orientale Italiana, or AOI) was an Italian colonial administrative subdivision established in 1936, resulting from the merger of the Ethiopian Empire (recently conquered after the Second Italo-Ethiopian War) with the old colonies of Italian Somaliland and Italian Eritrea. In August 1940, British Somaliland was conquered and annexed to Italian East Africa. Italian East Africa was eventually disestablished as a consequence of the events of World War II.

Territory

The six governatories of Italian East Africa.

In 1936, Italian East Africa covered Italian Eritrea, the just conquered Ethiopia and the former Italian Somaliland. The colony was divided into the six governorates of Italian East Africa: Italian Eritrea and Italian Somaliland, plus four provinces of Ethiopia (Amhara, Galla-Sidamo, Scioa, Harar) each run by an Italian governor. Each governor was answerable to the Italian viceroy, who represented the Emperor Victor Emmanuel III.

Italian East Africa briefly enlarged in 1940, as Italian forces conquered British Somaliland, thereby creating a single Somali provincial entity within Italian control, though this and the colony was broken apart one year later as Italian East Africa was occupied by British forces.

In the course of the British and Ethiopian-led East African Campaign (June 1940-November 1941), Italian East Africa was conquered and dismembered. The other Italian colony in Africa was Italian North Africa (Africa Settentrionale Italiana, or ASI).

History

The dominion was formed in 1936 during Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini's government in Italy with the defeat of Haile Selassie's Ethiopia in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War.

Rule in Italian East Africa was harsh for the native peoples, especially towards Ethiopians as Fascist policy sought to integrate their culture into the Italian Empire. Eritreans integrated very well.[citation needed] But Ethiopians opposed strongly: in February 1937, following an assassination attempt on Italian East Africa's Viceroy Rodolfo Graziani, Graziani ordered Italian soldiers to raid the famous Ethiopian monastery Debre Libanos where the would-be assassins had briefly taken refuge and had the monks and nuns in the monastery executed.[1] Afterwards, Italian soldiers destroyed native settlements in Addis Ababa, which resulted in 30,000 Ethiopians being killed and their homes left burned to the ground.[1][2]

Fascist colonial policy in the AOI had a divide and conquer characteristic. In order to weaken the Orthodox Christian Amhara people who had run Ethiopia in the past, territory claimed by Eritrean Tigray-Tigrinyas and Somalis was given to the Eritrea Governorate and Somalia Governorate.,[1] Reconstruction efforts after the war in 1936, were partially focused on benefiting the Muslim peoples in the AOI at the expense of the Amhara to strengthen support by Muslims for the Italian colony.[1]

Italy's Fascist regime encouraged Italian peasants to colonize the AOI by creating agriculture and small industries there.[1] However few Italians came to the colony, most to Eritrea. By 1940 only 3200 farmers had arrived to Ethiopia, less than ten percent of the Fascist regime's goal.[3]

Continued insurgency by native Ethiopians, lack of resources, rough terrain, and uncertainty of political and military conditions discouraged development and settlement in the countryside[3] But Italian Eritrea enjoyed a huge development, supported by nearly 80,000 Italian colonists.[4]

The colony proved to be extremely expensive to maintain, the AOI's budget in 1936-37 requested from Italy 19.136 billion lire to create the necessary infrastructure for the colony due to the constant attacks by Ethiopian patriot fighters.[1] At the time Italy's entire revenue that year was only 18.581 billion lire.[1]

There was an urbanistic project for the enlargement of Addis Ababa, in order to become the state-of-the-art capital of the Africa Orientale italiana, but these architectural plans -like all the other developments- were stopped by World War II.[5]

East Africa Campaign northern front: Allied advances in 1941

In 1940, the adjacent protectorate of British Somaliland was occupied by Italian forces and absorbed into Italian East Africa. The conquest was the only victory of Italy without reinforcement from German troops during World War II against the Allies. This occupation lasted around one year.

Governor-Generals of Italian East Africa

Italian East Africa 100 £ note.
Main article: List of colonial heads of Italian East Africa

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Cannistraro, p. 5
  2. ^ Sarti, p. 191
  3. ^ a b Cannistraro, p. 6
  4. ^ Italian industries and companies in Eritrea
  5. ^ Addis Abeba 1939 Urbanistic and Architectural Plan

Bibliography

See also

External links


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