Luigi Mercatelli (21 October 1853 – 4 April 1922) was an Italian politician, attorney and diplomatic.[1]

Luigi Mercatelli
Italian Commissioner-General of Somaliland
In office
16 March 1905 – 1906
Preceded byGiorgio Sorrentino (commissioner)
Succeeded byGiuseppe Salvago Raggi
Italian Governor of Tripolitana
In office
6 July 1920 – July 1921
Preceded byVittorio Menzinger
Succeeded byGiuseppe Volpi
Personal details
Born21 October 1853
Alfonsine
Died4 April 1922(1922-04-04) (aged 68)
Rio de Janeiro
NationalityItalian

Biography edit

Luigi Mercatelli was born in Alfonsine (near Ravenna, Italy) in 1853. Graduated as lawyer in Ferrara, showed since young sympathies for the development of Italian colonialism. He was friend of Giovanni Pascoli and wrote for the newspapers "Il Corriere di Napoli" and Il Mattino of Napoli. Mercatelli participated in the Eritrea conquest in the 1890s, supporting the colonialism of Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti.

He was initially named "Consul of Italy in Zanzibar in 1903 and the Commissioner-general of Italian Somaliland (1905–1906). After World War I was named Governor of Italian Tripolitania (1920–1921).

He was the Italian ambassador in Rio de Janeiro when he died in 1922.

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