Mussolini would enter World War II as an Axis power, aligning himself
with Hitler's Germany. His primary goal was more land and more colonies,
and his eye was on all of North Africa. However, Italy would suffer a
defeat just three years after its 1940 declarations of war against Great
Britain and France, which would result in the death of Mussolini, the
collapse of fascismo, and the end of the dream of a new Roman Empire.
Italian flag captured in East Africa
In September 1940, the Italians invaded Egypt in an attempt to seize the
Suez Canal from the British and French. Italy's holdings in Libya were
essential to the invasion, as Italian armor emerged from untouchable
bases in the territory. However, the invasion would falter; while
Italian vehicles and weapons were effective against the less heavily
armed Ethiopians, overcoming British weaponry was a considerable
challenge. The Brits were able to punch through Libya, but an impatient
Mussolini directed his men to continue forward into Egypt. The Italians
were stopped before they could reach the main British defenses around
the Suez, and the invading force was destroyed. Mussolini pulled his men
to assist with the invasion of Greece, and the British continued to
take parts of Libya.
However, the effort to strip Libya from the Italians failed when German
armor under the command of Erwin Rommel repelled the British, driving
them back into Egypt. At the same time, the war was taken to East
Africa, where Mussolini wanted to claim the rest of British Somaliland
and move into Sudan and Kenya. The Italians were successful in occupying
British Somaliland; this was short-lived, as the British managed to
reverse the fighting and drive the Italians back. Emperor Halie Selassie
I of Ethiopia returned to his throne, after having been in refuge, and
for several years, his forces engaged the remaining Italian soldiers.
The return of Haile Selassie
By 1943, the Italian war effort collapsed. East African forces had been
contained by the British and a combined Allied offensive had driven the
Italians back into Tunisia after the Nazi-assisted campaign back into
Egypt. The invasion of Italy by the Allies led to the arrest of
Mussolini, and the Italian government began peace proceedings. The
Italian Republic was formed following the war, and as a condition of
peace, Italy was made to renounce its claims on all of its African
colonies. Italian Somaliland was maintained as an administrative
territory, although it was to renounce that territory as well within a
decade. In 1960, independence was granted, and the former Italian
Somaliland fused with the former British Somaliland to become Somalia.
There is plenty of material online about the Italian campaigns in North
and East Africa. Below is footage of combat between Italian and British
forces in Libya in 1942.
On 5 May 1941, exactly five years after Addis Ababa fell to Mussolini's
troops, Emperor Haile Selassie was reinstalled on the Ethiopian throne.
He reentered the city through streets lined with black and white African
soldiers, having fought his way back against a determined Italian army
with Major Orde Wingate's Gideon Force and his own Ethiopian 'Patriots.'
It was only five days after Italian forces under the command of
General Pietro Badoglio entered Addis Ababa back in 1936, at the end of
the 2nd Italo-Abyssinian War, that Mussolini declared the country part
of the Italian Empire. "It is a Fascist empire because it bears the
indestructible sign of the will and power of Rome." Abyssinia (as it was
known) was joined with Italian Eritrea and Italian Somaliland to form
the Africa Orientale Italiana (Italian East Africa, AOI). Haile Selassie
fled to Britain where he remained in exile until the second World War
gave him the opportunity to return to his people.
Haile Selassie had made an impassioned appeal to the League of Nations
on June 30, 1936, which gained great support with the United States and
Russia. However, many other League of Nations members, especially
Britain and France, continued to recognize the Italian possession of
Ethiopia.
The fact that the Allies ultimately fought hard to return independence
to Ethiopia was a significant step on the path to African independence.
That Italy, like Germany after World War I, had its African Empire taken
away, signaled a major change in European attitude towards the
continent.
July 23rd , 1892. This is the day Halie Selassie came unto the earth. He
was an extremely influential and well respected African dictator and
political force in 20th century Ethiopia.
Selassie was born Tafari
Makonnen in Harer, Ethiopia. He married Wayzaro Menen, daughter of
Emperor Menelik II, in 1911. By becoming prince (Ras), Selassie became
the focus of the Christian majority's approval over Menelik's grandson,
Lij Yasu, because of his progressive nature and his more reliable
political ideas. He was named regent and heir to the throne in 1917, and
traveled to such cities as Rome, Paris, and London to become the first
Ethiopian ruler to ever go abroad.
In November of 1930, Zaubitu died and Selassie was crowned emperor (the
111th emperor in the succession of King Solomon). Upon this occasion he
got rid of the name Tafari Makonnen and took Haile Selassie, meaning
"Might of the Trinity."
Selassie worked for economic and social reforms such as making slavery
punishable by law. He gave Ethiopia its first written constitution in
1931. When Ethiopia was attacked by Fascist Italy in 1935, he lived in
exile in England until 1941. During World War II, British forces
assisted in the liberation of Ethiopia and restored him to the throne.
Rebels seized the government on December 13, 1960, while he was in South
America, but he regained his throne four days later. He was a fairer
ruler than many of those around him. For example, as a young provincial
governor, he took only 50% of his peasant’s crops while other governors
were taking 90%, and in the 1950s as few as 100 political prisoners were
held captive in his jails at one time. Under Selassie, Ethiopia
received more US aid than any other African country, and Washington
purchased a $2 million yacht for the Emperor.
When Selassie faced an uprising in the province of Eritrea, the US sent
advisers and arms to help him smash the revolt. In return for American
support, Selassie provided the United States with a naval oasis in the
Red Sea and a place for a strategic communications station. Selassie's
kindness to his animals was his downfall; he was overthrown when photos
of him feeding his dogs during the 1973 famine were circulated among his
outraged troops. This group effectively removed Selassie's means of
governing, as they had complete military control. In July 1974, an
opposing government (Derg) demanded a new constitution when it was found
to be unsatisfactory to their "Ethiopia First" ideology. They
proceeded to undermine the emperor's authority, and enjoyed much public
support.
The emperor's estate and palace were nationalized and in August,
Selassie was directly accused of covering up famine in the early 1970s,
that killed hundreds of thousands of people. On September 12, he was
formally deposed and arrested and power was given to the Derg, formally
renamed the Provisional Military Administrative Council.
In August 1975, His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie died under
questionable circumstances while under house arrest, and was secretly
buried.
By the 1930s, Italian emigration into Italian Africa had begun.
Mussolini's goal was to become such a force in the Mediterranean as to
crowd out any influence by the British and French; to do this, he needed
British and French territory in Northern and Eastern Africa, and to
continue his assaults against sovereign African nations. Ethiopia,
dubbed Abyssinia by the Italians, was a key player in how that strategy
would unfold. After a failed incursion into Ethiopia in 1926, Italy and
Ethiopia had signed a treaty guaranteeing an alliance and close
cooperation between the nations; it also set strict borders between
Italian Somaliland and Ethiopia. In defiance of the treaty, the Italian
army built a fort within Ethiopian territory in 1930. For several years,
the friction between both sides would build.
Italian forces on the move into Ethiopia
1930 was also the year in which Haile Selassie I was coronated as
emperor of Ethiopia. He was an influential leader who introduced the
nation's first written constitution. Despite the incursions by
Mussolini's forces, Selassie maintained diplomacy until 1934. That year,
border tensions escalated to violence, which led to an all-out Italian
invasion the following year. The Italian aim was to depose Selassie and
capture Ethiopia, partly in response to Italy's loss in the First
Italo-Ethiopian War. In an effort to rally the populace against
Selassie, Italian General Emilio De Bono distributed propaganda leaflets
and freed Ethiopian slaves in the areas he conquered; the plan
backfired, as the freed slaves were agitated that they were now without
work and food.
Ethiopia did not stay on the defensive, but commenced its own
counteroffensive. The Christmas Offensive pit a legion of woefully
underarmed Ethiopians against an Italian tank column. The resolve of the
Ethiopian forces led to a tactical victory, diverting the Italian
invasion. It also resulted in the capture and murder of two Italian
pilots. This was countered by the use of mustard gas by the Italian Air
Force, which included the bombing of a Red Cross field hospital. The
continued employment of poison gas, used against both military and
civilian targets, demoralized the Ethiopians and allowed the Italian
General Pietro Badoglio to push into the capital, Addis Ababa.
Although Ethiopia never surrendered, Mussolini declared victory and
claimed Ethiopia as his own. Haile Selassie found refuge in Britain and
Italian Ethiopia was merged with Italian Somaliland and Italian Eritrea
to form Italian East Africa. The Second Italo-Ethiopian War was
significant in that it drastically increased the size of the Italian
Empire; it also illustrated the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations
and how the sides of the coming world war would be aligned.
After the end of World War I, Italy entered a period of social and
political discomfort due to the economic and human costs of the war.
When Benito Mussolini was appointed as prime minister amid this unrest,
he immediately sprang into action to resolve territorial disputes and
solidify Italian holdings abroad, including in Africa. The Treaty of
Versailles, which ended World War I, did not fully satisfy the Italian
government; Italy had wanted more compensation for the sacrifices her
people had made during the war. In an effort to mollify the Italian
government, the British offered a portion of its holdings in Somalia as
recompense; however, the transfer of the land was put on hold, as the
British wanted Italy to trade part of its territory to Greece in return.
Mussolini would have none of this. Within a year of taking office, he
settled the matter of the Greek claim to land; his strong-armed approach
to the matter, which included the invasion of Greece, would directly
lead to the acquisition of the portion of Somalia formerly offered by
Great Britain in an effort to appease Mussolini.
The objectives of Italian imperialism in general were greatly
facilitated by the rise and tenure of Mussolini. He desired the lands of
North Africa, which had ties to Italy dating back to the Roman Empire
and before, as the rightful property of the Italian people and necessary
for the surplus population of the nation. He put pressure not only on
the nations he directly invaded or considered invading, but on the other
European powers with territory he saw as Italian. It was this
atmosphere that carried the Italian Empire into the 1930s and prepared
it for the violence of World War II.
I've included a map with my best attempt at a visualization of Italian
holdings in Africa by 1930. The following decade would only see an
increase in the green you see across the continent.
Following the end of the Italo-Turkish War, the Italian occupation of
Libya was met with extensive resistance by the Senussi, an Islamic tribe
funded by the Ottoman Empire. Italy's main objective on the African
front during World War I would be to crush this resistance and establish
a more secure hold over the land it had gained previously. By doing so,
it would limit the war ability of the Ottomans, destabilizing the
Central Powers.
By 1915, the location and tactics of the Senussi had become critical to
Germany and the Ottomans. Using guerrilla warfare and German weaponry,
the tribe was able to attack Allied positions across North Africa, and
these attacks were most successful against Italian forces. The Italians
were driven out of several areas that they had formerly secured; this
was facilitated by a previous withdrawal of Italian soldiers and marines
in order to defend the Italian mainland in Europe. In 1917, the
Italians were forced into a pocket of Libya, surrounded by Senussi.
Desperate to escape destruction and regain control of Libya, the Italian
military initiated gas attacks against Libyan civilians.
This
proved to be a waste, however. The Italians were pushed back further,
their efforts impeded by a blockade of occupied harbors. Interestingly,
postwar excavations discovered Russian weapons had been used by the
Senussi against the Italians at this time; they had likely been
confiscated by German soldiers in Eastern Europe and sent to the African
front through Ottoman ships. After the end of the war, Ottoman support
for the Senussi dropped off. The populace still managed to hold their
own for another decade, until Benito Mussolini assumed command of Italy.
The Senussi had been commanded by Ahmed Sharif as-Senussi, a great hero
who would become known for his efforts in defending North Africa against
the Allies and his support of the Ottoman war effort. He is pictured to
the right. For more in-depth information on other campaigns led by and
against the Senussi, click here.
The Anglo-Italian agreements of 1891 gave Italy the triangle of land known as the Horn of Africa as her ‘sphere of influence.' Until the outbreak of the First World War, Italy was unable to consolidate her control over these territories. All attempts, both military and political, failed due to active resistance from the inter-riverine people of southern Somalia. In the late 19th century, the inter-riverine region was the center of religious ferment and economic resistance against European colonization. The so-called Gosha Revolt (1890-1907), led by Nassib Buunto, emerged from the struggle against slavery. Nassib Buunto recruited the bulk of his fighters from the freed slaves who deserted their Italian landlords and Somali ‘Abans’ (overseers). He established a center named after him to give these men a better way of life by developing communal ways of forming and cattle herding, training in new handicraft skills, new techniques for building houses and for manufacturing tools and weapons. It was the free men of this center who fought against the Italians, including numerous clans of the coast like the Biyamals, the Tunnis, the Gheledis, the Wa’dans, the Abgals, the Shikhals and others. A coalition of these clans prevented the Italian penetration into the fertile hinterland of the inter-riverine region for over two decades (1886-1908).
Another focal point of resistance was the Banadir. The Banadirians of the interior were concerned that the occupation of the port by foreigners would mean the diversion of the external trade from their control. The Banadir ports played a significant role in the region’s external and internal trade, making the Banadir revolt (1888-1910), though religious in origin, the motivation of economic factors. The Banadirians blockaded the Italians on the coast for more than two decades, from 1888-1910.
Some other honorable mentions of the Somali anti-colonial resistance movement against Italian occupation are Sheik Aways Al-Qadiri, Sheik Hassan Barsane Sharif Aliyow and Sufi Baraki.
