Everything about Italian East Africa totally explained
Italian East Africa (
Italian:
Africa Orientale Italiana, AOI) was a short-lived (1936-1941) Italian colony in
Africa consisting of
Ethiopia (recently occupied after the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War) and the colonies of
Italian Somaliland and
Eritrea held in the name of
Victor Emmanuel III of the
Kingdom of Italy. In August 1940
British Somaliland was conquered and annexed to the AOI.
Territory
In 1936, Italian East Africa covered all of present-day
Ethiopia,
Eritrea and most of
Somalia with the exception of the territory which presently composes the
de facto independent
Republic of Somaliland. The colony was divided into six provinces:
Amara, Eritrea,
Galla-Sidamo,
Harar,
Scioa, Somalia, each run by an Italian governor. The colonial divisions were important in the Fascist regime's attempt to permanently destroy the former Ethiopian state, by granting former Ethiopian land to its rival Muslim neighbours in Italian administered Eritrea and Somalia. 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 itself would be broken apart one year later as Italian East Africa was occupied by British forces.
History
The dominion was formed in 1936 during Italian
Fascist dictator
Benito Mussolini's government in
Italy with the defeat of Ethiopia in the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War.
Rule in Italian East Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Italian Somaliland) was harsh for the native peoples, especially towards
Ethiopians as Fascist policy sought to destroy their culture. In February 1937, the AOI's
Viceroy Rodolfo Graziani ordered Italian soldiers to pillage native settlements in
Addis Ababa, which resulted in hundreds of
Ethiopians being killed and their homes left burned to the ground.
In June
1940, at the beginning of Italy's involvement in World War II, the AOI potentially constituted a dangerous menace to British interests in Africa. From one perspective, a successful Italian attack from the AOI through the
Sudan and the establishment of a connection to Italian-held
Libya would have isolated vital British positions in
Egypt and the
Suez Canal. However, from a different perspective, the AOI itself was isolated from
Italy and surrounded by British forces in the Sudan,
Kenya, and
British Somaliland. British forces in
Aden could provide critical air and naval support against Italian naval forces operating in the
Red Sea. Italian maritime transport was cut off by the British at the Suez Canal. What supplies did arrive in the AOI were generally from the air and in small quantities.
At the beginning of the
East African Campaign, the Italian troops amounted to 291,000 men including native troops. Training of the native troops was poor, the Italian garrisons were too spread out, due to the extremely poor state of roads, and were essentially reduced to a static role without enough ammunitions and
oil reserves (which allowed the Allies to liberate AOI 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 WWII against the
Allies. This occupation lasted around one year.
On
March 27,
1941 the stronghold of
Keren was captured by the British troops after a strenuous defence from general
Orlando Lorenzini. After the surrender of
Massaua (
April 8), Eritrea was lost for Italy. The war was lost on May 1941, when the last stand on
Amba Alagi under
Viceroy Amedeo di Savoia,
Duke of Aosta, at Amba Alagi ended honourably in face of overwhelming Allied troops.
November 28 of the same year, general
Guglielmo Nasi and the last Italian occupants of
Gondar surrendered.
Many Italians fought a guerrilla war in the "Africa Orientale Italiana", after the surrender at Gondar of the last regular Italian forces in November 1941.
From November 1941 to September 1943 there was an
Italian guerrilla force made up of 7000 Italians who hadn't accepted surrender to the
Allies. They were waiting for the possible arrival of the Italo-German army of
Rommel from
Egypt and the Mediterranean (called in 1942 by Mussolini "the
Italian Mare Nostrum"), but after the
Battle of El Alamein the momentum of this resistance slowly faded away.
Sources
- Antonicelli, Franco. Trent'anni di storia italiana 1915 - 1945 (in Italian). Mondadori ed. Torino, 1961.
- Del Boca, Angelo. Italiani in Africa Orientale: La caduta dell'Impero (in Italian). Laterza. Roma-Bari, 1986. ISBN 884202810X
- Mockler, Anthony. Haile Selassie's War: The Italian-Ethiopian Campaign, 1935-1941. Random House. New York, 1984. ISBN 0-394-54222-3
- Sarti, Roland. The Ax Within: Italian Fascism in Action. New Viewpoints. New York. 1974.
Further Information
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