Italian Empire

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This article is about the modern Italian colonial empire. For other uses, see Imperial Italy (disambiguation).
For the ancient Roman Empire, see Roman Empire.
Italian Empire
Impero italiano (Italian)
1882–1960
Coat of arms of Italian Empire
Coat of arms
The Italian empire at greatest extent, c. 1942.
  Kingdom of Italy
  Possessions/colonies of Italy
  Territory occupied during World War II (not all held at once)
Status
Victor Emmanuel III
• 1946
Umberto II
History 
• 
Empire formally relinquished
1947
1950–1960
Area
• Total
3,775,294 km2 (1,457,649 sq mi)
1938[1]3,798,000 km2 (1,466,000 sq mi)
1941[2]3,824,879 km2 (1,476,794 sq mi)
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
1936:
Ethiopian Empire
1939:
Kingdom of Albania
1941:
Kingdom of Greece
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Italy (Rep.)
1941:
Ethiopian Empire
1944:
Communist Albania
Kingdom of Greece
Yugoslavia
1951:
United Kingdom of Libya
1960:
Somalia
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The Italian colonial empire (

Dodecanese Islands (following the Italo-Turkish War), Albania (in personal union from 1939 to 1943)[3] and also had some concessions in China
.

The Fascist government that came to power under the leadership of the dictator

Italian irredentists. Systematic "demographic colonization" was encouraged by the government,[4] and by 1939, Italian settlers numbered 120,000[5]–150,000[6] in Italian Libya and 165,000[5]
in Italian East Africa.

During World War II, Italy allied itself with Nazi Germany in 1940 and it also occupied British Somaliland, western Egypt, much of Yugoslavia, Tunisia, parts of south-eastern France and most of Greece; however, it then lost those conquests and its African colonies to the invading Allied forces by 1943. In 1947, Italy officially relinquished claims on its former colonies. In 1950, former Italian Somaliland, then under British administration, was turned into the Trust Territory of Somaliland until it became independent in 1960.

History

Background and pre-unification era

See also: Roman Empire, Maritime republics, and Italy and the colonization of the Americas

Imperialism in Italy dates back to

Robert Thornton. However, Thornton, on his return from the preparatory expedition in 1609, found Ferdinand I dead and his successor, Cosimo II, was not interested in the project. In 1651, Giovanni Paolo Lascaris, Italian nobleman and Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller of Malta (at the time a vassal state of the Kingdom of Sicily), possessed four Caribbean islands: Saint Christopher, Saint Martin, Saint Barthélemy, and Saint Croix, which were colonized from 1651 until 1665.[8][9]
No other colonial attempt in the ocean was made and, by 1797, the Venetian and Genoese possessions in the Mediterranean were lost.

Scramble for an empire

Main articles:
Italian concession of Tientsin
See also: Mahdist War, Eritrea War, First Italo-Ethiopian War, Boxer Rebellion, Italo-Turkish War, and Slap of Tunis
Francesco Crispi promoted Italian colonialism in Africa in the late 1800s.

Once unified as a nation-state in the late 19th century, Italy intended to compete with the other European powers for the new age of European colonial expansion. It saw its interests in the Mediterranean and in the

Tunisian Italians lived, within its economic sphere of influence. It did not consider annexing it until 1879, when it became apparent that Britain and Germany were encouraging France to add it to its colonial holdings in North Africa.[11] A last-minute offer by Italy to share Tunisia between the two countries was refused, and France, confident in German support, ordered its troops in from French Algeria, imposing a protectorate over Tunisia in May 1881 under the Treaty of Bardo.[12] The shock of the "Slap of Tunis", as it was referred to in the Italian press, and the sense of Italy's isolation in Europe, led it into signing the Triple Alliance in 1882 with Germany and Austria-Hungary.[13]

Italian possessions and spheres of influence in the Horn of Africa in 1896

While attempts were made to buy the Nicobar Islands from Denmark in 1864 and 1865,[14] the genesis of the Italian colonial empire was the purchase in 1869 of Assab Bay on the Red Sea by an Italian navigation company which intended to establish a coaling station at the time the Suez Canal was being opened to navigation.[15] This was taken over by the Italian government in 1882, becoming modern Italy's first overseas territory.[16]

Italy's search for colonies continued until February

Yohannes IV an outlet to the sea.[17] This led Ras Alula to unsuccessfully besiege the Italian possession of Saati. He then ambushed and killed five hundred Italian troops at the Battle of Dogali.[18] This caused the Italian government to send reinforcements, which occupied the Eritrean highlands, including Keren and Asmara in 1889. The Italian Prime Minister Francesco Crispi, who coveted Ethiopia itself, signed the Treaty of Wuchale in 1889 with Menelik II, the new emperor. This treaty ceded Ethiopian territory around Massawa to Italy to form the colony of Italian Eritrea, and – at least, according to the Italian version of the treaty – made Ethiopia an Italian protectorate.[19] Relations between Italy and Menelik deteriorated over the next few years until the First Italo-Ethiopian War broke out in 1895, when Crispi ordered Italian troops into the country. Vastly outnumbered and poorly equipped,[20] the result was a decisive defeat for Italy at the hands of Ethiopian forces at the Battle of Adwa in 1896.[21] On Italy's side, the death toll was 6,889, including 4,133 Italians.[22] The Ethiopians suffered at least 4,000 dead and 10,000 wounded.[22][a]

Italian troops during the Italo-Turkish War, 1911

Around the same time, Italy occupied territory on the south side of the

Eritrean Ascaris commanded by Colonel Arimondi. The Italians won again, and the outcome of the battle constituted "the first decisive victory yet won by Europeans against the Sudanese revolutionaries".[24][page needed] A year later, Italian colonial forces seized Kassala after the successful Battle of Kassala
; Italy returned the city to the British at the end of the war three years later.

In 1898, in the wake of the acquisition of

concession in Tianjin in 1901, the only example of Italian colonialism in Asia, and other minor concessions, these not administrated by the Italian government.[25][26]
The concession was administered by the Italian consul in Tianjin.

Italian Libya in 1912

A wave of nationalism that swept Italy at the turn of the 20th century led to the founding of the Italian Nationalist Association, which pressed for the expansion of Italy's empire. Newspapers were filled with talk of revenge for the humiliations suffered in Ethiopia at the end of the previous century, and of nostalgia for the Roman era.

Libya, it was suggested, as an ex-Roman colony, should be "taken back" to provide a solution to the problems of Southern Italy's population growth. Fearful of being excluded altogether from North Africa by Britain and France, and mindful of public opinion, Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti ordered the declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire, of which Libya was part, in October 1911.[27]

As a result of the Italo-Turkish War, Italy gained Libya and the Dodecanese Islands from the Ottoman Empire.

The 1912 Libya desert war featured the first use of an armoured fighting vehicle in military history and marked the first significant employment of air power in warfare.[28][b]

World War I and aftermath

Main articles: Military history of Italy during World War I and Partition of the Ottoman Empire
Italy and its colonial possessions in 1914
The flag of Italy shown hanging alongside an Albanian flag from the balcony of the Italian prefecture in Vlorë, Albania during World War I
The Partition of Turkey in the Treaty of Sèvres of 1919. The light green marked area is the territory from Anatolia allocated to an Italian sphere of influence. Sèvres was overturned by the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923 where Turkey was restored to all of Anatolia.

In 1914 Italy remained neutral and did not join its ally Germany in World War I. The Allies made promises and in 1915 Italy joined them. It was promised territorial spoils mainly from Austria and Turkey.[29]

Prior to direct intervention in World War I, in December 1914, Italy occupied the Albanian port of

Sazan Island
to the Italian kingdom.

Dalmatia was a strategic region during World War I that both Italy and Serbia intended to seize from Austria-Hungary. The Treaty of London guaranteed Italy the right to annex a large portion of Dalmatia in exchange for Italy's participation on the Allied side. From 5–6 November 1918, Italian forces were reported to have reached Lissa, Lagosta, Sebenico, and other localities on the Dalmatian coast.[30] By the end of hostilities in November 1918, the Italian military had seized control of the entire portion of Dalmatia that had been guaranteed to Italy by the Treaty of London and by 17 November had seized Fiume as well.[31] In 1918, Admiral Enrico Millo declared himself Italy's Governor of Dalmatia.[31] Famous Italian nationalist Gabriele D'Annunzio supported the seizure of Dalmatia, and proceeded to Zara (today's Zadar) in an Italian warship in December 1918.[32]

At the concluding Treaty of Versailles in 1919, Italy received less in Europe than had been promised and none overseas mandate except for a promise of colonial compensations made on 7 May 1919 during the partition of Germany's colonies between France and Britain. To satisfy this promise, France and Britain directly or indirectly gave Italy, from 1919 to 1935, a number of territories to expand Libya (Cufra, Sarra, Giarabub, the Aouzou strip, other lands in the Sahara), Somalia (Jubaland), the Dodecanese (Kastellorizo), and Eritrea (Raheita, the Hanish islands). In April 1920, it was agreed between the British and Italian foreign ministers that Jubaland would be Italy's first compensation from Britain, but London held back on the deal for several years, aiming to use it as leverage to force Italy to cede the Dodecanese to Greece.[33]

Fascism and the Italian Empire

Main articles:
Kingdom of Albania (1939–1943)
See also:
Italian imperialism under Fascism
Ambitions of fascist Italy in Europe in 1936.
Legend:
  Metropolitan Italy and dependent territories;
  Client states;
  Claimed territories to be annexed;
  Territories to be transformed into client states.
Albania, which was a client state, was considered a territory to be annexed.
Second World War
(the orange line delimits metropolitan Italy, the green line the borders of the enlarged Italian Empire)
Group of Zaptié in Italian Somaliland
Italian settlers and indigenous Libyans in Tripoli, capital of Italian Tripolitania and later of Italian Libya

In 1922, the leader of the

Italian fascist movement, Benito Mussolini, became Prime Minister and dictator. Mussolini resolved the question of sovereignty over the Dodecanese at the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne
, which formalized Italian administration of both Libya and the Dodecanese Islands, in return for a payment to Turkey, the successor state to the Ottoman Empire, though he failed in an attempt to extract a mandate of a portion of Iraq from Britain.

The month following the ratification of the Lausanne treaty, Mussolini ordered the invasion of the Greek island of

Venetian possession for four hundred years. The matter was taken by Greece to the League of Nations, where Mussolini was convinced by Britain to evacuate Italian troops, in return for reparations from Greece. The confrontation led Britain and Italy to resolve the question of Jubaland in 1924, which was merged into Italian Somaliland.[34]

During the late 1920s, imperial expansion became an increasingly favoured theme in Mussolini's speeches.[35] Amongst Mussolini's aims were that Italy had to become the dominant power in the Mediterranean that would be able to challenge France or Britain, as well as attain access to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.[35] Mussolini alleged that Italy required uncontested access to the world's oceans and shipping lanes to ensure its national sovereignty.[36] This was elaborated on in a document he later drew up in 1939 called "The March to the Oceans", and included in the official records of a meeting of the Grand Council of Fascism.[36] This text asserted that maritime position determined a nation's independence: countries with free access to the high seas were independent; while those who lacked this, were not. Italy, which only had access to an inland sea without French and British acquiescence, was only a "semi-independent nation", and alleged to be a "prisoner in the Mediterranean":[36]

The bars of this prison are Corsica, Tunisia, Malta, and Cyprus. The guards of this prison are Gibraltar and Suez. Corsica is a pistol pointed at the heart of Italy; Tunisia at Sicily. Malta and Cyprus constitute a threat to all our positions in the eastern and western Mediterranean. Greece, Turkey, and Egypt have been ready to form a chain with Great Britain and to complete the politico-military encirclement of Italy. Thus Greece, Turkey, and Egypt must be considered vital enemies of Italy's expansion ... The aim of Italian policy, which cannot have, and does not have continental objectives of a European territorial nature except Albania, is first of all to break the bars of this prison ... Once the bars are broken, Italian policy can only have one motto – to march to the oceans.

— Benito Mussolini, The March to the Oceans[36]

In the Balkans, the Fascist regime claimed Dalmatia and held ambitions over Albania, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vardar Macedonia, and Greece based on the precedent of previous Roman dominance in these regions.[37] Dalmatia and Slovenia were to be directly annexed into Italy while the remainder of the Balkans was to be transformed into Italian client states.[38] The regime also sought to establish protective patron-client relationships with Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Bulgaria.[37]

In both 1932 and 1935, Italy demanded a League of Nations mandate of the former German Cameroon and a free hand in Ethiopia from France in return for Italian support against Germany (see Stresa Front).[39] This was refused by French Prime Minister Édouard Herriot, who was not yet sufficiently worried about the prospect of a German resurgence.[39]

Ethiopians greeting a depiction of Mussolini at Mekelle, 1935

In its

peace treaty of 1947 to relinquish sovereignty over all its colonies. It was granted a trust to administer former Italian Somaliland under United Nations supervision in 1950. When Somalia
became independent in 1960, Italy's eight-decade experiment with colonialism had ended.

The Second Italo-Ethiopian War cost Italy 4,359 killed in action—2,313 Italians, 1,086 Eritreans, 507 Somalis and Libyans, and 453 Italian laborers.

mustard gas attacks, were estimated as high as 275,000.[41]

In July 1936, Francisco Franco of the Nationalist faction in the Spanish Civil War requested Italian support against the ruling Republican faction, and guaranteed that, if Italy supported the Nationalists, "future relations would be more than friendly" and that Italian support "would have permitted the influence of Rome to prevail over that of Berlin in the future politics of Spain".[42] Italy intervened in the civil war with the intention of occupying the Balearic Islands and creating a client state in Spain.[43] Italy sought the control of the Balearic Islands due to its strategic position – Italy could use the islands as a base to disrupt the lines of communication between France and its North African colonies and between British Gibraltar and Malta.[44] After the victory by Franco and the Nationalists in the war, Italy pressured Franco to permit an Italian occupation of the Balearic Islands but he did not do so.[45]

Italian newspaper in Tunisia from October 1938 that represented Italians living in the French protectorate of Tunisia

After the United Kingdom signed the Anglo-Italian

Suez Canal Company accept an Italian representative on its board of directors.[47] Italy opposed the French monopoly over the Suez Canal because, under the French-dominated Suez Canal Company, all Italian merchant traffic to its colony of Italian East Africa was forced to pay tolls on entering the canal.[47]

In 1939, Italy

rule over Albania
.

World War II

Main articles: Italian governorate of Montenegro, Province of Ljubljana, Governorate of Dalmatia, Independent State of Croatia, and Hellenic State (1941–1944)
See also: Military history of Italy during World War II
Prince Amedeo of Savoy-Aosta led Italian forces at the Battle of Amba Alagi.[49]
Italy and its colonial possessions in 1940

Mussolini entered World War II in June 1940 on the side of Adolf Hitler with plans to enlarge Italy's territorial holdings. He had designs on an area of western Yugoslavia, southern France, Corsica, Malta, Tunisia, part of Algeria, an Atlantic port in Morocco, French Somaliland and British-controlled Egypt and Sudan.[50]

Italian settlers in Massawa

On 10 June 1940, Mussolini declared war on Britain and France; both countries had been at war with

Ionian islands and Ciamuria given to Italy; Italy is given British Somaliland, Djibuti, French Equatorial Africa up to Ubangi-Shari, as well as Ciano adding at the meeting that Italy wanted Kenya and Uganda as well.[51] Hitler made no promises.[51]

In October 1940, Mussolini ordered the

occupied Greece. A member of the House of Savoy, Prince Aimone, 4th Duke of Aosta, was appointed king of the newly created Independent State of Croatia
.

During the height of the

Italian 10th Army and had driven deep into Libya.[53] A German intervention prevented the fall of Libya and the combined Axis attacks drove the British back into Egypt until summer 1942, before being stopped at El Alamein. Allied intervention against Vichy French-held Morocco and Algeria
created a two-front campaign. German and Italian forces entered Tunisia in late 1942 in response, however, forces in Egypt were soon forced to make a major retreat into Libya. By May 1943, Axis forces in Tunisia were forced to surrender.

The

Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia had returned to Addis Ababa to reclaim his throne. In November, the last organised Italian resistance ended with the fall of Gondar.[56] However, following the surrender of East Africa, some Italians conducted a guerrilla war
which lasted for two more years.

In November 1942, when the Germans occupied

Italian-occupied France was expanded with the occupation of Corsica
.

End of the empire

Italian war cemetery in Keren, Eritrea
FIAT
centre in the 1960s

By the autumn of 1943, the Italian Empire and all

Invasion of Sicily, all support for Mussolini evaporated. A meeting of the Grand Council of Fascism was held on 24 July, which managed to impose a vote of no confidence to Mussolini. The "Duce" was subsequently deposed and arrested by the King on the following afternoon. Afterwards, Mussolini remained a prisoner of the King until 12 September, when, on the orders of Hitler, he was rescued by German paratroops and became leader of the newly established Italian Social Republic
.

After 25 July, the new Italian government under the King and Field Marshal

Reorganized National Government of China under Wang Jingwei
.

In 1947, the

United Nations Trust Territory under Italian administration (Trust Territory of Somaliland). On 1 July 1960, Somalia merged with British Somaliland to form the independent Somali Republic
.

Former colonies, territories in personal union and occupied areas

Italian Empire (green) with its occupied territories in 1942, and its ally the German Reich (red) with other allies and occupied territories (brown)

Notes

  1. ^ Total Italian, Eritrean, and Somali deaths, including those from disease, were estimated at 9,000.[22]
  2. Ottoman Army cavalry during a battle at Zanzur in the Italo-Turkish War, making an important contribution to the Italian Army's offense in this battle. History's first war death of a pilot occurred when an aircraft crashed during a recon sortie.[28]

References

  1. ISBN 9780521785037. Archived
    from the original on 16 October 2016. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
  2. ^ Soldaten-Atlas (Tornisterschrift des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht, Heft 39). Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut. 1941. p. 32.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Nigel Thomas. Armies in the Balkans 1914–18. Osprey Publishing, 2001, p. 17.
  4. ^ Chapin Metz, Helen, ed., Libya: A Country Study. Chapter XIX.
  5. ^
    Istat (December 2010). "I censimenti nell'Italia unita I censimenti nell'Italia unita Le fonti di stato della popolazione tra il XIX e il XXI secolo ISTITUTO NAZIONALE DI STATISTICA SOCIETÀ ITALIANA DI DEMOGRAFIA STORICA Le fonti di stato della popolazione tra il XIX e il XXI secolo" (PDF). Annali di Statistica. XII. 2: 263. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 3 August 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2013.
  6. ^ "Libya - History, People, & Government". Britannica.com. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  7. ^ Betts (1975), p.12
  8. ISBN 978-0-7766-0559-3
    .
  9. ISBN 9780404170097. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help
    )
  10. ^ Betts (1975), p.97
  11. ^ Lowe, p.21
  12. ^ Lowe, p.24
  13. ^ Lowe, p.27
  14. ^ Storia Militare della Colonia Eritrea, Vol. I. Roma: Ministero della Guerra. 1935. pp. 15–16.
  15. ^ Mia Fuller, "Italian Colonial Rule", Oxford Bibliographies Online. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  16. ^ Theodore M. Vestal, "Reflections on the Battle of Adwa and Its Significance for Today", in The Battle of Adwa: Reflections on Ethiopia's Historic Victory Against European Colonialism (Algora, 2005), p. 22.
  17. ^ Pakenham (1992), p.280
  18. ^ Killinger (2002), p.122
  19. ^ Pakenham, p.470
  20. ^ Killinger, p.122
  21. ^ Pakenham (1992), p.7
  22. ^ a b c Clodfelter 2017, p. 202.
  23. ^ Pakenham, p.281
  24. ISBN 9780283978623.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  25. ^ Italy’s Encounters with Modern China: Imperial Dreams, Strategic Ambitions, edited by Maurizio Marinelli and Giovanni Andornino, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014
  26. ^ Maurizio Marinelli, Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror: Colonial Italy Reflects on Tianjin [1]
  27. ^ Killinger (2002), p.133
  28. ^ a b c Clodfelter 2017, p. 353.
  29. ^ Renzi, 1968.
  30. ^ Giuseppe Praga, Franco Luxardo. History of Dalmatia. Giardini, 1993. Pp. 281.
  31. ^ a b Paul O'Brien. Mussolini in the First World War: the Journalist, the Soldier, the Fascist. Oxford, England, UK; New York, New York, USA: Berg, 2005. Pp. 17.
  32. ^ A. Rossi. The Rise of Italian Fascism: 1918–1922. New York, New York, USA: Routledge, 2010. Pp. 47.
  33. ^ Lowe, p.187
  34. ^ Lowe, pp. 191–199
  35. ^ a b c Smith, Dennis Mack (1981). Mussolini, p. 170. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London.
  36. ^ a b c d Salerno, Reynolds Mathewson (2002). Vital crossroads: Mediterranean origins of the Second World War, 1935–1940, pp. 105–106. Cornell University Press
  37. ^ a b Robert Bideleux, Ian Jeffries. A history of eastern Europe: crisis and change. London, England, UK; New York, New York, USA: Routledge, 1998. Pp. 467.
  38. ^ Allan R. Millett, Williamson Murray. Military Effectiveness, Volume 2. New edition. New York, New York, USA: Cambridge University Press, 2010. P. 184.
  39. ^ a b Burgwyn, James H. (1997). Italian foreign policy in the interwar period, 1918–1940, p. 68. Praeger Publishers.
  40. ^ Guida dell'Africa Orientale Italiana (in Italian). Milano: CTI. 1938. p. 33.
  41. ^ a b Clodfelter 2017, p. 355.
  42. ^ Sebastian Balfour, Paul Preston. Spain and the Great Powers in the Twentieth Century. London, England, UK; New York, New York, USA: Routledge, 1999. P. 152.
  43. ^ R. J. B. Bosworth. The Oxford handbook of fascism. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2009. Pp. 246.
  44. ^ John J. Mearsheimer. The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. W. W. Norton & Company, 2003.
  45. ^ The Road to Oran: Anglo-French Naval Relations, September 1939 – July 1940. Pp. 24.
  46. ^ a b Reynolds Mathewson Salerno. Vital Crossroads: Mediterranean Origins of the Second World War, 1935–1940. Cornell University, 2002. p 82–83.
  47. ^ a b "French Army breaks a one-day strike and stands on guard against a land-hungry Italy", LIFE, 19 Dec 1938. Pp. 23.
  48. ^ a b Dickson (2001), pg. 69
  49. ^ Time Magazine Aosta on Alag?
  50. ^ Calvocoressi (1999) p.166
  51. ^ a b Santi Corvaja, Robert L. Miller. Hitler & Mussolini: The Secret Meetings. New York, New York, USA: Enigma Books, 2008. Pp. 132.
  52. ^ Dickson (2001) p.100
  53. ^ Dickson (2001) p.101
  54. ^ Italian Map showing with green lines the territories conquered in 1940 by the Italians in Sudan and Kenya. British and French somaliland are shown in white, as part of the A.O.I. (Africa Orientale Italiana)
  55. ^ Dickson (2001) p.103
  56. ^ Jowett (2001) p.7

Bibliography

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