The Italian Empire

The Italian empire included colonies, protectorates, concessions, dependencies and territories of trust of the Kingdom of Italy and, after 1946, the Italian Republic. The genesis of the Italian colonial empire was the purchase, in 1869, of a commercial company of the coastal town of Assab on the Red Sea. This was taken over by the Italian government in 1882, becoming the first overseas territory of modern Italy.

At the beginning of the First World War, in 1914, Italy had acquired in Africa a colony on the Red Sea coast (Eritrea), a great protectorate in Somalia and an authority in the former Ottoman Libya (acquired after the Italo-Turkish war ). The expansion of the Italian hinterland from the Red Sea coast brought it into conflict with the Ethiopian empire.

Outside of Africa, Italy owned the Dodecanese islands off the coast of Turkey and a concession to Tianjin in China following the Boxer Rebellion. During the First World War, Italy occupied southern Albania to prevent it from falling into Austria-Hungary. In 1917 he established a protectorate on Albania, which remained in force until 1920.

After the previous failures, in its second invasion of Ethiopia in 1935-36, Italy succeeded and united its new conquests with its ancient colonies of East Africa to create the Italian East Africa. In 1939, Italy invaded Albania and incorporated it into the fascist state.

During the Second World War, Italy occupied the British Somalia, part of south-eastern France, western Egypt and much of Greece, but then lost its conquests and its African colonies, including Ethiopia, to the allied forces invaders. He was forced to the final peace to renounce sovereignty over all his colonies. A United Nations trust was granted to administer the former Italian Somaliland in 1950 under UN supervision, final 1960, when Somalia became independent.

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