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The Italian Empire
Introduction
The Italian Empire (Italian: Impero Italiano) was a 19th and 20th century colonial empire, which lasted from 1889 to 1943. It was composed of three different entities - the Kingdom of Italy, the Kingdom of Albania, and the Ethiopian Empire - united by the leadership of Italian King Victor Emmanuel III. Some nationalist and especially fascist supporters of an Italian Empire believed that such would effectively constitute a "New Roman Empire" (Italian: Nuovo Impero Romano, Latin: Novum Imperium Romanum)
Early colonial empire
From 1889 to 1912, Italy proceeded on a course of colonialism in the remaining uncolonized portions of Africa which led it to taking Eritrea, creating the colony of Italian Somalia in the early years of its colonization of Africa. Italy failed in the First Italo-Abyssinian War in the 1880s in which it attempted to take Abyssinia (present day Ethiopia) as a colony. Italy was too late by the late 19th century and early 20th century to be able to compete with the major European powers in establishing significant colonies in Asia, but did manage to get a very small concession in the Chinese city of Tientsin in 1902.
In the Italo-Turkish War of 1911 to 1912, Italy gained the former Ottoman African territories of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania (these territories would later merge into the Italian colony of Libya). Italian claims to Cyrenaica and Tripolitania were based on the Roman Empire's holding of the two regions centuries earlier, and a supposed cultural presence in those territories with a number of Roman landmarks still remaining.
For years the region of Fezzan was in dispute between Italy and the United Kingdom, which would be settled years later.
Late colonial empire
From the end of World War I through the era of Italian Fascism, Italy quickly expanded its colonial holdings. Italy had gained a minuscule portion of Dalmatia from the former Austria-Hungary as well as a number of Adriatic islands along the coast of present-day Croatia. In 1923, Italian forces invaded and occupied the Greek island of Corfu and in 1929, Italian North Africa was simplified by merging Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and Fezzan into Italian Libya (Libia Italiana in 1929).
In 1935, the Second Italo-Abyssinian War occurred in which Italy captured Ethiopia in 1936, and merged Italian Eritrea, Italian Somalia and newly captured Ethiopia into Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana, A.O.I.).
In 1939, Italy invaded and captured Albania and made it protectorate, the region of modern-day Albania had been an early part of the Roman Empire, which had actually been held before northern parts of Italy had been taken by the Romans, but had long since been populated by Albanians and out of Italian control.
Modern Italy, by the time of World War II, possessed various overseas territories in the Mediterranean and East Africa, reaching its greatest extent in 1940.
Fascism and the Italian Empire
After 1929 imperial expansion became a favourite theme of Mussolini's speeches. He argued that colonial settlements were a demographic and economic necessity for a country like Italy.
Imperial expansion was also a key component of Mussolini's attempts to replace Britain and France as the dominant powers in the Mediterranean.
During WWII nearly 2/3 of the Mediterranean shores were controlled or occupied by Italy. In the fall of 1942 Mussolini controlled the European Mediterranean sea from France to Greece and the African Mediterranean sea from Tunisia to Egypt.
Italian colonial possessions
Italian East Africa
Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somaliland were also known, together, as Italian East Africa.
Italian Somaliland
The Italian colony in the southern part of Somalia known as Italian Somaliland was established in 1889–90. In 1925 Italy acquired Jubaland from the British colony of Kenya.
In 1940 Italy, with the Italian conquest of British Somaliland, annexed to his colonial possessions even the British Somalia, but after one year lost it.
Eritrea
Italy's colony in Eritrea was established in 1889. The colony was treated as a prestige project during the Fascist era and to this day the capital, Asmara, retains some fine buildings and monuments dating back to the period of Italian rule. Because of this striking architectural legacy, Asmara may become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Ethiopia
Italy was defeated in its first attempt to conquer Ethiopia (called Abyssinia by Europeans at that time) in the First Italo–Ethiopian War in 1895-96, but the Italians were able to occupy Ethiopia in the war of 1935-1936 after seven months of fighting. Victory was announced on 9 May 1936, and the Italian King Victor Emanuel III proclaimed himself Emperor of Ethiopia.
Benito Mussolini dreamed of sending millions of Italian settlers to Italian East Africa, and Italians had high hopes of turning the area into an economic asset. However, by overrunning Ethiopia, a member of the League of Nations, Italy attracted widespread international hostility. Italy lost its new colony to an invasion of British Commonwealth forces and Ethiopians almost exactly five years later during World War II.
Libya
Italy acquired the North African territories of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica under the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1912 following a short war with Turkey. Italy's claim to the area was based partly on proximity and helped by an unofficial agreement with France to divide the North African coast between them. Those Italians who indulged in imperial rhetoric referred to North Africa as Italy's Fourth Shore. In reality Italy spent a large part of the 1920s attempting to 'pacify' her latest colony.
In 1934 Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were united to form the colony of Libya, a name previously used 1500 years earlier by Diocletian to refer to the area.
Italy lost control of Libya when German and Italian forces withdrew into Tunisia in 1943.
Tientsin, China
In 1901 Italy, along with several other European countries, was granted a concession in the trading city of Tientsin (now Tianjin) in China. The Italian concession, at 46 hectares, was one of the smallest of the European concessions in that city. The concession arrangement ended by agreement between Mussolini's Italian Social Republic and Japan's puppet government in China in 1943.
Italian possessions in Europe
Albania
Italy occupied Albania as an aftermath of World War I. As Italian troops evacuated the country, according to provisions of the protocol signed on 2th September 1920, Saseno Island was ceded to Italy.
Albania was already firmly within Italy's sphere of influence for twenty years when, in 1939, Mussolini decided it should formally be brought under Italian control. It is possible the Italian dictator simply wanted a spectacular success over a smaller neighbour to match Germany's absorption of Austria and Czechoslovakia. The Italian invasion of Albania began on 7th April 1939, and resistance ended five days later. Albania's King Zog fled to London.
Italian King Victor Emmanuel III took the Albanian crown, and a fascist government under Shefqet Verlaci was established. The Albanian armed forces were subsumed into Italian units.
In 1941, following the fall of Yugoslavia in the Balkans Campaign, Kosovo and western parts of Vardar Macedonia were incorporated into Albania. In may 1941, after the Italian final victory in Greece, done even with the help of Albanian troops, the Italian government allowed northern Greek Epirus to be administered by Albanian fascists.
Resistance to the Italian occupation grew rapidly at the end of 1942 and in 1943. By the summer of 1943, most of the mountainous interior was controlled by resistance fighters. The German Army and Albanian collaborators completed the seizure of Albania by the end of September 1943, three weeks after Italy signed an armistice with the Allies.
Greece
Dodecanese
The islands of the Dodecanese were a territorial gain Italy was able to make at the expense of the enfeebled Ottoman Empire with the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-1912. Control of Rhodes and the surrounding islands was considered an important part of Italy's challenge to British dominance in the Mediterranean.
With the World War I victory, Italy was able to consolidate her position in the area. While the Treaty of Sèvres in 1919 called for most of the smaller islands to join with Greece, with Rhodes and several other islands remaining Italian, later, in 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne gave international recognition to the continued Italian administration over the whole group. For nearly two years after WWI, Italian troops occupied the southwestern part of Anatolia around Antalya, until Mussolini reached an agreement with the Turk president Kemal Ataturk.
Two days after the Italian Government reached an armistice with the Allies on September 8, 1943, German forces attacked the Italians on Rhodes, forcing a surrender the next day. Despite the landing of British troops, the Germans seized Kos on October 4 after a day of fighting, and Leros fell to the Germans on November 16 after five days of fighting. With the loss of Leros, Italian and British forces on the other islands of the Dodecanese escaped.
Yugoslavia
Montenegro
In 1941, Montenegro was reestablished as a constitutional monarchy (with a vacant throne, after it was refused by the Titular King of Montenegro and a prince of Romanov dynasty) and declared an Italian protectorate.
In September 1943, Germany seized control of Montenegro from the Italians.
Dalmatia
From April 1941 to September 1943 Italy occupied all the Dalmatian coast of Yugoslavia. Most of Dalmatia was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy as the Governatorato di Dalmazia. The western half of the fascist Croatia of Ante Pavelic was under Italian control.
France
Upon Italy entering the war in 1940 with France collapsing from invasion by Germany, the Italian army moved to take back territories lost from Italy to France in the 1850s, specifically, the province of Savoy, the ancestral homeland of the Italian monarchy and a province which had a mixed population of Italians and French. However Italy made little territorial gains but managed to take Grenoble and Nice from France before the remainder of unoccupied France made an armistice with Germany which resulted in the creation of Vichy France.
Nice and Corsica
In November 1942 with the internal collapse of Vichy France, Germany invaded the country and the Italian army occupied southern France, from the delta of the Rhone river to Corsica, far beyond the furthest extent of previous Italian control in the province of Savoy of the 1850s. Specifically Nice and Corsica were to be annexed to Italy, but this was not done because of the Italian surrender to the Allies in September 1943.
Idea of a New Roman Empire
The New Roman Empire (Italian: "Nuovo Impero Romano", Latin: "Novum Imperium Romanum") was the new "state" created by Mussolini to describe the Italian colonial empire, especially following Italy's occupation of Ethiopia. It was born during the height of Italian nationalism in the pre-WWII days, and contained references to the Roman period:
The Adriatic Sea was called "Mare Nostro" (Italian for "Our Sea") after the Italians invaded Albania and thus gained almost complete control over the Adriatic. It is a direct reference to the Roman name for the Mediterranean, which was called "Mare Nostrum" as the Romans had complete control over the sea.
King Victor Emmanuel III was crowned emperor (albeit of Ethiopia, and he never had the title of "Caesar").
Imperial ambition
Italian armies were also able to briefly occupy British Somaliland. In 1941, Dalmatia, parts of present-day Slovenia, and Gulf of Kotor were annexed. Mussolini dearly wished to extend the Italian empire to include those territories, as well as Malta, Tunisia, French Somaliland and Corsica. Contemplating the fall of France and victory over Britain, Mussolini and foreign minister Ciano discussed seizing Algeria, Egypt and Sudan but these ideas were coolly received by their German counterparts.
End of Empire
The Italian Empire effectively came to an end by 1943. The surrender of Axis forces in Tunisia on May 7, 1943 led King Victor Emmanuele III to plot the downfall of Mussolini, who was arrested on July 25. The new government began secret negotiations with the Allies, and on the eve of the American landings at Salerno, Italy announced an armistice with the Allies. In Albania and the Dodecanese, Germany's successful attacks on its erstwhile Italian allies ended Italy's rule.
Italy formally lost all her overseas possessions as a result of the Treaty of Peace with Italy (1947). In November 1949 Italian Somaliland was made a United Nations Trust Territory under Italian administration until July 1, 1960 when it was granted its independence along with British Somaliland to form Somalia.
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