Italian Somaliland

Somalia, 1880–1936. Draft, not yet reviewed

Italian Somaliland comprised self-ruling protectorates and colonial possessions of the Kingdom of Italy in present-day Somalia. Following two treaties in 1889, Italy established a protectorate over northern Somali territories ruled by the Sultanate of Hobyo and the Majeerteen Sultanate. By the end of 1927, the territories of Hobyo Sultanate and Majeerteen Sultanate, in the northern regions of Somalia, were annexed after the two year long Campaign of the Sultanates. In 1936, the region was integrated into Italian East Africa as the Somalia Governorate, which lasted until Italy's loss of the region in 1941.

Seat of power: Mogadishu

No rulers documented for this era yet.

Culture

• Through its history, various infrastructure projects were set up, most notably railways, dams, farms and villages, and 50.000 Italians settled in the colony.
• The Bimaal and Wa'dan revolts near Merca marked the Somali resistance to Italian expansion, coinciding with the rise of the anti-colonial Dervish movement led by Mohammed Abdullah Hassan.
• Effective Italian control remained initially limited to the coastal areas and Benadir territory until after the collapse of the Dervish movement.

Picture

Mogadishu Cathedral, built in 1928 by Italian colonial authorities, was largely destroyed in 2008 by al-Shabaab.

Image: Mar Sharb, CC BY 2.0, file

Sources

• Italian Somaliland (Wikipedia)
• Italian Somaliland (Wikidata)
• About the picture (Wikipedia)

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.