Italian East Africa (Italian: Africa Orientale Italiana) was an Italian colony established in 1936, resulting from the merger of the Ethiopian Empire with the colonies of Italian Somaliland and Italian Eritrea.
In August 1940, during the Second World War, British Somaliland was conquered and annexed to Italian East Africa, which itself was conquered by British-led forces in the course of 1941. The Ethiopian Empire and British Somaliland were then re-established, while Italian Somaliland and Eritrea both came under British administration. In 1949 Italian Somaliland was reconstituted as the Trust Territory of Somalia, which was administered by Italy from 1949 until its independence in 1960. In 1952 Eritrea was annexed by Ethiopia.
Famous quotes containing the words italian, east and/or africa:
“If the study of his images
Is the study of man, this image of Saturday,
This Italian symbol, this Southern landscape, is like
A waking, as in images we awake,
Within the very object that we seek,
Participants of its being.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“We have heard all of our lives how, after the Civil War was over, the South went back to straighten itself out and make a living again. It was for many years a voiceless part of the government. The balance of power moved away from it—to the north and the east. The problems of the north and the east became the big problem of the country and nobody paid much attention to the economic unbalance the South had left as its only choice.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“Are you there, Africa with the bulging chest and oblong thigh? Sulking Africa, wrought of iron, in the fire, Africa of the millions of royal slaves, deported Africa, drifting continent, are you there? Slowly you vanish, you withdraw into the past, into the tales of castaways, colonial museums, the works of scholars.”
—Jean Genet (1910–1986)