In Eritrea
Franchetti, as an agricultural advisor of the Italian government in Eritrea, estimated that there was plenty of land and few people in Eritrea and recommended the colonisation of the highlands by Italian settlers. He undertook the first land expropriations in 1893 with the vision that two million Italian peasants would settle down in Eritrea. Large tracts of land were declared public and all grazing land was declared state owned, which was a clear interference with the traditional land right system in the highlands.
However, the highlands were only sparsely populated because of the great famine in 1888-92 as a result of rinderpest and subsequent epidemics. Returning to their villages they had abandoned because of the famine, they saw their land confiscated. Riots and revolts broke out. Most of the Italian settlers returned to Italy in dismay.
Read more about this topic: Leopoldo Franchetti