1941: Italian East Africa

The year 1941 was a turning point in the history of what for a few years after 1936 was known as Italian East Africa, composed originally of the two older Italian colonies. Eritrea and Italian Somaliland, and of the Empire of Ethiopia or Abyssinia, conquered by Italy in 1936. By the beginning of 1941 the natives of Ethiopia had begun to organize for resistance against the hated Italian domination, and revolts began to spread throughout the country when it became known that the former Emperor Haile Selassie had flown from London to the Sudan to begin the reconquest of his lands. On Jan. 17, the Italians abandoned Kassala, the Sudanese border city which they had occupied in 1940 as a possible springboard for a Fascist drive on Khartoum in the Sudan, a drive that was never realized. On Jan. 15 Haile Selassie crossed the frontiers of his native Ethiopia. A proclamation exhorted his subjects to raise arms against the enemy.

Military Campaigns.

By the end of January the British had broken the second Italian defense line in Eritrea and were closing in on the important strategic center of Agordat on the road to Asmara, the capital. In mid-February the British attack developed from another direction; imperial troops in the south captured the important Italian port of Chisimaio in Somaliland at the mouth of the Juba River. Other imperial columns, supported by Ethiopian patriot troops, marched from the Sudan in the direction of Gondar and Lake Tana, while still other forces crossed the border of Kenya in a thrust towards Mega in southern Ethiopia. On Feb. 25 Mogadiscio, the capital of Italian Somaliland, fell into British hands, a conquest followed by the voluntary and wholesale surrender of Fascist forces in that part of Italian East Africa. From that moment on the concentric British offensive developed on a faster and broader scale. The British, who had been forced to evacuate British Somaliland under Italian pressure in August 1940, were able to recapture, on March 16, Berbera, the capital and seaport of British Somaliland, and on March 22, Neghelli, the strategic key in southern Ethiopia, was occupied by them. From there they pushed on to the north toward Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia and Italian East Africa, which was at the same time threatened by a British army advancing from Jijiga and by a patriot army advancing from the north from Debra Markos. The roads which had been built and improved by the Italians themselves, facilitated the quick progress of the British motorized columns against the demoralized Italians. On March 27 the key cities of Cheren in Eritrea, and Harar, the second largest city of Ethiopia, fell to the British, and by April first Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, was in British hands.

On April 6 the Italian flag was hauled down over Addis Ababa, and the Italian viceroy, the Duke of Aosta, with the main Italian forces, fell back towards Dessie in the north central part of the country. On April 21 the British commander, Lieut. Gen. Alan Gordon Cunningham, opened negotiations with the Duke of Aosta, but it was only on May 19 that the Duke surrendered, after a resistance of several weeks at Amba Alaji. Meanwhile, on May 5, Haile Selassie had reentered Addis Ababa, after five years of exile. There remained isolated centers of Italian resistance in Ethiopia, the most important of them at Jimma in the lake region of the south, and at Gondar in the northwest. The first to yield were the troops in the south, which were under the command of Gen. Pietro Gazzera; the Fascist troops in the north held out for a longer time. On Sept. 28 the garrison at Uolchefit surrendered after 165 days of siege, and on Nov. 28 the surrender at Gondar marked the end of Italian East Africa. It was the Ethiopian troops, with the help of British and Free French forces, which stormed this last stronghold of Mussolini's vanishing empire, where Gen. Guglielmo Nasi had commanded a force of 10,000 Italians.

Administrative Problems.

The transition from Italian to Ethiopian administration demanded much skill and preparation. The Italians had spent about 1,000,000,000 lire in Ethiopia, and though they had improved the strategic communications and had built many modern buildings, especially in Addis Abba, they had been unable to exploit any of the supposed mineral wealth of the country. Thus Ethiopia had remained for them a very costly and unproductive enterprise. It was valuable to them not for any economic reasons, but only as a symbol of the military achievements and the imperial dignity of Fascism. The conquest of Ethiopia in 1936 had added to the titles of the King of Italy that of Emperor. Now the empire had crumbled, without fulfilling the great strategic expectations which the Italians had connected with it. They had seen it, in case of a war with Great Britain, as a starting point for their northwards march to the conquest of Sudan and Egypt, and for the establishment of a junction with the imperial Italian troops proceeding southeast and east from Libya. Instead of that not only was the rightful emperor of Ethiopia again on the throne of his ancestors, but the British had gained complete control of the former Italian empire including the old colonies of Eritrea and Italian Somaliland. The Italian civilian population in Ethiopia numbered about 40,000. Plans were laid for their evacuation, but in the meantime they had to stay where they were. It is noteworthy that in spite of the cruel and disdainful treatment which the Italians had meted out to the conquered 'natives,' these in no way took revenge, and no serious disorders occurred.

For the transitional period the British are helping Emperor Haile Selassie to modernize the administration, so that at present a system of dual control prevails, with the British deputy chief political officer, a staff of experts on finance, trade, justice, etc., and British district political officers, advising the local authorities. The system of modern communications built up by the Italians will be an important help in the modernization of the whole administration in the vast and formerly unwieldy empire. There have been also instituted mixed courts of British-Ethiopian collaboration to try criminal cases. A pact between Great Britain and the Emperor, recognizing Ethiopian sovereignty and independence, was reported to be under negotiation for Ethiopia, while the Italian colonies of Eritrea and Italian Somaliland are to remain under British control until the end of the war and the final peace settlement. More than 100,000 Italians, apart from native soldiers, had been taken prisoners during the campaign in Italian East Africa.

In December 1941 the United States announced the establishment of a supply base in Eritrea to store there war materials which could be distributed to Egypt and Libya, the Russian Caucasus, or to India and the Far East, according to the needs of the situation. The main port in Eritrea is Massaua, which had been used by the Italians as the supply base for their Ethiopian campaign; another smaller port in Assab. See also GREAT BRITAIN; ITALY; WORLD WAR II.