When was eritrea colonized by italy

The bloodshed began only after continuous, multiple pleas and protests fell on deaf ears. All Eritrean voices were muzzled. So, in search of the collective dream of self-determination and self-development, an armed struggle for liberation was declared as the sole means to achieve independence from Ethiopian rule.

On September 1, , a group of independence fighters fired the first shots of the revolution. The long and bitter, year struggle was against an opponent with a larger population, bigger and better armaments, more resources, and large-scale foreign intervention and investment.

On the journey to independence, independence fighters had to also overcome challenges that nature itself presented: rough terrain and weather that made fighting more difficult and famines that led to starvation. Yet against all odds, Eritreans were victorious in realizing their vision of independence. During the fourth session of the United Nations General Assembly in September , Western powers resolved that the former Italian colonies of Libya and Somalia would be given their independence after a ten-year Italian trusteeship.

On the question of Eritrea, because of opposition to the desire of the Western powers to partition Eritrea between Sudan and Ethiopia, a UN commission was created to research the wishes of the people of Eritrea.

Although it was determined that the majority of the Eritrean people wanted complete independence, the UN Commission of Inquiry presented opposing proposals—independence or unity with Ethiopia—and the UN General Assembly forced Eritrea to accept federation with Ethiopia. Under the guise of reconciling Ethiopian claims of sovereignty and Eritrean aspirations for independence, the Federation provided the path for the United States to secure a military base in Asmara. In December , the United Nations resolved to forcibly join Eritrea to Ethiopia within two years despite the wishes of the Eritrean people for an independent nation.

In early , the British defeated the Italians in Eritrea at the Battle of Keren, defining yet another transitional time for Eritrea. On April 1, , British forces seized Asmara and hence placed the colony under British military administration during World War II until the Allied forces would determine its fate.

British forces moved Eritrean industries from Asmara and Massawa to Kenya as war compensation. They destroyed other factories and machinery. They dismantled and removed parts of the Eritrean railway.

This occupation was accepted by the new Ethiopian monarch, Menelik II. On 1 January , the Italian king announced the creation of the colony of Eritrea, taking its name from the ancient Greek name for the Red Sea, Erythreus. Massawa became the capital of the new colony, before being replaced by Asmara in The seizure by Italians of huge swathes of agricultural fields in the highlands from the indigenous population sparked an anticolonial revolt led by Bhata Hagos, a former commander in the Ethiopian army.

In response, the Italians invaded the Tigray region but faced the resistance of Ethiopian troops, who defeated them in the battle of Adwa in In the peace treaty that followed, Emperor Menelik II renounced Ethiopian claims to the Italian colony in exchange for the recognition of Ethiopia as an independent State. The Italian administration launched its first development projects in Eritrea from the late s. The construction of the Eritrean railway started in and the first line connecting Massawa to Saati, 27 kilometers inland from the coast, was completed in It reached Asmara in In addition, Italians built an infrastructure of ports, roads, telecommunications, factories, administrative centres and police stations that unified the colony under a centralised government.

Many historians and specialists trace the development of a national consciousness to that time. It therefore remained in an obscurity which kept it from the direct notice of world commercial influences that would have done much to develop its economic possibilities.

In , the Italian government commissioned a study of its past colonial activities from a group of 24 scholars, largely former colonial officials, including governors and geographers. Unlike other European countries, Italy never had prominent voices confronting its colonial crimes. France had at least two famous public intellectuals who restlessly campaigned against colonialism, namely Sartre—the rock-star philosopher who wrote strong opinion pieces against the war in Algeria—and the Martinique-born psychiatrist and political theorist Frantz Fanon, whose Wretched of the Earth , a book on the dehumanization of non-Europeans under colonialism, became a political classic.

On the contrary, colonialism was considered an interesting topic—as long as it did not involve Italy. It posed no problem, because the bad guys were the French. Then, in , a mausoleum honoring Graziani, the war criminal, was erected near Rome. While it has been defaced and mocked with graffiti, the mausoleum still stands. Today, Italian streets are still full of references to the colonial past, names of the streets or monuments that celebrate the soldiers who died building the Italian empire.

Despite pushing policies that are politically naive and disastrous for human rights in North Africa, Italian politicians keep getting promoted in Brussels. A new generation of students raised and schooled in Italy are pushing to reform outdated citizenship laws that reward those with Italian bloodlines rather than people who have lived in the country all their lives. Some best-selling fiction writers, such as Carlo Lucarelli , the Wu Ming collective , and Francesca Melandri , have recently set their stories during the colonial era.

But Scego says these are just small steps. Giorgio Ghiglione is a freelance writer in Milan. His work has appeared in the Guardian , Al Jazeera , and Internazionale. Twitter: giorgioghiglion. Shusha was the key to the recent war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Now Baku wants to turn the fabled fortress town into a resort. Argument An expert's point of view on a current event. By Giorgio Ghiglione , a freelance writer in Milan.