A History Of Italian Colonialism 1900 1934

This book, part two of Giuseppe Finaldi's sweeping account of Italian colonialism studies its history from the turn of the 20th century to the early 1930s. The book engages with a period of huge social, political and cultural change resulting in a new dynamism on the African and expansionist front. The period saw an economic leap forward, an extension of Italians' political engagement - through new forces such as popular socialism, social Catholicism and the 'new' nationalism - as well as a huge surge in the number of people leaving Italy for new lives in the Americas while expansionism made its mark in Libya, the horn of Africa and elsewhere.

The twentieth century saw a proliferation of media discourses on colonialism and, later, decolonisation. Newspapers, periodicals, films, radio and TV broadcasts contributed to the construction of the image of the African “Other” across the colonial world. In recent years, a growing body of literature has explored the role of these media in many colonial societies. As regards the Italian context, however, although several works have been published about the links between colonial culture and national identity, none have addressed the specific role of the media and their impact on collective memory (or lack thereof). This book fills that gap, providing a review of images and themes that have surfaced and resurfaced over time. The volume is divided into two sections, each organised around an underlying theme: while the first deals with visual memory and images from the cinema, radio, television and new media, the second addresses the role of the printed press, graphic novels and comics, photography and trading cards.

Italy's First African War (1880-1896) pitted a young and ambitious European nation against the ancient Empire of Ethiopia. The Least of Europe's Great Powers rashly assailed Africa's most formidable military power. The outcome was humiliating defeat for Italy and the survival, uniquely for any African nation in the years of the European Scramble for that continent, of Ethiopian independence. Notwithstanding Italy's disastrous first experience in the colonial fray, this book argues that the impact of the war went well beyond the battlefields of the Ethiopian highlands and reached into the minds of the Italian people at home. Through a detailed and exhaustive study of Italian popular culture, this book asks how far the First African War impacted on the Italian nation-building project and how far Italians were themselves changed by undergoing the experience of war and defeat in East Africa. Finaldi argues, for the first time in historiography on the subject, that there was substantial support for and awareness of Italy's military campaign and that 'Empire', as has come to be regarded as fundamental in the histories of other European countries, needs to be brought firmly into the mainstream of Italian national history. This book is an essential contribution to debates on the relationship between European national identity and culture and imperialism in the late 19th century.

Five case studies show how different people and places were marginalized and socially excluded as the Italian nation-state was formed.

Fascism was one of the defining experiences of the European 20th Century. Within it many of the economic, political, social and cultural contradictions that had been brewing in the unprecedented transformation that European society underwent in the 19th and early 20th century came to a head. Mussolini, the man who most fashioned Italian Fascism, dramatically expressed the unease and the hopes of his age. To what extent can we compare Mussolini's Italy to Hitler's Germany or Stalin's Russia? What legacy has the experience of Fascism left behind in Italy and in Europe? These and many more important questions are explored in Finaldi's introduction to one of the most important movements of the European 20th Century.

The first exploration of how Mussolini employed population settlement inside the nation and across the empire to strengthen Italian sovereignty.

The Colonial Legacy in Somalia is an investigation into the relationship between Rome and Mogadishu, from the period of colonial administration to the recent dramatic events of Operation Restore Hope. It defines the first Italian incursions in the Horn of Africa, the history of the expansionist plans of an imperial late comer, such as Italy, and explores the decade of the Trusteeship Administration from 1950-1960 when Italy tried to introduce a new state system in Mogadishu: It analyzes the events of the 1970s and 1980s when Siad Barre's regime, in spite of his repressive and violent attitude, enjoyed strong support from the former colonial power. The book demonstrates a love-hate relationship between Rome and Mogadishu in the colonial and postcolonial period and examines the consequences of this interaction.