In Search of Soldiers: Yemen as a Military Recruiting Ground for the Italian Colonial Army, 1903–1918

Abstract

Abstract When faced with the problem of setting up their colonial troops in Somalia, the Italians adopted a rigid quota system. According to the Regulations of the Royal Colonial Corps of Somalia of 1906, only 10 percent of the available positions were reserved for Somalis. Another 20 percent of the troops was reserved for “people of other races,” whereas the remaining 70 percent had to be made up of “Arab” soldiers from Yemen and the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula. When other colonial armies, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, were unable to reach such percentages, they filled the gaps in their ranks with a large number of “foreigners.” This article looks at why this situation arose and how these men were recruited, investigating the world of transnational enlistment in an area stretching from Benadir to the southern Red Sea. The phenomenon is analyzed through the prism of labor and mobility history, two approaches that allow us to grasp aspects and characteristics that military history alone would be hard-pressed to bring to light. The article argues that for many men, being a soldier was not a life-long choice but rather a form of stopgap employment in a system that suffered from a chronic labor shortage. This strong labor shortage sparked fierce competition among the colonial powers, which, to secure the required manpower, inevitably had to compete with other colonial powers by offering more desirable contracts. Taking advantage of the greater ease of movement and the high demand for work, some inhabitants of this region had an edge in negotiating their terms of service.