The Fall of Italia Risorta: Ethiopia, Roman Africa, and the Invention of Italy

Abstract

Abstract This chapter explores Italian discourses about Roman imperialism in the context of the Italy’s first colonies in East Africa, and its defeats in Ethiopia in the 1880s and 1890s. It begins by setting Italian imperial classicism in this period within the context of the classicizing imperialisms of other powers. First, it examines British and Egyptian imperial ambitions towards Ethiopia, framed with reference to ancient history. Next it charts Italy’s early colonial endeavours in East Africa, culminating with the defeat at the Battle of Dogali in 1887. This was commemorated in classical style, two significant instances being an obelisk in central Rome, and essays by Alfredo Oriani. The chapter suggests that, from the very beginning of the existence of the Italian nation state, colonialism in Africa, modelled on ancient Roman imperialism, was central to Italian national self-understanding.