Italian Occupation Research Articles

The Italian occupation of Massawa and the supposed origin of the African rinderpest panzootic

African Journal of EcologyVolume 55, Issue 4 p. 705-709 Note and Record The Italian occupation of Massawa and the supposed origin of the African rinderpest panzootic Clive A. Spinage, Corresponding Author Clive A. Spinage c.spinage336@btinternet.com orcid.org/0000-0003-4055-422X Wickwood House, Stanford Road, Faringdon, Oxon, SN7 8EZ U.K.Correspondence: E-mail: c.spinage336@btinternet.comSearch for more papers by this author Clive A. Spinage, Corresponding Author Clive A. Spinage c.spinage336@btinternet.com orcid.org/0000-0003-4055-422X Wickwood House, Stanford Road, Faringdon, Oxon, SN7 8EZ U.K.Correspondence: E-mail: c.spinage336@btinternet.comSearch for more papers by this author First published: 20 May 2017 https://doi.org/10.1111/aje.12403Citations: 1Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume55, Issue4December 2017Pages 705-709 RelatedInformation

Beyond the Myth of the ‘Good Italian’. Recent Trends in the Study of the Italian Occupation of Southeastern Europe during the Second World War

AbstractThis article surveys the existing literature on the occupation policy Italy conducted in Southeastern Europe during the Second World War. The whole subject was largely neglected by scholars of contemporary Italian history up to the 1990s, but in the last twenty years a consistent flow of studies has begun to appear. The reasons for the previous disregard of the topic and, now, the growing interest in it are investigated in the first part of this article. The second part focuses on work done in recent years. It evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of this new literature, and maps out a series of a blank spots that should be addressed by future research.

L'Italia e il primo conflitto globale, 1914-1918

L'Italia e il primo conflitto globale, 1914-1918

The Collapse of Indigenous Socio-political Systems in the Horn of Africa: The Case D’irasha Community in South Western Ethiopia

The central goal of this study is to expose the Process of the dismantling of indigenous socio-political systems in South Western Ethiopia of the horn of Africa with particular reference the D’irasha community. The study examines the way the Abyssinians political and cultural hegemony destructed social and political values of indigenous communities in the region. It also tries to see the role of other factors like the Italian occupation, the missionary activities and the adherence of socialism by Ethiopian state as contributors. Furthermore, the paper investigates the emergence of the D’irasha as unique ethnic community and the nature of their socio-political organization.

A city shaped by diplomacy

Ethiopia is an old country with a long history of political change, both domestically and towards the rest of the world. Internally, Ethiopia’s ever-changing socio-political behavior was manifested by a tradition of relocating its seat of government. Axum, Lalibela, Teguelat, Gondar, Magdala, Ankober, and Mekele are only a few examples of such temporary headquarters, and many other “roving capitals” are excluded.1 The most recent shift was the foundation of the current capital city Addis Ababa in 1886. In the 131 years since then, this city has evolved from a simple village of hot springs and encampments into a global diplomatic center. The city’s diplomatic relevance has grown especially rapidly since 1950. Today, it hosts continental and global institutions such as the African Union (AU), a number of United Nation institutions (UN-ECA, UNDP, UNESCO) and others, in addition to diplomatic institutions for bilateral relations. Until today, Addis Ababa contains only fragments of the disruption caused by the brief period of Italian occupation between 1936 and 1941, when the occupiers attempted to erase the existing city and build a new colonial capital. This paper looks at the evolution of Addis Ababa through the agency of diplomacy. It focuses on the morphological and architectural manifestations of diplomacy in the city, based on a timeline of five recognizable periods. Using exemplary cases, it illustrates the physical and spatial impact and architectural influences associated with diplomacy and diplomatic institutions. Subsequently, we argue that the emergence of Addis Ababa as a diplomatic center in its first couple of decades anchored it as a lasting political center, while the diplomatic developments that followed and their physical manifestations played a vivid formative role in the city’s urbanization. Within Addis Ababa’s poly-nuclear structure, the diplomatic institutions prevail as frames and points of reference, spread out over the whole city.

Италия и вопрос о принадлежности Додеканесских островов в 1912—1914 годах

The history of diplomatic struggle of Italy for the recognition of Italian control over the Dodecanese Islands is examined. It is emphasized that the archipelago, captured by Italy during the Libyan war of 1911-1912, had strategic importance as a natural centre to establish spheres of influence in the Eastern Mediterranean. It is noted that Italy had not originally sought the inclusion of the archipelago in its own land, but quickly showed interest to establish its power over the Dodecanese Islands and refused to implement the international agreements providing the evacuation of the Italian occupying forces from the archipelago. The article proves that the difficult diplomatic struggle in which, along with Italy, Greece and Ottoman Empire, the great European powers - France, Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary - took part, did not led to the return of the disputed Islands to the Ottoman Empire or to their transfer to Greece, demanding these Islands on the basis of ethnic principle. The author argues that the persistence, under various pretexts, the Italian occupation of the Islands was as a result of significant diplomatic victory of Italy and subsequently allowed them to be Italian possession.

O estádio e a cidade: Infraestruturas desportivas no final e no pós Etiópia imperial

The inauguration of the Haile Selassie I Stadium in Addis Ababa in 1947 marked the beginning of the construction of stadiums in Ethiopia. They became important signifiers of accelerated modernisation after the end of the Italian occupation (1935-1941). Quite similar to developments elsewhere, open fields were turned into formalised sport infrastructures. Already in the 1930s, stadiums had become essential elements of modern town planning in Ethiopia. Later, political officials, town planners and sport enthusiasts endowed them with specific meanings, involving ideas of progress, effective representation of political power and ‘useful’ recreation.

The Resilience of Ethiopian Church Forests: Interpreting Aerial Photographs, 1938–2015

AbstractChurch forests collectively represent the only surviving remnants of the original montane forest, serving as critical sanctuaries for many of Ethiopia's endangered and endemic plant and invertebrate taxa. Modern inventories of church forests suggest that they are vulnerable to degradation because of their small size and isolation. The aim of this study is to use historical air photos from the period of the Italian occupation of Ethiopia (1935–1941) to measure changes to church forests over a ~80‐year time span. We find little evidence that church forests in the study region around Debra Tabor in the northern Ethiopia highlands are declining in size. Rather, church forests have proven to be remarkably resilient on the landscape despite decades of dramatic change to the world around them. Our findings, therefore, highlight the effectiveness of religion‐based forest stewardship. Results also indicate, however, that while many church forests used to be buffered from intensive agricultural activity (e.g., cultivation and pasture) today, they find themselves significantly more isolated and vulnerable to edge effects as a result of a general decrease of trees and bushlands surrounding the forests. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Sheila Lecoeur, Mussolini’s Greek Island: Fascism and the Italian Occupation of Syros in World War II

Sheila Lecoeur, <i>Mussolini’s Greek Island: Fascism and the Italian Occupation of Syros in World War II</i>

Italian colonial psychiatry: outlines of a discipline, and practical achievements in Libya and the Horn of Africa.

This article describes the establishment of psychiatry in Italy's former colonies during the period 1906-43, in terms of the clinical and institutional mechanisms, the underlying theories and the main individuals involved. 'Colonial psychiatry' (variously called 'ethnographic', 'comparative' or 'racial' psychiatry) - the object of which was both to care for mentally afflicted colonists and local people and also to understand and make sense of their pathologies - received most attention in colonial Libya, starting in the first months of the Italian occupation (1911-12) and then taking institutional form in the 1930s; in the colonies of what was known as 'Italian East Africa', on the other hand, less was said about psychiatric care, and practical achievements were correspondingly limited.

Les Juifs en Albanie sous l’occupation italienne

The historians who have studied the vicissitudes of European Judaism during the Holocaust have generally neglected the history of the Jews who were in Albania during World War II, a group that includes both Albanian Jews and Jewish refugees from other countries. One reason for this apparent oversight is the postwar ban imposed by the Communist dictatorship on access to the Albanian archives, which lasted until the mid-1990s. After describing the condition of the Jews in Albania under the Zog regime (1925-1939), this paper examines the Italian occupation period (1939-1943). The author compares the state-sponsored anti-Semitism in effect in Rome with the anti-Semitism promoted by Mussolini in this small country controlled by Italian authorities. Through this comparison, the author aims to analyze the fate of the Mitteleuropa Jews who had come to Albania during the 1930s to escape Hitler’s persecution. After the Nazis and Fascists occupied and divided up Yugoslavia, they were joined by Jews fleeing the terrible persecution that had begun in Serbia, Croatia and Macedonia.

The Papacy in the Age of Totalitarianism, 1914–1958 by John Pollard

The Papacy in the Age of Totalitarianism, 1914-1958. By John Pollard. [Oxford History of the Christian Church. (New York: Oxford University Press. 2014. Pp. xvi, 544. $140.00. ISBN 978-0-19-920856-2.]John Pollard is already well known for his work on the Vatican. Now he enhances that reputation with a sweeping narrative of the evolution of the papacy from World War I through the controversial role of Pope Pius XII in World War II to the cold war. It was a period of great change for the Vatican, as it recovered from the loss of temporal power in 1870 and began carving out a new-and more powerful-role in international diplomacy.World War I represented the nadir of Vatican influence. In 1915 the Allies signed the treaty of London that excluded the Holy See from taking part in any peace negotiations because of the Italian fear that it might bring up the Roman Question, the situation of the Holy See between the Italian occupation of Rome in 1870 and the Lateran Treaties in 1929. In the nineteenth century, the Holy See had to contend with the aftermath of the French Revolution. In the twentieth century, it faced new enemies: fascism, with which it had to preserve some semblance of accord in Italy; Nazism; and communism. After the Great War, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a sometime ally to the Holy See, was dismembered, and a new world power took its first steps in European affairs. Despite the hostility of the American President Woodrow Wilson toward Catholics and hyphenated Americans, he did, under pressure, visit Pope Benedict XV on his way to Versailles, but then his own government's veto of U.S. membership in the League of Nations meant a return to American isolationism. But the seeds were sown, and the Holy See began slowly to appreciate the particular type of republican government practiced by the religiously pluralistic country across the Atlantic. This is one of several important themes that Pollard traces in his monumental contribution to the subject.Relying heavily on the Vatican Archives, open to February 1939, and on a vast array of secondary works, Pollard traces the adaptation of the Vatican to the new realities of the twentieth century. He sees more continuity than discontinuity from Benedict XV through Pius XI to Pius XII. Although he vividly portrays these pontiffs, he does not neglect the important roles of subordinates such as Domenico Tardini, who served in the Vatican until the 1960s, and Giovanni Battista Montini, the later Pope Paul VI.Contrary to the charge that Eugenio Pacelli, the Vatican secretary of state from 1929 to his election as Pius XII in 1939, agreed to the dissolution of the German Center party as a pay-off to Hitler for the 1933 concordat with the Third Reich, Pollard shows that the Vatican Archives make it clear that the disbanding of the party left Pacelli less room for manoeuvre in his negotiations with the Nazis (p. …

Recovery of the aerial photographs of Ethiopia in the 1930s

Abstract The aerial photographs (APs) acquired by the Istituto Geografico Militare (IGM) in the period of the Italian occupation of Ethiopia (1935–1941) have recently been discovered, scanned and organised. Until recently, the oldest APs of the country that were available had been taken in the period 1958–1964. The APs over Ethiopia in 1935–1941 consist of 8281 assemblages on approximately 50 cm × 20 cm hardboard tiles, each holding a label, one nadir-pointing photograph flanked by two low-oblique photographs and one high-oblique photograph. The four APs were exposed simultaneously and were taken across the flight line. The high-oblique photograph is presented alternatively at left and at right. There is approximately 60% overlap between subsequent sets of APs. One of Santoni's glass plate multi-cameras was used, with focal length of 178 mm and with a flight height of 4000–4500 m a.s.l., which resulted in an approximate scale of 1:11,500 for the central photograph and 1:16,000 to 1:18,000 for the low-oblique APs. The surveyors oriented themselves with maps of Ethiopia at 1:400,000 scale, compiled in 1934. The flights present a dense AP coverage of Northern Ethiopia, where they were acquired in the context of upcoming battles with the Ethiopian army. Several flights preceded the later advance of the Italian army southwards to the capital Addis Ababa. Further flights took place in central Ethiopia for civilian purposes. As of 1936, the APs were used to prepare topographic maps at 1:100,000 and 1:50,000 scales. To re-process the imagery using novel techniques, procedures using digital image-based modelling have been developed. The 1935-1941 APs together with those of 1958–1964, 1994 and recent high-resolution satellite imagery are currently being used in spatio-temporal analysis, including change studies of land cover, land management and geomorphology in Ethiopia over a time span of 80 years.

The Enemy as Confounding Other: Interpersonal Perception and Displacement in Italian Memories of the Resistance and German Occupation of 1943–1945

Much has been written about the legacies of the Italian Resistance during the Second World War, usually based on oral accounts and memoirs of the protagonists of the events- typically produced by the winning side. Meanwhile, the emerging fields of conflict and post-conflict anthropology are opening up the epistemological horizons of a war's impact on person, place and society. Despite much promise, in the case of the Italian civil war and German occupation of 1943–1945, notions of the “enemy” have been accepted unproblematically. Questions of how the enemy was constructed, situated and perceived have not been asked. And yet the Resistance was a highly localized and “visceral” conflict where affective ties to the land were stronger than any allegiance to an abstract “Fatherland” appropriated by Fascism. In this paper, I interrogate mechanisms of perception, othering and exclusion in order to illuminate a grassroots experience of Resistance and occupation.

English

The main purpose of this paper is to reconstruct the political biography of Kibur Ato Haddis Alemayehu who was one of the senior officials of Ethiopia during the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie I and the author of the most accomplished Amharic novel, Feqer Eska Meqaber (“Love unto Grave”). In order to undertake this study, both primary and secondary sources were used. The source analysis revealed that after the liberation of Ethiopia from Italian occupation in 1941, Haddis served his country at different senior governmental posts, among others, as Director, Director General and Vice Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, and Minister of the Ministry of Planning and Development. He was Ethiopian Consul to Jerusalem, First Secretary of Ethiopian Legation in Washington D.C., Ethiopian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN and Ambassador to Great Britain and the Netherlands. Besides, he also participated in a number of international as well as continental conferences. In his dealing with other countries on behalf of the Ethiopian government, Haddis was committed to protect Ethiopia’s interest and sovereignty. At home, Haddis had a character of truthful and meticulous administrator and bold enough to comment any mistake of the government. Thus, the consideration of Haddis Alemayehu’s political biography helps not only to know him at some depth but also to comprehend the nature of the past feudo-capitalist system of Ethiopia. Key words: Haddis, Minister, Ambassador, Diplomat, Foreign Affairs.

Italian Occupation in Tunisia and Yugoslavia: Differences and Similarities in Relations with Jews

Italian Occupation in Tunisia and Yugoslavia: Differences and Similarities in Relations with Jews

English

This paper examines how the educated people of Tigray took over the illiterate ones to fight against the imperial government. Local songs, poems and sayings used against Emperor Haileslasie are discussed. Following the liberation of Ethiopia from the Italian occupation in 1941, Emperor Haileslasie introduced a number of reforms, many of which were rejected by the people of Ethiopia. The imperial government used different measures including force to implement its policies. This created resentment in the people over whom repressive actions were undertaken. What happened in Tigray in 1942/43 is a good example. The Qedamay (First) Woyane Rebellion of 1942/43 broke out due to high taxation, maladministration, corruption, political feud etc. Although the rebellion failed because British Royal Arms intervened, the people did not remain submissive to the regime. A number of Tegaru University students from different Awrajas of Tigray joined Hailslasie I University at different times. The university served as an academic and political school where they agreed on how to save their communities from miserable lives. They formed an organization called Tigrean University Students Association (TUSA) that served them as an umbrella and binding pot. Members and supporters of this association were ready to pay any sacrifices for the betterment of their people. They made the society fight against the feudal regime and did everything to solve the problem of their people. With time, TUSA supporters increased. The association was renamed MAGEBT, then TNO and finally TPLF. Many Tegaru University students paid with their golden lives, time and properties in their struggle against the feudal regime. Finally, they successfully toppled the imperial regime. However, their struggle continued after the end of the imperial regime. Due to the absence of well organized civil government, another oppressive government, the Derg, assumed power. &nbsp; Key words: &nbsp;First Woyane, TUSA, MAGEBT, TNO, university students, political opposition.

To Walk With the Devil: Slovene Collaboration and Axis Occupation, 1941-1945, by Gregor Joseph Kranjc

To Walk With the Devil: Slovene Collaboration and Axis Occupation, 1941-1945, by Gregor Joseph Kranjc. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2013. xi, 329 pp. $32.95 US (paper). Gregor Kranjc has produced a detailed study of the local collaboration with Italian and Germany occupation forces in Slovenia during the Second World War. His purpose is to correct earlier historians' dichotomous perspective, especially the post WWII Yugoslavian communist track on collaboration and the view proffered by the exiled anti-communist emigres. The first view holds that there was a wide spread popular resistance toward the occupiers with only a small group of collaborators attempting to maintain their positions of privilege. The emigre version states that the Slovenians had to choose between evils (the Germans or the communists) with the goal of preserving the Slovene nation. Kranjc amply demonstrates that both are mythologies in need of modification. Yugoslavia entered into WWII with the idea of preserving its statehood through an alliance with the Axis powers. This effort was subverted by a group of anti-Fascist military officers who overthrew the government and attempted to form a monarchy led democracy. The folly of this aspiration was underlined by the immediate invasion and dissection of Yugoslavia by German, Italian, and Hungarian forces. Slovenia was sliced into three portions, a part for each occupier. Kranjc focuses on the area which the Italians first occupy: the Province of Ljubljana. Ljubljuana is significant because the area had relatively more independence than other parts of Yugoslavia during the early occupation, and because of what happened to anti-partisan forces from this region after the war. The mass murders, trials, and mob justice enacted against collaborators (perceived and real) are the impetus for his exploration of the topic. Chapter two lays out the history of Slovene and Yugoslavia between 1900 and the eve of WWII. The history of previous occupiers including resistance and collaboration is a key point in this story. The political divide between the communists and the non-communists was established prior to the war, with Government and Church leaders dynamically opposed to communism. Resistance to the Axis invaders is explored in chapter three. The resistance started small: hiding food stuffs, collecting weapons, and gathering intelligence to pass on to the British and Yugoslavian government in exile. Armed resistance was not yet a rational option due to the overwhelming military clout of the invaders and the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact between Germany and the Soviets. Armed resistance began when Germany launched Operation Barbarossa in June 1941. The Yugoslavian communists, in the main form of the Liberation Front under Tito were the backbone of the communist contribution to the resistance. The Italians, who occupied Slovenia, poured in thousands of troops to meet the armed partisans. They were ultimately unsuccessful. Kranjc does not spend a large amount of text on Tito or on resistance as his study is about collaboration. Collaboration, and its complexity, is the focus of the remainder of the book. In the first two years the defeat of Nazi Germany and its allies seemed unlikely and so hopes of a successful war against the Fascists appeared delusional. People settled into the Italian occupation and worked to make a life for themselves. This involved carrying on business which inevitably led to dealing with the invaders, and at times this presented opportunities for great profit. …

“We Woke Up and Everything Had Gone to Qadhafi”

Since the 2011 revolution claimants in Libya have been lobbying to demand reinstatement of property confiscated from their families by Qadhafi under Law 4/1978. During this campaign they have forcefully argued that they have been impoverished and sidelined as victims of corruption. In particular, they highlight how their property enriched and empowered the Qadhafi regime’s corrupt elites as it was redistributed as a form of state controlled ‘rent’. However, in making this argument they have tried to limit retrospective evaluations of property rights to the Qadhafi period, preventing investigation of their own families’ accumulation of property under the Italian occupation or the monarchy. Property claimants’ preferred solution is for the democratically elected government to enforce property restitution and to allocate state funds for compensation and for housing construction. The prospects for this are not good. In post-revolutionary Libya powerful militia have made land and property grabs, and other post-revolutionary elites are accused of engaging in corruption, in a continuing threat to property claimants’ future political and economic status.

Ljubljana University Library: National and University Library, Slovenia, in the period 1938 -1943

AbstractThe article presents the history of the National and University Library from the period 1938 to 1943. The period begins in 1938 when the former State Studium Library became a part of the University of King Alexander I and changed its name to University Library, and ends with the collapse of the fascist Italy in 1943. After more than 150 years the Library lost its independent status and became fully subordinated to the University. At the very beginning of the Second World War it moved into the new library building. It had to adapt to the war conditions and cope with the requirements of the Italian occupation authorities.