Colonies of Italy

By the end of 1860, almost the entire territory of Italy was united around the Sardinian kingdom . In 1871, with the accession of the Papal state to the Italian kingdom, the country's unification was completed and Italy began colonial expansion .

For two decades after the unification, the Italian government was looking with interest at the possibility of colonizing several territories in Southeast Asia that were still free from other colonial powers, in particular: Thailand , Burma (annexed by Great Britain in 1885), Sultanate of Aceh , was considered the appropriateness of claiming the Andamand and Nicobar Islands, which the Austrian Empire had previously tried to claim and the Danes had rather sluggishly colonized. In 1880, Baron Gustav von Overbeck, Consul of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Hong Kong, trying to acquire the Northern Borneo for his country, tried to transfer the Italian concession, but the project failed, being refused in Rome, by then the Baron was already forced to leave the enterprise, full control over which the English investors received.

In addition, at the end of 1869, researcher Emilio Cherruti was sent to New Guinea in order to establish relations with the local population, in order to create a trading post and colony possible in the future. Cherutti was able to establish relations with the sultans of the islands of Aru and Kai of the Moluccan archipelago, and under preliminary agreements they were taken under Italian sovereignty, but fear of meeting opposition from Great Britain and the Netherlands did not allow to bring this initiative to a successful conclusion.

However, in 1883, the Italian government requested London through diplomatic channels whether the British government could agree that part of New Guinea could become an Italian colony and was categorically refused. The British Empire refused to acknowledge any attempt at Italian colonization in the Asia-Pacific region.

In 1885, Italy annexed and annexed Eritrea , in 1889 - the south of Somalia ( Benadir ), and after the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-1912 - Libya and the Dodecanese Islands . In World War I, Italy fought on the side of the Entente and, according to peace treaties ( Saint-Germain 1919 and Rapallo 1922) received South Tyrol , almost all of Istria .

In 1922 , the fascist government led by Benito Mussolini came to power. The country's foreign policy has become more aggressive. Fascist Italy attacked Corfu (1923), captured Ethiopia (1935-1936) and Albania ( 1939 ). An alliance was concluded with Nazi Germany , on the side of which from 1940 Italy entered the Second World War . In June of this year, Italy occupied the southeast of France with the largest city of Menton in this area. In 1942, Italians occupied French Toulon , Provence and occupied all of Corsica . In 1943, the Mussolini regime fell, German troops occupied the north of the country, as well as Albania and Dalmatia . The rebels of the Resistance movement, together with the Anglo-American forces, liberated Italy by 1945, and the Albanian national liberation movement in 1944, Albania.

In 1946, Italy was proclaimed a republic - however, according to the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947, it was deprived of all the colonies (Libya - in 1951, Somalia - in 1960), most of the Istrian peninsula and other previously occupied territories. The Italian colonial empire ceased to exist.

This list contains all the territories of the world that have ever been in colonial or close dependence on Italy .

In Europe

• Rhodes Province ( Italian Aegean Islands )
• Governorate of Dalmatia
  • Zara Province
  • Province of Paul
  • Province of Carnaro
• Ljubljana Province
• Protectorates
  • Kingdom of albania
  • Independent State of Croatia (Third Reich condominium)
  • Kingdom of Montenegro
  • Pindian-Meglena Principality (condominium with Bulgaria)

Overseas

• Italian North Africa
  • Italian Libya
    • Tripolitania
    • Cyrenaica
    • Kufrah District
    • Auzu Strip
• Italian East Africa
  • Italian Eritrea (including Hanish Islands )
  • Italian Somalia
    • Benadir
    • Ogaden
    • Jubaland
    • lands of the sultanates of Majirtin , Hobyo and
  • Italian Ethiopia
  • British Somalia (annexation, 1940-1941)
• Italian concessions and forts in China (including Tianjin )
• Italian colonization of America

   In the Middle Ages, many possessions of the Venetian and Genoese republics were outside the borders of modern Italy:

• Dalmatia (including Zara ( Zadar ), Split , Lagosta ( Lastovo ), Fiume ( Rijeka ), etc.)
• Ragusa ( Dubrovnik )
• Constantinople (partially)
• parts of modern Greece - Corfu , Crete , Euboea ( Negroponta ), Ionian Islands , Cyclades , Thrace , Etholia , Epirus , Athens , Thessaloniki , Rhodes , Lesbos , Chios , etc.
• coast of corsica
• parts of modern Albania - Durazzo ( Durres ), Scutari ( Shkoder )
• Cyprus
• Crimean coast - Kaffa ( Feodosia ), Chembalo ( Balaklava ), Soldayya ( Sudak ), Vosporo ( Kerch ), Gruzui ( Gurzuf ), Sarson ( Tauric Chersonesos )
• Black Sea coast from the Dniester to the Danube - Samastro ( Belgorod-Dniester ), Ginestra ( Odessa ), Lycostomo ( Kiliya )
• Tana ( Azov )
• Black Sea coast of the modern Krasnodar Territory - Matrega ( Tmutarakan ), Kopa ( Slavyansk-on-Kuban ), Mapa ( Anapa ), Bata ( Novorossiysk ), Casto ( Khosta ), Liyash ( Adler )
• the territory of modern Abkhazia - Abkazia ( Tsandrypsh ), Kakari ( Gagra ), Santa Sofia ( Alahadzi ), Pesonka ( Pitsunda ), Cavo di Buxo ( Gudauta ), Nikopsia ( New Athos ), Sebastopolis ( Sukhum )

• History of Italy
• Terra farm

• Atlas of Italian colonies , written by Baratta Mario and Visintin Luigi in 1928