Abstract: The 19th century marked the beginning of a new era which European competition intensified on the African continent, the industrial revolution having created the need for markets and also the need to obtain raw materials for new European industries. Italy was one of the European countries which belatedly joined the colonial powers, due to the delay of its national unity which was not completed until 1870, and it had suffered from competition from a number other European countries, so that the project of its occupation of Tunisia failed by the French intervention in 1882 despite the large number of Italians and the proximity. The Italians have to strengthen their relations with the English so that they will later obtain consensus on the east of the African continent. In this article, we will try to retrace the stages of Italian colonial expansion in East Africa, starting with the signing of the first treaty that allowed Italians to be present in the east of the continent in 1869 and we will present the different results of the Italian occupation, including the great Italian military defeats, and the failure of colonization projects, the clashes with the great powers, and finally the Italian withdrawal from East Africa. The history of Italian colonization is linked to that of the trading companies which formed the first Italian nucleus in the region. The Italians took advantage of the British withdrawal from the Horn of Africa. The Italian colonial movement intensified with the First World War and the development of fascism. The 1936 attack on Ethiopia was marked without even declaring war. At the start of World War II, the colonies in East Africa were on high alert, the Italian authorities deliberately disseminating propaganda inciting the peoples of this region against the French and the English, and exposing the danger of take care of it, and Italy was able to recruit 250,000 people in these colonies, most of them from Eritrea. Italy officially entered the war on June 10, 1940, blocking the route to the Cape of Good Hope from the British, and East Africa became a very important base for Italians in the Red Sea. After a period of submission to the British military regime, the countries of the former Italiana East Africa became free countries except Eritrea which is attached to the federal regime with Ethiopia.
الملخص: لعل من بين أخطر ما نتج عن الثورة الصناعية في أوروبا تلك الحركة التي قادتها عدد من الدول الأوروبية للتوسع واحتلال عدد من المناطق في قارتي إفريقيا وآسيا، ونجم عن ذلك نهب ثروات الشعوب في تلك القارات، واستعباد أهلها. وقد انضمت إيطاليا لتلك الحركة الاستعمارية، واختارت لها مناطق من شرق إفريقيا لتنشئ فيها مستعمرات، سيطلق عليها فيما بعد «إمبراطورية شرق إفريقيا الإيطالية»، التي تشمل كلاً من إريتريا، وقسماً كبيراً من الصومال، والحبشة فيما بعد. وتستعرض هذه الدراسة العوامل التي دفعت إيطاليا لاحتلال شرق إفريقيا، وسياستها في إدارة تلك المستعمرات، والمصاعب التي واجهتها هناك، ومصير الاحتلال الإيطالي لشرق إفريقيا ونهايته.
