The Reluctant Imperialist: Italian Colonization in Somalia

The Reluctant Imperialist follows the early attempts of Italy to join the "Great Powers" of Europe by engaging in imperialist adventures in East Africa. Italian intervention in East Africa began with the efforts by an Italian trading company, the Filonardi Company who sought to monopolize trade in Somalia by managing the area for the Sultan of Zanzibar. LIke the East India Company of the 18th and 19th Centuries, Filonardi soon found the expense of colonial management prohibitive. A self-promoting adventurer, Antonio Cecchi would drag the Italian government into the empire business by convincing Italy to take over Somalia as a crown colony, with Cecchi in charge of the company managing Somalia. However, the region's recalcitrant tribesmen, vicious climate, and administrative mismanagement would soon show that the imperialism is a costly, and ultimately futile, enterprise.