The Building of an Empire: Italian Land Policy and Practice in Ethiopia 1935-1941

The Building of an Empire: Italian Land Policy and Practice in Ethiopia 1935-1941 by Haile Larebo. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995. Pp. viii + 350. L45.00.

Numerous works have been devoted to the international diplomacy of the 'ItaloAbyssinian dispute of 1934-35, to the resultant demise of the League of Nations, and to the subsequent poison-gas invasion of Ethiopia. Precious little has, however, been written on the ensuing fascist occupation, in part perhaps because Mussolini's disastrous entry into the European in 1940 resulted in the fascist empire's ignominious collapse, in scarcely more than three months.

The occupation, which was based on a considerable amount of political terror as well as on strict racism, was nonetheless an important, and interesting, event, in both Ethiopian and Italian history. The coming of the Italians marked the end of the historic Ethiopian state, the more so as Emperor Haile Selasie, after their departure, inaugurated an era of unprecedented economic and other progress. The 'conquest' of the old African state was likewise perhaps fascist Italy's most significant `achievement', and the time of...