Italian Empire

The Italian colonial empire (Italian: Impero coloniale italiano), sometimes known as the Italian Empire (Impero italiano), was a colonial empire that existed between 1882 and 1960. It comprised the colonies, protectorates, concessions and dependencies of the Kingdom of Italy in the 19th and 20th centuries. At its peak, between 1936 and 1941, the empire in Africa included the territories of present-day Libya, Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia (the latter three officially grouped under the name Africa Orientale Italiana, AOI). Outside Africa, Italy controlled the Dodecanese Islands, Albania , and territories in China (only their concession in Tianjin was under full control in their Chinese territories). During World War II, the empire exercised control over four puppet states and occupied several additional territories, although these were not formally annexed.

The Fascist government that came to power under the leadership of the dictator Benito Mussolini after 1922 sought to increase the size of the Italian empire and it also sought to satisfy the claims of Italian irredentists. Systematic "demographic colonization" was encouraged by the government, and by 1939, Italian settlers numbered 120,000–150,000 in Italian Libya and 165,000 in Italian East Africa.

During World War II, Italy allied itself with Nazi Germany in 1940 and it also occupied British Somaliland, western Egypt, much of Yugoslavia, parts of south-eastern France and most of Greece; however, it then lost those conquests and its African colonies to the invading Allied forces by 1943. In 1947, Italy officially relinquished claims on its former colonies. In 1950, former Italian Somaliland, then under British administration, was turned into the Italian Trust Territory of Somaliland until it became independent in 1960.