Although twenty-first century migration from East Africa and Libya into Italy has become the focus of heated political debate, the colonial origins of this phenomenon remain somewhat neglected. To fully understand contemporary Italian debates on immigration, race and identity requires a historical perspective on the Italian empire.
The course explores how and why Italy acquired a colonial empire; what effects Italian imperialism had on the peoples of Italy and of the colonies; what the legacies and consequences of the empire were in the long term.
Italy developed its imperial goals shortly after unification, during the peak period of the “Scramble for Africa”. It expanded into Eritrea and Somalia but then experienced a comprehensive defeat in the First Ethiopian War. Liberal-era colonialism reached its peak in the invasion and conquest of Libya and the Dodecanese islands of the Eastern Mediterranean in 1911-12, and it aimed to expand even further in the First World War. Throughout this period, Italians considered the French and British empires as models from which to learn. Subsequently, the Fascist regime created a revived and invigorated colonial culture which first brutally suppressed the anticolonial insurrection in Libya before going on to invade and occupy Ethiopia in 1935-6, in a conflict marked by systematic war crimes. Finally, despite briefly extending its imperial policies in Albania and the Balkans, Italy lost its power over the colonies during and immediately after the Second World War. The course traces these developments chronologically, paying due attention not only to political and military events but to social, cultural, ideological and economic issues. Imperialism shaped multiple areas of Italian life – from coffee culture to children’s toys, film-making to tourism. The course will introduce some of the diversity of these colonial consequences and examine some of the photographs, artworks and popular culture associated with the empire.
Finally the course turns to the post-colonial era, looking at the relationships between Italy and its former colonies since independence, including the impact on migration patterns and racial attitudes, and traces the way the Italian empire has been remembered and forgotten since then. by critiquing memorials and museums to Italy’s colonial heritage. Contemporary debates in Italy about public memory, immigration and racial identity are considered in the light of Italy’s colonial history, allowing for a deeper understanding of Italy’s complex Mediterranean and global history, and of contemporary Italian society.
The course will be taught through a mix of lectures and seminar-style discussions of reading materials. Reading and writing about the novel The Conscript, by Gebreysus Hailu – one of the first novels written in an African language – creates a focus on colonized peoples’ own experiences of the Italian colonial state. Students will also complete a substantial independent research project.
A course outing to view one or more colonial museum(s) and/or commemorative sites in Rome will be undertaken, probably on one Friday morning. Guest speakers who are experts in the field may also be invited.