Description

Italy, which achieved its national unity in 1859–60, was a relative latecomer to the scramble among the European powers for colonies in Africa. Italian ambitions initially settled upon a region along the Red Sea coast once occupied by the Ottoman Turks and subsequently claimed by both Egypt and Ethiopia. Between 1869 and 1880 the Rubattino Navigation Company purchased tracts of land along the Red Sea coast from the local sultan. These acquisitions were transferred to the Italian state in 1882, and in 1885 Italian troops landed at Massawa, Aseb ...