Italian East Africa

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A Second World War map of Italian East Africa in 1941

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Italian East Africa or "Empire of Italian East Africa" (Italian: Africa Orientale Italiana, AOI, Impero dell'Africa Orientale Italiana) was a short-lived Italian possession in Africa consisting of Ethiopia, recently occupied after the Second Italo-Abyssinian War), and the colonies of Italian Somaliland and Eritrea. Occasionally Libya (at the time another Italian colony) was referred to as being part of Italian East Africa, but this was uncommon and perhaps misleading.

Propaganda poster: we will return! (to the African colony).

The dominion was formed in 1936 during Benito Mussolini's government in Italy with the defeat of Ethiopia in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War and lost at the end of the East African Campaign of World War II. Potentially, at the beginning of the conflict it constituted a dangerous menace to British colonies in Africa, as an Italian conquest of Sudan and the establishment of a connection to Cyrenaica would have surrounded the vital area of Egypt and the Suez Canal. However, in 1940, the AOI was virtually isolated from Italy: the maritime transports were totally cut off, and supplies could arrive only from air, although always in dismal quantities.

At the beginning of the East African Campaign, the Italian troops amounted to 91,000 men of all Arms, plus some 200,000 Askari (native troops). Training of the native troops was poor, and the Italian garrisons were too spread out, due to the extremely poor state of roads, and were essentially reduced to a static roles which allowed the British to destroy them piecemeal.

On March 27, 1941 the stronghold of Cheren was captured by the British troops after a strenuous defence from general Orlando Lorenzini. After the surrender of Massaua (April 8), Eritrea was lost for Italy. The war was lost on May 1941, when the last stand on Amba Alagi under viceroy Amedeo di Savoia at Amba Alagi ended honourably in face of overwhelming Allied troops. The war was prolonged until the following November 28, when general Guglielmo Nasi and the Italian defenders of Gondar surrendered.