Scholars of political history note that one of the more insidious aspects of imperialism, as conducted by Westerners or even in the Far East, was the usurpation of the labor of the subdued for purposes that have nothing to do for their good.
Indeed, it is war that tends to require much of the manpower that is secured by imperialists through force or by forging asymmetrical relationships. And in recent memory, very few places bear the marks of such devastating ideology like the Horn of Africa under the siege of Italian imperialism.
A curious benefit of doubt Italy historically receives is that, often for laypeople, there is usually the assumption that the Italian state has existed as long as, for instance, Great Britain or even France. This is a benefit of a doubt that stems from an uncritical appreciation of Europe as a collection of “core countries” in the sense of a world-systems theory.
As a matter of fact, the United States is older as a polity than anything resembling an Italian state. It was in 1815 that Italian regional monarchs and nobility started national unification, a process that is thought to have been finalized in 1870 nearly 100 years after America had declared independence from Britain.
Yet when the Kingdom of Italy was founded in 1861, it quickly joined the scramble for Africa which Western historians prefer to officially mark from the Berlin Conference even though there is enough evidence to suggest that Western powers had “unofficially” been carving up the continent before 1884.
The Italian imperialists were late to the party, however, they were motivated in ways similar to other 19th century Europeans. The maximization of territories was important not only for economic impetus but as learned throughout history, wars against external peoples tend to bring a nation together.
For further clarification of the usefulness of war to politicians, one may refer to George Bush Jr.’s approval rating in the immediate aftermath of launching wars against Afghanistan and Iraq. (more...)
For half a century, Italy forced Eritreans and Somalis to fight Italy’s wars – Here’s how
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