ABSTRACT
One of the many side-effects of the Second World War was to stimulate a new conception of Somali nationalism, to foster the nationalist aim of unifying the several Somali territories, and to provide conditions under which this aim could largely have been realized. In the course of the fighting in Africa, in August 1940, the Italians captured British Somaliland and added that territory to the Somali portion of their East African empire. In Somalia the Italians capitulated mote easily and quickly than had been anticipated, giving up a much larger area of territory than the British authorities were ready to administer. Of all the Somali territories only French Somaliland with its rival Somali and 'Afar population had experienced no major change of government and remained generally aloof from the momentous tide of events which characterize the decade in the area as a whole.
