ABSTRACT
Italy’s colonial history was nasty, brutish, and short. Without dwelling on the nasty and brutish, the short refers to the fact that Italy arrived late to the competition for overseas empire and left early, two decades or so before the other powers completed the final relinquishing of their colonies. While the Italian nation was in the process of ‘dying’ or being ‘cast adrift’, a brightly white-painted hospital ship arrived in the port of Taranto carrying Italian refugees from Somalia. During the Second World War, the acid test of defending the Italian empire against its rivals took place, and Italy proved wanting. A unique set of circumstances allowed Italy to portray its ejection from Africa not as a response to the will of indigenous nationalism but as a circumstantial effect of the war and Fascism’s misconceived belligerence in Europe.
