Editing Imperialism (section)

===Italy===
{{Main|Italian Empire}}
[[File:Italian empire 1940.PNG|thumb|250px|The Italian Empire in 1940]]
The '''Italian Empire''' (''Impero italiano'') comprised the overseas possessions of the [[Kingdom of Italy]] primarily in northeast Africa. It began with the purchase in 1869 of [[Assab|Assab Bay]] on the [[Red Sea]] by an Italian navigation company which intended to establish a coaling station at the time the [[Suez Canal]] was being opened to navigation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fuller |first=Mia |year=2014 |title=Italian Colonial Rule |journal=Oxford Bibliographies in African Studies |doi=10.1093/OBO/9780199846733-0150}}</ref> This was taken over by the Italian government in 1882, becoming modern Italy's first overseas territory.<ref>Theodore M. Vestal, "Reflections on the Battle of Adwa and Its Significance for Today", in ''The Battle of Adwa: Reflections on Ethiopia's Historic Victory Against European Colonialism'' (Algora, 2005), p. 22.</ref> By the start of the [[First World War]] in 1914, Italy had acquired in Africa the colony of [[Italian Eritrea|Eritrea]] on the Red Sea coast, a large protectorate and later colony in [[Italian Somaliland|Somalia]], and authority in formerly Ottoman [[Italian Tripolitania|Tripolitania]] and [[Italian Cyrenaica|Cyrenaica]] (gained after the [[Italo-Turkish War]]) which were later unified in the colony of [[Italian Libya|Libya]].

Outside Africa, Italy possessed the [[Italian Aegean Islands|Dodecanese Islands]] off the coast of Turkey (following the Italo-Turkish War) and a [[concessions in Tianjin|small concession in Tianjin]] in China following the [[Boxer War]] of 1900. During the First World War, Italy occupied southern [[Principality of Albania|Albania]] to prevent it from falling to [[Austria-Hungary]]. In 1917, it established [[Italian protectorate over Albania|a protectorate over Albania]], which remained in place [[Vlora War|until 1920]].<ref name="Nigel Thomas 2001. Pp. 17">Nigel Thomas, ''Armies in the Balkans 1914–18'' (Osprey Publishing, 2001), p. 17.</ref> The [[National Fascist Party|Fascist government]] that came to power with [[Benito Mussolini]] in 1922 sought to increase the size of the Italian empire and to satisfy the claims of [[Italian irredentists]].

In its [[Second Italo-Ethiopian War|second invasion of Ethiopia]] in 1935–36, Italy was successful and it merged its [[Italian Ethiopia|new conquest]] with its older east African colonies to create [[Italian East Africa]]. In 1939, [[Italian invasion of Albania|Italy invaded Albania]] and [[Italian protectorate of Albania (1939–1943)|incorporated it]] into the [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Fascist state]]. During the [[Second World War]] (1939–1945), Italy [[Italian conquest of British Somaliland|occupied British Somaliland]], [[Italian occupation of France|parts of south-eastern France]], western [[Kingdom of Egypt|Egypt]] and [[Axis occupation of Greece#The Italian occupation zone|most of Greece]], but then lost those conquests and its African colonies, including Ethiopia, to the invading [[Allies of World War II|allied forces]] by 1943. It was forced in the [[Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947|peace treaty of 1947]] to relinquish sovereignty over all its colonies. It was granted a [[Trust Territory of Somaliland|trust to administer former Italian Somaliland]] under United Nations supervision in 1950. When [[Somalia]] became independent in 1960, Italy's eight-decade experiment with colonialism ended.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kelly |first=Saul |year=2000 |title=Britain, the United States, and the End of the Italian empire in Africa, 1940–52 |journal=The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History |volume=28 |issue=3 |pages=51–70 |doi=10.1080/03086530008583098 |s2cid=159656946}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hofmann |first=Reto |title=The Fascist Effect |year=2015 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=9780801456350 |jstor=10.7591/j.ctt20d88b6}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=July 2020}}