Editing Italian East Africa (section)

=== Second World War ===
{{main|East African campaign (World War II)}}
[[File:Map Eritrean Campaign 1941-en.svg|thumb|150px|East Africa Campaign northern front: Allied advances in 1941]]

On 10 June 1940, Italy declared war on Britain and [[French Third Republic|France]], which made Italian military forces in [[Libya]] a threat to [[Egypt]] and those in the Italian East Africa a danger to the British and French territories in the [[Horn of Africa]]. Italian belligerence also closed the Mediterranean to Allied merchant ships and endangered British supply routes along the coast of East Africa, the [[Gulf of Aden]], [[Red Sea]] and the [[Suez Canal]]. (The [[Kingdom of Egypt]] remained [[Neutrality (international relations)|neutral]] during World War II, but the [[Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936]] allowed the British to occupy Egypt and [[Anglo-Egyptian Sudan]].)<ref name=playfair>{{cite book |last1=Playfair |first1=Ian Stanley Ord |last2=Molony |first2=Chartres James Chatterton |last3=Stitt |first3=George Marquis Stewart |last4=Toomer |first4=Sydney Edward |title=The Mediterranean and Middle East |date=1954 |language=en |oclc=504230580}}</ref>{{rp|6–7, 69}} Egypt, the Suez Canal, [[French Somaliland]] and [[British Somaliland]] were also vulnerable to invasion, but the ''[[Comando Supremo]]'' (Italian General Staff) had planned for a war after 1942. In the summer of 1940, Italy was far from ready for a long war or for the occupation of large areas of Africa.<ref name=playfair/>{{rp|38–40}}

Hostilities began on 13 June 1940, with an Italian air raid on the base of [[No. 237 Squadron RAF|1 Squadron Southern Rhodesian Air Force]] (237 (Rhodesia) Squadron RAF) at [[Wajir]] in the [[East Africa Protectorate]] (Kenya). In August 1940, the [[protectorate]] of [[Italian conquest of British Somaliland|British Somaliland]] was occupied by Italian forces and absorbed into Italian East Africa, which lasted around six months.<ref>{{cite book |last=Raugh |first=H. E. |title=Wavell in the Middle East, 1939–1941: A Study in Generalship |year=1993 |publisher=Brassey's |location=London |isbn=978-0-08-040983-2 |pages=67, 72–73}}</ref> [[Anthony Eden]], the [[Secretary of State for War]], convened a conference in Khartoum at the end of October 1940 with Selassie, South African Prime Minister [[Jan Smuts]], Wavell, Lieutenant-General [[William Platt]] and Lieutenant-General [[Alan Cunningham]]. A plan to attack Italian East Africa, including support for Ethiopian resistance forces, was agreed.{{sfn|Dear|2005|p=245}} [[Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell|General Wavell]], commander of British troops in the Middle East, charged [[Daniel Sandford (British Army officer)|Colonel Sandford]] to make plans to aid and mobilize the Ethiopian patriots.{{Sfn|Sbacchi|1997|p=307}}{{sfn|Mockler|2019|p=190}} 

By early 1941, Italian forces had been largely pushed back from [[Kenya]] and [[Sudan]]. On 6 April 1941, [[Addis Ababa]] was occupied by the [[11th (African) Division]], which received the surrender of the city.<ref name=playfair/>{{rp|421–422}} The remnants of the Italian forces in the Italian East Africa surrendered after staging a last stand at the [[Battle of Gondar]] in November 1941. In Ethiopia, some Italian forces continued to fight in an [[Italian guerrilla war in Ethiopia]] against the British and Ethiopian forces until the [[Armistice of Cassibile]] (3 September 1943) ended hostilities between Italy and the Allies.<ref>[http://www.centrorsi.it/notizie/images/stories/casssa/cassa%20nastro%20azzurro117.jpg Italian Map showing with green lines the territories conquered in 1940 by the Italians in Sudan and Kenya. British and French somaliland are shown in white, as part of the A.O.I. (Africa Orientale Italiana). It also shows the last areas of Italian stand before surrender in 1941]</ref>  In January 1942, with the final official surrender of the Italians, the British signed an interim [[Anglo-Ethiopian Agreement]] with Selassie, acknowledging Ethiopian sovereignty. [[Makonnen Endelkachew]] was named as Prime Minister and on 19 December 1944, the final Anglo-Ethiopian Agreement was signed.