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You just have to look at a map of the world to see the
wonderful geo-location of Somalia making it an idea centre for
trade between Africa and the far east. Indeed between the
seventh and tenth centuries immigrant Muslim and Persians
established trading posts in what is now Somalia and the
capital, Mogadishu, began its status as a trading station. Mogadishu developed as a town then city and many of its
citizens became very wealthy. During the Middle Ages, several
powerful Somali empires dominated the regional trade, including
the Warsangali Sultanate, the Ajuuraan State, the Sultanate of
Adal and the Gobroon Dynasty.
Somalia
(believed to come from the Somali words of Soo and
Maal ~ 'Go and milk it', a reference to the herding lifestyle
of its inhabitants) also has a rich sea faring history and is
home of the ancient Kingdom of Punt. It first came to the
attention of Europeans when the Portuguese discovered its coastal
cities whilst developing trade routes to India although they
failed to impose any sovereignty in the area. Somalia came to
real modern day prominence after the British established a coaling station at Aden
in Yemen and required sources of food which were best found off
the Somalia coast and inland. Indeed the area became known as
'Aden's butcher's shop' as securing food supplies appeared to be
the sole interest of the British.
Around that time, in 1862, the French had started purchasing
land in the area to support its coaling station at Obock after
signing a deal with Afar leaders and the Italians, under the
auspices of the Rubattino Shipping Company, purchased land in
modern day Eritrea from the local Sultan and established a base
at Assab. Another player in the area was Egypt who, by 1875, held
towns on the Somalia coastline and was moving into the interior
of the country but this was of limited success and duration. The
history of European engagement in Somalia and its environs was
further bolstered by the opening of the Highway to India (Suez
Canal) in November 1869. Following the Berlin Conference the British signed a number of "protectorate" treaties with
Somali chiefs of the northern area in return for British
protection and the area was effectively
divided up by European powers with Britain retaining most of
north Somalia, the French consolidated modern day Djibouti and
Italy colonised Puntland and the south of Somalia from land
ceded by the Sultan of Zanzibar with the Ogaden Desert annexed by Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia in 1891.
In 1897 the border between British Somaliland and Ethiopia was
formally defined by treaty with Melelik.
Despite this, on the ground, the British and other European
powers faced fierce opposition to their colonialist expansion led by
Mohammed Abdullah Hassan who rallied fighters from across Somali
and founded the Dervish State carved out from lands lost in
battle by the European powers, Ethiopia and Somali Sultans
pushing those powers to coastal areas and other strongholds
(above left, Dervish soldiers fighting the British.) At
the time the Dervish state was the only independent Muslim
territory in Africa. The first two decades of the twentieth
century saw ongoing conflict between Hassan, deemed the Mad Mullah
by the British, however the Dervish State aligned itself with the Ottoman and
German empire during the first World War and was defeated by the
British in 1920 after which Hassan and his followers fled to the
to Ogaden desert area in the hope of regrouping however Hassan
died later that year of influenza at the age of 64.
Following the war, Italy, which had aligned itself with
Britain, France and Russia from 1915, increased its military
presence in the area and in 1925, following an agreement made
during the war as a reward for Italy having joined the Allies,
an area south of the Jubba River known as Jubaland ~ a 33,000
square mile area flanking north-east Kenya ~ was ceded by the
British into Italian control becoming part of the Italian
protectorate. From there the Italians launched the Second Italo-Abyssinian
War in 1935 in part in retaliation by Mussolini for Italy's
earlier heavy defeat at the hands of Ethiopia in 1896. The
League of Nations watched on helplessly as Ethiopia was swiftly
crushed, occupied and annexed into the newly created
Italian East Africa comprised of Ethiopia, Italian Somaliland
and Italian Eritrea with King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy
taking the title of "Emperor of Abyssinia".
After the outbreak of World War II, the Italians conquered
British Somaliland also absorbing it into Italian East Africa,
however a year later the British recaptured thew territory and, following the war, Italian Somaliland came under British
administration until 1949 after which it became the Trust
Territory of Somalia administered by Italy but on a United
Nations understanding and condition that it would become
independent within ten years. In 1960 the Trust Territory of Somalia duly became
independent of Italy and, together with British Somaliland,
united to become the Somali Democratic Republic with Mogadishu
as its capital and Aden Abdullah Osman Daar, a well known
nationalist, as its first president. Daar lost the subsequent 1967
presidential election to his former prime minister Abdirashid
Ali Shermarke however two years later Shermarke was assassinated
and the coup installed military commander Mohamed Siad Barre as president and, although a
harsh socialist regime then ruled the country until it's collapse in 1991, many
improvements to the new country were made, particularly in the field of literacy. However in that year, armed and supported by Ethiopia,
clans from across Somalia brought down the governing regime and since that time the country has been in almost perpetual conflict with no
real rule of any government. Even the United Nations withdrew, considering the
area too unsafe to operate in.
History Somalia: Volunteer in Somalia
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History Somalia: Somalia Images
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History Somalia: Sponsor Children in Somalia
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History Somalia: Somalia Country Profile
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