Leiden University Student Repository

Morra, Marco (2021)

Settler Colonial Society in Italy's African Domains through the Eyes of Italian Settlers

Master thesis | History (MA)

The settling or, in fascist words, demographic policies Italy executed between 1935 and 1940 resulted in significant migratory flows to both Libya and East African domains: tens of thousands of farmers and manual labourers disembarked on colonial soil and got involved in one of the many plans the regime had devised to accommodate national low classes: farmsteads have been erected along Libya’s coastal region, construction sites have been opened in East Africa, where the regime promoted the building of roads connecting the main colonial centres. These projects were meant to be performed by national workforce and led to the formation of Italian settler communities some of which even managed to survive – at least for some years – the fall of the Italian empire. This paper aims at providing new insights on such societies and does so by means of a micro-historical examination of private accounts left by some of those settlers.

Settler Colonialism

Italian East Africa

Italian Libya

migrations

settlements

1935-1940

work abroad

Author

Morra, Marco

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Colonial and Global History (Including Maritime History)

Supervisors

Bellucci, Stefano
Sijsling, Fenneke

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en