Description:
The division of labour and the economic and social organisation of Italian Africa were established before the Second World War: Eritrea and the Addis Ababa area were destined to become the industrial regions of Italian East Africa and its main hubs for services, while the other regions of Ethiopia would have an agricultural economy comprising both small farms and large-scale production for the market. The latter type of agriculture become predominant in Somalia, where foodstuffs were produced for the imperial market, and where banana cultivation had been developed for the Italian market and for export elsewhere. In Tripolitania, demographic colonisation would be supplemented by manufacturing and service activities in the capital, while in Cyrenaica it was to be largely prevalent. Yet, investigation of the construction of the Fascist empire, directly planned by Mussolini, must always proceed on two different planes: myth and reality. The two continually intersected, though the former was certainly predominant, since Mussolini’s aims were far more political and ideological than economic.