TBA for those specific examples, though crossovers are fairly common in TCI countries due to Intellectual Property not being a thing, but they're mostly treated like fanfics (mostly on account of a lot of them either basically or outright being just that).
Excerpt from Resistance, Royalty and Revolution: Ethiopia and Somalia by Bahru Zewde (Chicago: Pathfinder, 2014)
In the opinion of many historians, mainly from Africa and the ANFR, in the aftermath of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, at least a quarter of the countryside was in some form of rebellion against the Italian occupiers. Yet, to many European observers, Ethiopia was under the nominal authority of the Kingdom of Italy, with Mussolini declaring the stain of Adwa to be avenged. Halie Selassie, in exile in London since the fall of Addis Ababa, sought to return to the kingdom he fled years ago, lobbying allies in Parliament to pursue a more aggressive policy towards Mussolini's Italian empire. Selassie attempted to appeal to their sense of colonial superiority: why let Italy gain more power in the Mediterranean and unlimited control of the Red Sea? What would happen to British possessions?
But while this argument won over Churchill/Eden and their slowly growing hawkish Conservative bloc, the Halifax ministry shot down any argument favoring harsh action against Mussolini. Edward Wood, 1st Earl Halifax, privately rebuked the notion of war or aggression against Italy over "the Abyssinia question," saying,
I am perplexed by the idea of inconveniencing the nation and Europe over the Abyssinia issue. The League has acted under the authority given under its mandate - and the conflict has thus concluded with no further loss of life - Such an endeavor to take on a harsh and adventurous conflict is no doubt done by those who have misplaced sympathies for the Africans or simply wish to stir up the cauldron of war. I doubt we shall let such an attempt come to pass.
- (Halifax, 1937)
The policy of appeasement towards the Axis bloc was made in the hopes that Italy would serve as a partner against what the Entente feared as a soon-to-be resurgent USSR backed by a Bolshevik-aligned America. To France and Britain, the Axis was the counterbalance against the threat of socialist revolution in Europe. Thus, they must be appeased, not driven away.
The House of Solomon had long positioned itself as the eternal guardian of Ethiopian sovereignty and independence. Yet, the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie witnessed a stark departure from this narrative. Selassie was ensconced in a prolonged exile in London, awaiting an increasingly elusive salvation as Ethiopia grappled with the stain and resentment of Italian occupation. And this feeling of abandonment was reflected in the makeup of the various rebels. Amhara fighters favored restoring the Emperor to the throne once the invaders were expelled. The Tigrayan fighters may have grievances with Selassie's rule, but they saw him as the lesser evil than the Italian colonizers. There was a sizable number of rebels from the various other ethnic groups (Oromo, Afar, Somali) that saw freedom being replaced with the Selassie monarchy as a step back. Sure, the Italians were occupiers, invaders of their land. But the monarchy never brought them freedom or rights. To these groups, it would be just colonialism, just under a different name and face.
This tension and division didn't shatter the early stages of the rebellion, but the unresolved tension remained. The tension between these groups would rupture after a final Ethiopian victory. But they still needed to achieve this victory first, a victory that was looking like an uphill battle if the initial phase of conventional warfare was anything to go by. To achieve victory, they required additional support in arms, supplies, and funds. But thankfully, the Ethiopian rebels who remained fighting found themselves two key actors as their source of support. The first was expected by many and was no surprise, the nascent United Republics.
The Second Italo-Ethiopian War assumed paramount significance within the ranks of the African National Congress (ANC) of the UASR. For many within the ANC, Ethiopia represented not merely a distant geopolitical theater but a potent symbol of pan-African pride and anti-colonial resistance. The idea that one of the continent's few remaining bastions of independence could fall to the renewed onslaught of European imperialism struck a deep chord within the ANC's ethos.
Historically revered as an emblem of African defiance against colonial subjugation, Ethiopia assumed renewed importance in the pantheon of anti-colonial struggles. As the specter of Italian domination loomed large over the Ethiopian landscape, the ANC rallied behind the cause of Ethiopian liberation, viewing it as a litmus test for the viability of Africa's independence movements. The ANC campaigned heavily in support of Ethiopia, not just in the overall refugee program but also in gathering donations and monetary assistance to Ethiopian fighters. African-American veterans from the Second American Civil War offered to form a foreign legion to fight alongside Ethiopian forces. However, because of the logistical difficulties of sending such a legion, as well as the priority of the post-war Reconstruction in America, the legion fizzled out close to the war's end.
The United Republics fully supported the end of Italian colonization of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa as a whole, as did the rest of the Communist International, which now saw Africa as a potential staging ground for anti-colonial movements under socialist banners. The events in the Horn of Africa, the wave of red-tinted revolutions in Latin America, and the erupting civil war in Spain allowed the Comintern to throw more of its foreign weight around and be more provocative in supporting the various branches seeking revolution or resistance. Through this motive and Ethiopia's circumstances, the second and more unexpected player stepped onto the stage, at least for the Ethiopians: the Communist Party of Italy. The Partito Comunista d'Italia, or PCdl, had already been very open opponents of the invasion of Ethiopia from the start. But already facing the crackdown from the Fascist state, their underground efforts did little to push public opinion against the war initially. However, by 1937, the Comintern suggested that the PCdl could assist in facilitating the collapse of Italian East Africa by aiding or assisting these rebels.
Instead of their sovereign monarch and supposed descendants of Solomon being their best hope for regaining independence, Ethiopia found its most significant ally within the Italian Communists in a strange bedfellow situation.
Excerpt from Operation Othello and the Prelude to the Horn War by Stephen Schlesinger (Metropolis: Progress Publishers, 1995)
By 1937, the International Liaison Department saw East Africa as a particular region of interest in the broader anti-colonial struggle in Africa. The PCdl had historically been a left-wing section of the Communist International, somewhat feeling stifled in the increasingly Soviet-dominated body. Yet Red May in America changed all that. A wave of revolutionary success in Latin America, particularly in Peru and Mexico, had led to a more revolutionary and internationalist fervor sweeping through the Comintern's ranks. Even Stalin, the infamously patient and cautious General Secretary of the USSR, aimed to strike while the iron was hot and expand the revolution whenever possible.
In East Africa, the PCdl saw a chance to revalidate its international standing and display its continued power even against Fascist oppression by supporting the various underground rebels active in Italian East Africa. Operation Othello (as it has become known today) would seek to accomplish three goals:
1. Utilize the influx of urbanized and proletarianized workers in East Africa to gain a foothold and agitate among the local working class. The end goal of which should be establishing a local working-class revolutionary party.
2. Build connections between local rebel groups and the broader Communist International. Despite the possible reactionary nature of certain rebel groups, having the Comintern as an ally in the broader struggle will make these fighters more amenable to socialist ideals.
3. When the colonial authorities' final defeat occurs, agitation and material support for the proletarian party's eventual revolution will be enacted.
J. Peters, the man whose Africa Commission pushed UASR interest in the region, pointed to the success of the Communist Party of China (CPC) with a nation that was only developing industry and a proletarian base. East Africa, with the vital trade ports of Mogadishu and Massawa, was seen as a similar example.
The Italian section had gone underground or in exile, but that did little to blunt the revolutionary edge to crucial party members. OMS utilized the exiled Italian Communists as agents in the operation, complete with forged papers, aliases, and living quarters.
The operation undertaken by OMS had some big names to give credence to the mission's importance.
To those who know him, Amadeo Bordiga is a man who needs no introduction. Initially expelled from the Comintern from 1930-1933, readmitted after the rise of the UASR, Bordiga became one of the primary theoreticians of what became the Workers' Party of America's Left Fraction after the 1933 Revolution. His views over aspects such as the concept of a United Front, the role of the party, economic policies, and even tactics for fighting fascism made him an increasingly popular but polarizing figure. However, his position as both a member of the Workers' Communist Party of America and the Communist Party of Italy made him a key figure in Operation Othello, and he took on a supporting role in the operation. Bordiga cooperated with the various members of the Italian-American diaspora leading the operation, who dictated most of the network's mission, policies, and tactics. Bordiga was to work as a courier to plant the seeds for the operation to spread. Posing as petit-bourgeois with cover stories and fake names, the agents would contact local workers and nationalists and set up bases of operation. Internal critics pointed out Bordiga's "ultra-left" tendencies as a potential hindrance to the success of the operation. However, that criticism would be moot as Bordiga's actions and advisory roles would prove crucial to the operation's success.
OMS laid out the strategy of this mission by hoping that an indigenous communist movement could be made in the East African region rather than having it be a branch of the broader Communist Party of Italy. Creating an indigenous socialist movement was the first great task of the operation. While students, intellectuals, and even laborers were aware of Marxism and socialism, these ideals were initially unknown to many indigenous Somalians. And with the colonial authorities of Mogadishu known for their ruthless brutality towards dissenters, the operatives knew that the people would reject them out of fear if they went out of the gate firebrand-like. So, when it came to building a base that would empower the indigenous population to organize independently, a two-pronged approach was made: the workers and the peasants.
Firstly, the workers. Mogadishu was one of the largest ports in the region and the largest port in Italian Somalia, and thus, it had a fast-growing proletarian base. Somalia was too unattractive a destination for settlement in comparison to Italy's other colonial possessions, such as Libya. Thus, the proletarian base in Mogadishu was mainly from Somalia, and individuals who had immigrated from the countryside found work in various ports, factories, and mines that popped up in the capital. As the Italian Empire grew and the regime in Rome seemed to extract more resources from their burgeoning colonies, the indigenous working class was treated no better than slaves by their bosses and overseers. The pay was low, hours were long and torturous, and safety conditions were non-existent.
As the 1930s rolled around and the occupation of Ethiopia connected Italy's East African possessions, political ideas started to emerge within the few educated members of the working class. While colonial authorities purposely restricted higher education services to Somalis, that didn't stop radical revolutionary ideas from entering the population and to the ears of those who had self-taught themselves. While many of Somalia's first independence leaders would find their education abroad in places like Egypt and be of excellent service to the struggle, it was the young generation of self-taught peasants and workers that paved the path for radical revolution. Particularly the nascent unions of Somalia, where much of the early power base of the future Worker's Republic would grow from.
Now, these unions couldn't start guns blazing, as any form of militancy would be smashed apart by colonial authorities. Still, the underground union movement in Somalia built itself through synthesizing agitation with Somali nationalism. Young thinkers who would be key figures in the Somali communist movement, such as Fatima Taariq Husseyn*, developed theories that spoke to the educated natives while organizing clandestine meetings where they would discuss organization tactics and agitation methods.
Fatima was born in 1902 in the port city of Merka, 109 km from the capital of Mogadishu. Her parents were local merchants, allowing her access to much of the literature that she would learn and develop throughout her revolutionary career. Her early childhood was marred with conflict and violence, as Merka was at the center of a series of local revolts against Italian rule. Since the region was pacified by 1924, Fatima knew occupation as a grim routine in her life. The marketplace, the mosques, and just about everywhere in the town have soldiers nearby, ready to deal out cruel reprisals should the rebels strike. The violence forced Fatima and her family to move to Mogadishu, as the conflict was negatively affecting their merchant livelihoods. Fatima's parents encouraged her to read and educate herself, and even when she was married, her husband encouraged her curiosity to learn. Sadly, tragedy struck in 1932 when her husband died of tuberculosis. She was soon left to raise her 13-year-old son on her own. But she persevered, and by 1938, she had started getting into Somali politics.
Fatima was self-taught, managing to get into Cairo University with the help of her late husband and reading political theory in both Italian and Arabic. So when her son eventually took an interest in politics in 1939, with the budding communist movement, Fatima found herself interested and dove headfirst into the movement. Within a year, her charisma and fiery passion allowed her to become a leading figure within the underground union movement. This "Somali Rosa Luxemburg" (as her contemporaries would come to call her) would come to view Marxism as the path to Somali independence. Fatima's reputation as a revolutionary she-lion would forge the workers of Mogadishu into a bubbling magma that was awaiting to burst. It wouldn't be a matter of if, but when.
It wasn't just the workers who sought a chance to smash the system. Somali peasants lived in a state where they were not quite serfs but still beholden to landlords who owned large estates of land. As a colony, these landlords were often from Italy, perhaps not even living in the Horn of Africa but back on the peninsula. ComIntern political doctrine has acknowledged the revolutionary potential of the peasants, and for them to get on board with the movement, the "land question" would be the focus of any possible education and agitation.
Fatima herself saw that any revolutionary movement in Somalia required answering the land question. Foreign ownership of land, mass estates owned by private hands, all of it had to be seized and given back to the people. Gain the peasants on your side, and the nation is yours. Fatima, alongside Italian Communists such as Ilio Barontini, with whom she interacted through Operation Othello, looked towards both the Russian Revolution, the Mexican Revolution of 1910, and the ongoing Chinese Revolution as examples of how to agitate the peasants, or at least what remained of them that had not been proletarianized. But they all agreed, even Fatima, that they were a long way away from a revolution. But they would start that long and arduous road, which would set up one of history's most fascinating social and cultural revolutions: the Somali Revolution.
The leaders of Operation Othello saw the recent occupation of Ethiopia as an excellent chance to stoke agitation not only in Somalia but also in Ethiopia. Many rebel groups in Ethiopia were still heavily resisting the Italian invasion by 1938/39. However, these various groups were loosely organized and not given much direction in terms of long-term strategy. Furthermore, there was confusion between these groups about the tactics necessary to defeat the occupation.
On February 19th, 1937, the Viceroy of Italian East Africa, Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, a dedicated fascist and loyal ally of Benito Mussolini, was attending the birthday of the Prince of Naples in the capital of Addis Ababa. Graziani initially started as the governor of Italian Somaliland and was the commander of Italy's Southern Front during the Second Italian-Ethiopian War, gaining a quick reputation for his brutality. While it was Marshal Badoglio's troops who entered Addis, not Graziani, it would be the latter who said,
The Duce will have Ethiopia, with or without the Ethiopians.
- (Graziani)
A man who would be known in the future as the "Butcher of Fezzan," Graziani fit the profile of a harsh occupying governor with a singular goal of crushing resistance to the fascist order by any means necessary. But even a dictator had to give out the proverbial carrot occasionally. So Graziani stood at the Genete Leul Palace (the former personal residence of Emperor Halie Selassie) with the declaration of giving alms to the poor and needy, a way to buy obedience to the new regime.
While he stood on the steps of the palace, speaking at around 11 am, two young Eritreans named Abraha Deboch and Mogus Asgedom started moving through the crowd.
Deboch and Asgedom were both gifted by all sources of their childhoods (or at least the information that has been found) but found their fortunes were limited to the Italian colony due to laws restricting the education of "natives." Wishing to make a name for themselves outside the oppressive colonial state, they immigrated to Ethiopia to enroll in the Menelik II School, where they would find themselves experiencing the Italian invasion and conquest. Accommodating himself to the new administration, Deboch initially gained employment with the Fascist Political Bureau, where his Eritrean origin, knowledge of Italian, and familiarity with the city made him valuable to the occupying forces.
However, Deboch was bitterly opposed to the Italians, especially its racist practices. Deboch was a proponent of pan-Africanism and had always viewed Ethiopia as an inspiration to many African nationalists and independence advocates since 1896. To see them occupied and brutalized was unacceptable. His colleague and friend Asgedom were of a similar mind, and thus, they both took matters into their own hands to commit an act of freedom. Before leaving their house, Deboch had placed an Italian flag on the wooden floor, driven a bayonet through it, and then tied an Ethiopian flag to the bayonet.
The official ceremony began as might be expected. Graziani made a speech, a number of Ethiopian notables made their submission to the victors, Italian planes made a fly-over above the city, and at 11 o'clock, officials began distributing the promised alms to priests and the poor. Suddenly, grenades are tossed from the bottom of the steps towards Graziani. Explosions ring out, causing panic and confusion throughout the crowd. Italian officials dive to the ground, either to take cover or as they fall injured, as Graziani collapses in a heap. Taking advantage of the chaos, Deboch and Asgedom got into a getaway car and sped off, making a clean getaway. (Pictured from left to right: Rodolfo Graziani, Abraha Deboch, Mogus Asgedom)
But Graziani wasn't dead. He had 365 grenade fragments in his body, but he would live. And his fury would be engulfing. This attack, alongside the various other guerilla actions in the country, served as the justification for what became known as Yekatit 12, or The Addis Ababa Massacre. Over three days, as many as 30,000 civilians were killed as part of Blackshirt reprisals. Graziani spread the massacre to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, as priests found themselves accused by Graziani of supporting the uprisings. While these draconian actions by Graziani did much to galvanize resistance against the colonial regime, these rebellions didn't have any direction. That would all change by 1938.
Operation Othello would be the covert supplier and supporter of the various resistance movements within Italian East Africa. Caches of weapons, monetary aid, and additional agents were smuggled into the region from 1938 to 1942, which gave these various rebel groups momentum in combatting the Italian forces through small-scale attacks. By 1939, Mussolini gained reports that much of Ethiopia was rising back up, villages and rural areas being quietly liberated by small militias. In response, Rome increased the garrisons throughout all their colonies, particularly Italian East Africa, to deal with this threat. The new Italian Viceroy, Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, argued that being more conciliatory towards the local population was a better strategy in the long term. But Mussolini would have none of it. Long since convinced that aspects of Communist subversion had befallen the region, he ordered Amedeo to do major sweeps for any remaining insurgent activity.
But Mussolini's paranoia was misdirected. The Ethiopian rebels would not seek a grand-style offensive anytime soon. Instead, they quietly retreated to the Western mountains, intent on establishing bases in the various hills and caves where Fascist forces could not follow. But they were not done for a long while; instead, they would wait for the perfect moment to strike. While many of these rebels were willing to accept help from the Comintern, many were skeptical of communist ideas, mainly the fighters from the Amhara ethnic group, who heavily favored the exiled monarchy and were the standard-bearers for maintaining the social and political order set by the Shewa monarchy. Others, like in the northern Tigray and Eritrea provinces, were split on the idea since the former had ancient ties to the monarchy and also sought its benefits.
The Comintern, however, found consistent and the most positive reception in the eastern Somali region, where they tied the idea of Communism as a vehicle for liberation in the political and social senses. Politically, it was a movement that could separate itself from the centralizing authority of Addis Ababa and the domineering veneer of "Amhara supremacy" as they saw it. Socially, talk of land redistribution against mainly non-Somali landlords and aristocrats was appealing to the large peasant population of the region. Now, there is some merit in the claims that since the Comintern's activities were more successful in Somalia, similar results occurred in the Ogaden region with the majority Somali population. But that line of thought ignores the crucial aspect of the Ogaden: they really hated the monarchy.
For much of the late 19th and early 20th century, since Menelik's II conquest of the region, the inhabitants of the Ogaden have seen the Ethiopians as no better than the European colonies that surrounded them. So, throughout both Ethiopian and Italian incursions over the years, the Ogaden was a consistent place for potential uprisings. And so when a bunch of revolutionaries started talking about overthrowing not just their occupiers but even perhaps the monarchy, many of the Somali rebels listened and would soon look towards the Communist bloc of the UASR and USSR as a potential ally should a conflict with Addis Ababa worked out. But before any of that, priority one for all parties in East Africa was the expulsion of the Italian occupiers.
(Italian Communist Ilio Barontini with Ethiopian freedom fighters; Barontini is in the center, 1939)
Excerpt from How Revolution Came to Africa: Part 1 (East Africa) byWarren D. McMillian
In the aftermath of the successful takeover of British Somaliland and the rapid offensive to Jerusalem, Italy was convinced that, like Germany, it would be destined for victory in this Second World War. But Italy had a soft underbelly, weak spots that could be exploited. For the Allies and Comintern, that first place was the colony of Italian East Africa.
It's important to note that much of Italy's success in the early stages of the war came from Mussolini's hyper-focus on the Mediterranean region and his idea of rebuilding a modern "Roman Empire" for Italy. However, despite the heavy industry that Mussolini had poured into the nation for the last 19 years, despite Italian naval supremacy over the Franco-British, despite having just reached Jerusalem the previous year, Mussolini had bitten off more than he could chew. The Regio Esercito was stretched far too thin, and the upkeep for maintaining all those troops and garrisons strained the Italian state to its limit. So, to deal with this growing crisis in the state, Mussolini decided to re-orient the majority of the Royal Italian Army's focus to Yugoslavia and the Levant. That meant a massive recall of the various Italian troops from the multiple fronts, which included two key fronts: The front against the Soviet Union, a decision that had Adolf Hitler apoplectic in private. But more importantly for this story, it also included Italian-born troops from East Africa.
Prince Amedeo, the colony's viceroy, was shocked at this move and wrote to Mussolini that it could jeopardize Italy's control of the region. But Mussolini brushed this concern off by simply having Amedeo utilize colonial auxiliaries for the task. Italian Askari troops would be the bulk of the East African colonial forces by 1943; of the 275,000 troops that would be present in Italian East Africa, 200,000 would be colonial or Askari in nature. Now, here is a quick rundown of how the Askari troops operated: local forces led by an entirely Italian officer core were the primary armed forces that could effectively deal with local revolts, particularly guerilla ones. Many colonial powers utilized this tactic as it was better to have troops that were more familiar with the unique African terrain than sending in a fully modernized European army with no experience fighting in mountains and deserts.
But the Askaris, while good for fighting troops of lesser training and weaponry, were not equipped to deal with an invasion by an equally sized, equipped, and modernized force. That is not to say that these foreign-born troops historically had lesser fighting skills during this conflict; many examples prove the opposite. But the Italian Askari were not that fighting force. Low on pay, unable to advance to higher positions of command, and often met by local natives as "traitors" or "bootlickers," morale was understandably low among the units. What puzzles many historians is why the East African authorities would make them the bulk of the colony's defenses.
I think it mostly comes down to the fact that Mussolini and the Italian High Command assumed that, of all the fronts in this large-scale global conflict, no such offensive would be directed towards East Africa, especially not the Entente, which was in no position to do so. But Mussolini was wrong. There was a force to liberate East Africa, and it came from the enemies that he dreaded most.
In 1943, the United Republics fully entered into total war economy and mobilization, which manifested into a mobilization of 18 million soldiers, able to feed the war machine that was now needed on three fronts (Eastern Europe, South America, and the Pacific). However, there was a push within certain members of the Revolutionary Military Council to try a daring operation to liberate East Africa. The plan was ambitious and could have been viewed as a costly endeavor. But there were strategic calculations towards this plan. Intelligence reports were saying that the colony was entirely unprepared for an invasion and that any local troops fighting would most likely not do so for long. Leaked codebreakers had gathered reports that Italy was pulling troops from certain fronts to focus more on the Balkans and Palestine. A well-coordinated invasion would take down the colony within weeks, as well as set up a base to challenge Italian control over the Suez and the Red Sea.
Furthermore, there were those within the seats of the Central Committee who began to view the post-war landscape: Premier John Reed and People's Secretary for Defense Martin Abern. Both Reed and Abern understood that cooperation with the Franco-British Entente would only last as far as the war with the Axis powers did. However, areas of control previously taken control by the Axis powers would have any interim or succeeding governments beholden to whichever bloc was occupying them.
So, let's say a nation on the Horn of Africa with access to both the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean just so happens to be under INTREV administration; you can guess which direction the local government would take.
But there was one pre-war government that wouldn't be touched. DeLeon-Debs and Moscow never recognized Ethiopia's conquest by the Italians; instead, they chose to recognize the Imperial government in exile out of anti-colonial principles. Now, that is not to say that relations between the Ethiopian imperial government and the United Republics were all bread and roses. Haile Selassie, over the turn of the decade, looked at the various monarchs of history who were in exile, perhaps trying to understand men who were the only people who knew how he felt at the moment. However, while in a library in England, he came across the memoirs of the late Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia.
The memoirs, simultaneously a defense of his reign and a scathing rebuke of the current Communist order in the former Russian Empire, served to Halie Selassie what the latter saw as the mistakes and lessons of a fellow autocrat. Halie Selassie was much more politically adept than Nicholas (at least, that's what he thought) and so could easily avoid the mistakes that he made. But what he took away from Nicholas is a distrust of socialism that bordered on loathing. This mistrust of the ideology affected any healthy relationship with Premier John Reed.
However, regardless of this initial jagged relationship, the United Republics would lead this liberation alongside colonial Entente troops, titled Operation Clearinghouse. The Egypt-Sudan government had relocated to Khartoum and would prosecute an offensive from the west into Ethiopia, supported by British Kenya from the South. Meanwhile, the Americans would launch amphibious landings in Mogadishu and Merka. These military offensives would be supported through simultaneous uprisings by Ethiopian and Somali partisans.
In preparation for the offensive and landings, Operation Othello, fully integrated within networks across occupied East Africa, began a series of covert acts of sabotage, assassination attempts, and other acts that served to both distract colonial authorities and to further energize the growing rebellion. But now, the Communist Party of Somalia (CPS), established early in the onset of the operation, had served as the face of Somali resistance against the Italians. Now, as they slowly armed themselves with captured weapons and seized armories, they planned their rebellion for the day that they were told would be their D-Day: March 15th.
Forces from the Workers' and Farmers' Revolutionary Navy (WFRN) gathered on the Yemeni island of Socotra, their total force boosted by the need to reassign mobilized men blocked from Vladivostok. On March 15, an initial force of 30,000 WFRN Marines undertook the planned landings on both landing sites. Supported by the WFRN carrier groups of Gettysburg and Ranger, destroying coastal fortifications that could have been used to halt the landings. Hearing about the landings, the CPS declared an uprising in Mogadishu and began battling the Italian garrison.
Viceroy Amedeo was stunned when he heard that the landings had occurred. He was even more shocked to hear that the British were attacking from all sides. Troops were pushing back in Sudan while a southern attack from Kenya was occurring. They had even landed unopposed in British Somaliland. The viceroy quickly tried to mount a defense of the colony, rushing troops to defend against attacks reported around Mogadishu and Merka. But Amedeo was already fighting a losing battle; he just didn't know it. As soon as these offensives crossed the border, Ethiopian rebels launched a massive revolt in the North and Northwest. The Gojjam regions fell almost entirely to rebel hands alongside the surrounding fortifications and weapons caches, all intact and unspent for the rebels to use.
The rebellion in Gojjam gave rise to successive revolts in Tigray and the Ogaden, where guerilla actions sabotaged any chance of Italian reinforcements getting to Somalia, or the other fronts for that matter. That was the case in Mogadishu, as the Italians decided to abandon the city from the incoming force of WFRN Marines and Somali partisans. They withdrew on the 17th, and WFRN entered Mogadishu on the 18th. As the city celebrated and revolutionary fervor filled the air, the communists declared a worker's republic with a pledge to hold constituent elections once the Italians were expelled from the country. As the declaration was announced, soldiers' delegates from the WFRN landing force erupted in cheers alongside Somali partisans. Ilio Barontini was seen dancing alongside partygoers in the streets, while Boridga watched the celebrations with the faintest of smiles on his infamously serious face.
But while Mogadishu was liberated, the Italians were still facing defeat after defeat. The very next day, the 19th, British Somaliland was recaptured, firmly in Entente hands alongside Djibouti, which would surrender a short time later. On the 21st, the Italians broke at the Battle of Kassala, officially ending any hope of regaining the initiative in Sudan and fleeing back into Ethiopia. The advancing Entente, chasing after them, prepared to march into the heart of East Africa.
Now, we tend to think of the events of the Second World War with massive battle tactics and complex maneuvers on the battlefield. But in the case of the East African Campaign of 1943? The fall of Mogadishu had set the ball rolling down a hill that the Italians were utterly incapable of stopping. The WFRN had set up a beachhead and wouldn't be dislodged. The Italians didn't know it, but that was the ball game. Because it wasn't just in Somalia; it was everywhere from all angles. The fleet that was stationed at Massawa was transferred months prior, and naval priorities were set in the Mediterranean rather than the Horn. That fleet would have been helpful as WFRN marines occupied the city on March 29th, completely unopposed. The trend of Askari mutinying or just deserting in battle? It's an occurrence that is not uncommon in this campaign. What was more disastrous is that these Askari saw the advancing Americans as a better alternative than their Italian masters and often defected to the other side.
After the capture of Mogadishu, the resupplied and reinforced WFRN, alongside a Somali Red Army (consisting of armed workers and peasants aligned with the CPS), began driving the Italians out of southern Somalia. This feat would be accomplished on the 28th, leaving only Ethiopia and the southern force in Kenya as the last significant areas of resistance from the colonial authorities. The aforementioned southern force would end up surrounded in enemy territory and destroyed in the Battle of Marsabit on the 29th of March.
As shown, the retreat from Somalia, the fall of Massawa, and the Battle of Marsabit all happened over two days. Yet these were backbreaking for the colonial authority in Addis Ababa, which already had to deal with this encirclement with limited resources and manpower. Gondar and Dire Dawa fell to rebel hands on March 30th and April 1st, respectively. In the east, Dire Dawa, Harar, and Jijiga were abandoned as the Entente marched to occupy the trio of cities early in April.
Faced with few options and with no help arriving from Rome, Prince Amedeo accepted reality and surrendered to the Entente, promising open entry to Addis Ababa. Finally able to return in triumph, Emperor Halie Selassie entered the city alongside the Entente, greeted by fervent supporters and supportive Ethiopian guerillas. Mussolini, hearing how easily his Viceory had given up "Italy's Imperial Pearl," had sentenced Amedeo to death in absentia. But Amedeo would never have to face the wrath of Mussolini's wrath. He would die later in the year in captivity; tuberculosis combined with malaria. Regardless of his later fate, the April 10th surrender officially ended Italian East Africa as an entity and, subsequently, the East African Campaign.
The East African Campaign served two purposes, one for the war and the other for the post-war. Italy's crushing defeat would be a looming omen for their prospects in the war, as the year 1943 was the year the tide turned not just on Italy but the Axis as a whole. But East Africa, as one of the first truly liberated theatres of the war, was the first look at what a post-war relationship between the Entente and the Third Internationale looked like. Ethiopia would be independent under the reinstated Emperor Halie Selassie, but what used to be Italian Somalia was quickly made into a workers' republic.
Just as soon as the Italians were gone, the Somalis began to entrench their social revolution through land redistribution, democratic elections, and other political rights and freedoms, which Halie Selassie viewed as a significant threat to maintaining the autocratic regime his dynasty had kept for more than six centuries. The Emperor, now officially back on his throne and seeking to avoid being displaced by "foreign influences" as he saw them, began viewing the acquisition of both Eritrea and the Ogaden as necessary to contain the fledgling revolutionary Somalia. As a way to curb the latter's Somali nationalism, he ramped up the autocratic measures that were in place before the Italian occupation. This did not go unnoticed by the United Republics, who told Ethiopia that it would face "military consequences" should it threaten the sovereignty of Somalia in any fashion.
So the Emperor bid his time, waiting until the end of World War II to rebuild his nation and, more importantly, his military. All this was to plan for a showdown with Somalia and crush the poison that was revolution in its crib. But the path that the Emperor would take to try and accomplish this would result in three bloody years of war, a near explosion of global war, and ultimately, the loss of his very throne.
* = Fatima is (as far as I have researched and tried to scrap up) a non-historical figure IOTL, but she will be a crucial figure in future updates.
All of a sudden, grenades are tossed from the bottom of the steps. They explode, causing panic and confusion throughout the crowd. Italian officials dive to the ground, either to take cover or as they fall injured, as Graziani collapses in a heap.
That's definitely going to stamp down dissent and rebellion. But I can't imagine this would actually discourage nationalism or a desire for liberation. All it does is let dissenters hide and wait and work.
That's definitely going to stamp down dissent and rebellion. But I can't imagine this would actually discourage nationalism or a desire for liberation. All it does is let dissenters hide and wait and work.
Yeah, the fact that I used Halie Selassie and Nicholas II as similar people in this work was by no means a coincidence. History may not repeat itself, but it indeed does rhyme.
Yeah, the fact that I used Halie Selassie and Nicholas II as similar people in this work was by no means a coincidence. History may not repeat itself, but it indeed does rhyme.
This is speculation, but the impression I'm getting is that Halie Selassie is going to radicalize a lot of the communist-skeptic portions of his support base against him. The focus on the fact that he and his government in exile was not there, supporting the resistance movements, while both the UASR and the freaking Italian Communists were, give a good in-universe narrative throughline.
This is speculation, but the impression I'm getting is that Halie Selassie is going to radicalize a lot of the communist-skeptic portions of his support base against him. The focus on the fact that he and his government in exile was not there, supporting the resistance movements, while both the UASR and the freaking Italian Communists were, give a good in-universe narrative throughline.
This is speculation, but the impression I'm getting is that Halie Selassie is going to radicalize a lot of the communist-skeptic portions of his support base against him. The focus on the fact that he and his government in exile was not there, supporting the resistance movements, while both the UASR and the freaking Italian Communists were, give a good in-universe narrative throughline.
Also, just speculating, but I'm going to take a wild guess that Citizen Romanov's memoirs are not going to be the kind of self-reflective memoir of a man who has realised that he should have ceded power to an enlightened socialist council, or appointed a government of national confidence led by Witte or Lvov, or even turned Stolypin loose with a ordinance survey map and some neckties, its going to be - "In summary I did not autocracy hard enough. I was overthrown because I did not autocracy hard enough. The solution to the socialist menace is to autocracy harder."
Also, just speculating, but I'm going to take a wild guess that Citizen Romanov's memoirs are not going to be the kind of self-reflective memoir of a man who has realised that he should have ceded power to an enlightened socialist council, or appointed a government of national confidence led by Witte or Lvov, or even turned Stolypin loose with a ordinance survey map and some neckties, its going to be - "In summary I did not autocracy hard enough. I was overthrown because I did not autocracy hard enough. The solution to the socialist menace is to autocracy harder."
Yeah, the fact that I used Halie Selassie and Nicholas II as similar people in this work was by no means a coincidence. History may not repeat itself, but it indeed does rhyme.
@Comrade Emmanuel What would've happened if Haile Selassie rather than reading the Nicholas II book. Read the memoirs of a liberal King/Emperor, then decided to go the liberal route in-verse instead of becoming more autocratic?
@Comrade Emmanuel What would've happened if Haile Selassie rather than reading the Nicholas II book. Read the memoirs of a liberal King/Emperor, then decided to go the liberal route in-verse instead of becoming more autocratic?
Well, what liberal monarch could he have taken inspiration from? Revolution by the masses was the greatest fear that the aristocracy ever had, and even IRL Halie Selassie ruled like a tyrant (just with better publicity internationally). Haile Selassie is the embodiment of feudal Ethiopia, a divine monarch from God with subjects that were to obey his every whim.
Reading Nicholas' memoirs didn't set him on a different course; it merely let him hear what he wanted to hear.
ASB timeline idea: Haile Selassie reads the works of Carlos Hugo of Bourbon-Parma, taken from the future and translated into Amharic by a leftist Carlist, and transforms Ethiopia into a federation of autonomous syndicalist polities, in personal union under the House of Solomon.
Also, just speculating, but I'm going to take a wild guess that Citizen Romanov's memoirs are not going to be the kind of self-reflective memoir of a man who has realised that he should have ceded power to an enlightened socialist council, or appointed a government of national confidence led by Witte or Lvov, or even turned Stolypin loose with a ordinance survey map and some neckties, its going to be - "In summary I did not autocracy hard enough. I was overthrown because I did not autocracy hard enough. The solution to the socialist menace is to autocracy harder."
Emperors Taisho and Pedro II might be better examples if not for what came after their reigns (though I'd hesitate to call either individual a "liberal").
This isn't based on anything specific but I've always got the feeling that the crowned heads of Europe (especially the more outright autocratic ones) had a sort of cognitive disonance with the British monarchy and its relationship to Parliament in particular and the wider British nation in general. That there was something about it that couldn't be replicated anywhere else. (Given how intertwined the royal families of Europe were with the British one and how the British loved to exalt their exceptionalism to a degree that would embarass even your average MAGA-ite, it was arguably an idea that came down partially from the British themselves.) I might be misreading but that is always the feeling I've got.
I remember reading a book that was mostly about the Romanov family's last few months but started with their visit to Britain in 1909 and the book (can't remember the title, sorry) mentioned that there was a great deal of envy about how relaxed the British were.* But equally, the impression I got was that there was a failure to understand why the British system worked - it wasn't like Nicholas went on a tour of the House of Commons while it was doing its business or observed the conduct of an election or was interviewing civil servants to see how he could make the Russian one better.
I suppose this is a very long prelude to the observation that it wasn't exactly an accident Selassie picks up Nicholas's biography** - both were exiled rulers of an Orthodox country that was seen as half-inside and half-outside of the civilized (by which I mean of course European) world and both saw themselves (very passionately) as rightful autocrats by divine right. If Selassie was looking for inspiration in Britain, there isn't really anyone who fits that bill as well except for maybe Charles I and we all know how that went.*** And in all honesty, there is a pretty good argument that something like the British system isn't very exportable and definitely not to Ethiopia or Russia. The British system developed in too ad-hoc a way and its foundations lay in a growing and increasingly powerful merchant class and their aristocratic allies, which didn't exist in Russia and the (admittedly little) I know about Ethiopia at the time doesn't make me think it existed there either.
*Bear in mind that at this point, the tsar hasn't been seen out in public for years and the German government established an exclusion zone around the Kiel Canal while the tsar's yacht was passing through it on the trip.
**Ironically of course, the single worst thing that Bolsheviks have done ITTL to Nicholas's reputation is not kill him. IOTL, he was able to become a marytr because of the (legitimately sad) circumstances of his death and the fact that he wasn't around to keep putting his foot in his mouth. In contrast, ITTL, even assuming he doesn't go completely off the deep into Nazi-esque crackpottery, I imagine there is going to be an even longer string of people who think they've had the rug pulled out from under them and absurdly out of touch statements.****
***@koushikb8768 did suggest a few other candidates but of those, Alexander II was objectively a failure in the end and probably is seen as even more of a failure ITTL's 1930s; Napoleon III is literally Mr. 'first as tragedy, then as farce'; and Napoleon I... I feel like if the best plan you've got is 'imitate Napoleon I', then you're hitting a pretty high point of desparation.
****It does make me wonder though what is going to scratch the 'poor dead princess who is actually secretly alive' itch in the capitalist sphere ala Anatastasia ITTL.
Taisho himself, before being more-or-less completely incapacitated, initially tried to take an active role in governance much to the chagrin of the imperial old guard who did their best to ensure Showa would be more compliant. That said, yeah, "Taisho Democracy" itself was less tied to him and more to the circumstances of Japanese politics (also the background radiation of the Russian political climate following the Russo-Japanese War and 1905 Revolution).
The retroactive conjoining of his legacy with liberal democratic reforms, however, could still be hypothetically gleamed off from an account read by a wiser Haile Selassie who hopes to better understand the underlying conditions which give rise to popular discontent and revolutions (so, a completely different man).
