Colony of Eritrea Colonia Eritrea (Italian) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1882–1936 | |||||||||||
| Motto: Per l'onore d'Italia "For the honour of Italy" | |||||||||||
| Anthem: Marcia Reale d'Ordinanza "Royal March of Ordinance" | |||||||||||
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| Status | Colony of Italy | ||||||||||
| Capital | Asmara | ||||||||||
| Common languages | Italian (official) Italian Eritrean, Tigrinya, Tigre, Kunama, Nara, Saho, Bilen, Hejazi | ||||||||||
| Religion | Catholicism Oriental Orthodoxy Islam | ||||||||||
| Government | Italian Colonial Government | ||||||||||
| King | |||||||||||
• 1882–1900 | Umberto I | ||||||||||
• 1900–1936 | Victor Emmanuel III | ||||||||||
| Governor | |||||||||||
• 1890 (first) | Baldassarre Orero | ||||||||||
• 1935–1936 (last) | Pietro Badoglio | ||||||||||
| Historical era | New Imperialism | ||||||||||
| 15 November 1869 | |||||||||||
• Government control | 5 July 1882 | ||||||||||
| 5 February 1885 | |||||||||||
| 2 May 1889 | |||||||||||
• Colony of Eritrea | 1 January 1890 | ||||||||||
| 1 June 1936 | |||||||||||
| 19 May 1941 | |||||||||||
| 10 February 1947 | |||||||||||
| 15 September 1952 | |||||||||||
| Currency | Eritrean tallero (1890–1921) Italian lira (1921–36) | ||||||||||
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| Today part of | Eritrea | ||||||||||
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Italian Eritrea (Italian: Colonia Eritrea, "Colony of Eritrea") was a colony of the Kingdom of Italy in the territory of present-day Eritrea. The first Italian establishment in the area was the purchase of Assab by the Rubattino Shipping Company in 1869, which came under government control in 1882. Occupation of Massawa in 1885 and the subsequent expansion of territory would gradually engulf the region and in 1889 the Ethiopian Empire recognized the Italian possession in the Treaty of Wuchale. In 1890 the Colony of Eritrea was officially founded.
In 1936 the region was integrated into Italian East Africa as the Eritrea Governorate. This would last until Italy's loss of the region in 1941, during the East African campaign of World War II. Italian Eritrea then came under British military administration, which in 1951 fell under United Nations supervision. In September 1952 it became an autonomous part of Ethiopia, until its independence in 1991.