Pre W.W.2 Italian East Africa Possibility ?

[Rick]

For those of you who may know such things, any realistic possibility that somehow, someway, Great Britain would buy Italian East Africa if Italy wished to sell?  Re-reading an excellent book, "Under the Red Sea Sun"by Rear Admiral Edward Ellsberg. 

[RETAC21]

6 hours ago, Rick said:

For those of you who may know such things, any realistic possibility that somehow, someway, Great Britain would buy Italian East Africa if Italy wished to sell?  Re-reading an excellent book, "Under the Red Sea Sun"by Rear Admiral Edward Ellsberg. 

Realistic? no, it would undercut the new Roman Empire narrative of Il Duce, plus how much would be paid for what was essentially a worthless colony?

[Stuart Galbraith]

Why would we want it? 

[Perun]

Not realistic. Italians wanted to create empire not to sell it

[Argus]

I agree the whole idea runs counter to the Italian position of the day, however if, isolated from reality, Italy wanted out of East Africa the British would likely be willing to take it over as a going concern. Which way any money or compensation might flow would be up to the politicians and diplomats. But the base line case IMHO would see London facing the choice between a/ taking over IEA, b/ dealing with the bloody nightmare a power vacuum there would create, or c/ having the French do it.

Of those choices none are great, but a/ is the safest. Halie Selassie is already within London's orbit. So transitioning Ethiopia back into some form of self government on the way to resuming independence, is a given. Then its just a matter of sorting out Italian Somaliland and Eritrea. The hard bit would be keeping the Ethiopian's hands off the lot of it, I'm sure there'd be some drive to package all of IEA up as a single entity and put the Ethiopians in the driving seat under British tutelage. But I don't believe that would fly, no matter how much some people in London and Addis Ababa might like it too. 

That said the obvious least/best approach is to merge the two Somaliland's, and try to pair up Ethiopia and Eritrea... and that works so well. The upside in Somaliland is the British are going have to put some bloody effort in. The scope of development on the Italian  side of the country means the British Administration can't just stay on the coast doing a care and maintenance job, they need to go inland and get building the place up. This is likely the 'unanticipated' cost of the the exercise. 

The big question then becomes can British supervision keep the Ethiopians form their time honored practice of riding rough shod over the coastal peoples... may be, may be not, but what say history to the first 'black' Dominion being Ethiopian?  It gives me a bit of a chuckle

[Markus Becker]

If the Italians were to sell it, they'd do it before the conquest of Ethiopia. So, it's just Eritrea and Somalia. Not the most valuable posessions indeed.

What would the British be willing to trade? Not Malta or Cyprus I guess.

[RETAC21]

5 hours ago, Markus Becker said:

If the Italians were to sell it, they'd do it before the conquest of Ethiopia. So, it's just Eritrea and Somalia. Not the most valuable posessions indeed.

What would the British be willing to trade? Not Malta or Cyprus I guess.

They could try to swap it with the French, we get Tunis, you get the Horn of Africa

[Markus Becker]

The Italians would take that deal but I doubt the French would make that offer. Seeing Italy as their main naval rival in the Med. 

[Stuart Galbraith]

It all comes down to the same problem. Why would anyone want it? Only a DLC collectionist, trying for the highest score on HOI IV would want it.

[Argus]

On 10/27/2023 at 11:23 PM, Markus Becker said:

If the Italians were to sell it, they'd do it before the conquest of Ethiopia. So, it's just Eritrea and Somalia. Not the most valuable posessions indeed.

What would the British be willing to trade? Not Malta or Cyprus I guess.

Trade?

Not a thing IMHO, there might be some financial compensation to reflect Italy's investment in her colony/ies, but that would be it. Getting the French to take Eritrea and split to cost would be nice, but probably easier said than done. Or if Ethiopia is still independent, then having London 'on sell' Eritrea to work - perhaps with some sort of managed/phases handover period to insure the wellbeing of the colonists? 

 

[X-Files]

I've got a shelf full of AOI related references and have dug into the microfilm Italian archives in DC (did you know there was a complete inventory of small arms taken in 1940?).

 

That said, my sense was that the Commonwealth viewed Mussalini's "One Million Bayonets" as a cheeky move and had been preparing to bitch-slap the Italians  under the premise of "why buy what they could take - on a shoestring budget?" since the moment Mussolini dropped gas on the Ethiopians.

 

 

Edited October 30, 2023 by X-Files