Eritrea sat on the African side of the Red Sea. It’s importance to Europeans grew with the completion of the Suez Canal. It was already important to Arab traders. If it could be peeled away from Ethiopia what a great first colony for a newly united Italy. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
The Italian cavalryman cuts an impressive figure on the stamp. It was not a real picture of the security situation. The security forces were mostly locally recruited Arabs, often keen soldiers. Italians far from home, not so much. Eritrea fell to a British lead Indian force half it’s size in 1941. The British did not have much luck sending the British Indian Army against the Japanese see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/01/25/straits-settlements-1912-trying-to-keep-singapore-british-when-the-people-are-chinese-malay-and-indian/ . Against the Italians further afield? no problem.
Todays stamp is issue A5, a 2 Centesimi stamp issued by Italian colonial Eritrea in 1930. It was a 10 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $4.75. If the stamp had been used in postage, the value would rise to $20. Another colony printing way more stamps than needed for postage. Well at least they painted exotic pictures that stamp collectors love.
The inland black Ethiopians had always claimed the area but the many Arab traders on the coast had taken to paying a suzerainty to the Ottomans to operate. With the decline of Ottoman power, the Arabs were receptive to Italian overtures. The Ethiopians less so inland. When Italy tried to extend inland to take arable potential farmland the Ethiopians fought and won! This was not the end though. The Treaty of Wuchale offered Ethiopia money in return for it’s recognition of Italian Eritrea. Italy was now speaking Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II’s language and he signed the treaty. He later claimed not to understand it but of course understood how to take the Italian’s money.
Italians made a concerted effort in Eritrea. They built grand buildings in the Capital Asmara and even railways and factories. In the 1938 census, the majority of people in the capital were Italian. It was hoped that from Asmara a wider Italian colony from Sudan to Somalia would be administered. There was a concerted and in the short term about half successful effort to educate locals and convert them to Catholic. Compared to the backward Ethiopians who still practiced slavery legally into the 1930s a picture of progress was put forward. Ethiopia was the last place on earth it was legal.
As stated above, the British took Eritrea fairly easily. What to do with it after the war was the question. Italy wanted it back and had all those settlers. In this oddly they had the support of the Soviet Union. The Soviets were confident that Italy itself would soon vote in the communists and then it and any colonies would be theirs. See https://the-philatelist.com/2019/06/03/italy-1945-moving-forward-under-jet-power/ . Meanwhile the USA with it’s large black population, bonded with Ethiopian Emperor Hailie Selassie and followed his views on the area being rejoined to Ethiopia. This was done as a face saving federation and the Italians fled in the correct appraisal of black rule. Soon Ethiopia reneged on federation and annexed the territory. Getting control over the still present Arabs would however elude them.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the Italian colonists who traveled far to build a new place, only to see it collapse and have to make a run for it after they were forgotten. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.