Italian Colonial “Pacification” Operations

In the first of her books to be available in English, Dr. Fasanotti, a specialist in colonial policing and counter-insurgency, looks at Italian “pacification” campaigns in Libya (1922- 1931) and Ethiopia (1936-1940), subjects rarely touched upon in most literature on the subject.

Given that Italian officers, as veterans of the Great War were largely experienced in “conventional” warfare, there were many initial errors and false-steps, as what worked in the trenches did not work well against dispersed, irregular opponents. Nor do Italian military leaders appear to have paid much attention to British or French experience in colonial security.

Doctrine evolved rather quickly, resulting in the adoption of lightly armed mobile columns composed largely of African troops, aided by air forces, coupled with efforts to reward cooperation, techniques similar to those adopted by other colonial powers. As was the case with several other powers, there was a penchant for punitive bombing, and considerable brutality masked by the press releases. Effective in suppressing local resistance in Libya, lessons from the campaigns there were applied in Ethiopia and may have succeeded were it not for the outbreak of World War II.

Relatively generous to the Italian side, Fasanotti does throw a good deal of light on two neglected counter-insurgency campaigns, as well as offering some insights into the strengths and weaknesses of Italian military institutions in the Fascist era.

“Vincere!” is a useful read for anyone interested in the history of counter-insurgency of Italian military institutions in the inter-war period.

---///---

Note: “Vincere!” is also available in several e-editions.

StrategyPage reviews are published in cooperation with The New York Military Affairs Symposium