Luciano Monzali, Guerra e diplomazia in Africa orientale. Francesco Crispi, l’Italia liberale e la questione etiopica, Biblioteca di Nuova Rivista Storica, Società Editrice Dante Alighieri, Roma 2020, pp. 154.

Luciano Monzali’s book retraces a fundamental page in the history of Italy and Italian colonialism in Africa at the end of the 19th century: namely, the colonial policy of Francesco Crispi and the Ethiopian question. The efforts of liberal Italy to create a colonial empire of its own constituted an essential theme of the period. The desire to gain admission to the “club” of great powers that already had colonial empires was only one of the reasons that impelled the recently unified nation to commit itself, late by comparison with the other powers, to the realization of a colonial empire. Compared with the centuries-old commitment and global extension of the other powers, the Italian possessions were small indeed, and the creation of an empire marked only a relatively brief period.