Colonialism, migrations and italian investments in east Africa. The role of Eritrea and entrepreneurs in the imperial framework (1927-1941)

The examination of the Italian colonial presence in Africa still reserves many research ideas: among these, one of the most interesting concerns the analysis of the phenomenon of the business carried out by Italian entrepreneurs who decided to start or transfer their activities in the territories of East Africa. Eritrea, after years of fruitlessness and insufficient development purely for commercial purposes, from 1936 onwards was destined for development as a base for overseas trade in the northern and central regions of the empire: therefore, the entire economic structure of the “firstborn colony” and all industrial and commercial initiatives had to be, from that moment on, no longer considered from the restricted local point of view but instead had to know how to fit into the imperial framework. Although the will of the regime was to develop a colonial society formed by the “new” Italian man, forged with hard work, disinterested in the need to seek personal enrichment, most of the Italians who moved to Eritrea created a dense network of companies capable of influencing the economic structure of the Eritrean colony, which developed characteristics that were quite peculiar in the Italian colonial context. For the purposes of this analysis, already known documentary materials and unpublished and sometimes not inventoried sources, preserved in the Italian and European archives, were used: through these documents we want to show the contrast between the ideal project of the regime and the vision of the Italian settlers, for the such as overseas represented a new "frontier" and constituted, at the same time, an opportunity for social ascent and rapid generation of enormous profits.