Workers League - Behind the US invasion of Somalia - Mehring Books

competition in 1869, when completion of the Suez Canal opened a
short route to India via the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The port
of Aden, which Britain had seized in 1839, from that time assumed
critical importance. Its garrison drew its meat supply from the
northern Somali coast, the region which would become British
Somaliland.
The opening of the Suez Canal also brought France and Italy into
this part of Africa. In 1862, when the canal was still under construction,
the French purchased the port of Obock, on the northern
Somali coast, from the local clan in order to gain a foothold in the
strategic area south of Suez.
In 1870, an Italian shipping company bought the port of Assab in
Eritrea. Britain, although at first hostile to this move, later came to
view Italian involvement as a counterweight to the French, whose
expansion it regarded as infinitely more threatening.
In the same year, Egyptian troops occupied the northern Somali
coast, remaining there until 1884. Though nominally part of the
Ottoman Empire, Egypt was financially in thrall to British and
French bankers, who virtually controlled its affairs. As with the
Italians, the British initially opposed the Egyptian expansion, but
later accepted it as an alternative to seizure by another colonial
power.
Until 1870, imperialist penetration of Africa proceeded relatively
slowly. Britain, the leading imperial power, had expended considerable
effort to control southern Africa, but her territorial empire in the
hinterland was small. As in China, the Persian Gulf or South America,
a larger "unofficial" empire was maintained through local rulers, who
had learned that they either adapted to the wishes of the British
consul or faced English gunboats.
After 1870, the pace of imperialist penetration suddenly accelerated
and what became known as the "scramble for Africa" began. In
1876, King Leopold II of Belgium set up a private company to exploit
the resources of the Congo and explorers, soldiers and administrators
backed by Germany, France and Italy began making treaties with
tribal rulers. 1
Britain also began to seek the conquest of large tracts
of territory.
Over the next two decades, the entire continent was divided
among a handful of colonial powers. This drive for colonization was
deeply rooted in the economic changes taking place in the major
capitalist countries with the emergence of imperialism. Economic
life was becoming more and more dominated by powerful industrial
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