1918-1939 United Somalia
and Secession







Stamps issued for Somaliland by the British Postal Administration



British Protectorate, 1939-1960



In June 1940, Italy entered World War II on the side of the Axis powers. British Somaliland, surrounded by Italian colonies and with few British troops present to defend itself, quickly fell to Italian invading forces (August 1940). In 1941, British and South African troops invaded Italian East Africa from Kenya, the Sudan and Aden; the Italian colonial troops surrendered that year. British Somaliland was liberated by an expedition from Aden in March 1941; the protectorate then was placed under military administration, military governors Brigadier A.R. Chater (1941-1943), Brigadier G.T. Fisher (1943-1948). In 1948 the protectorate was returned to civilian administration.
In 1948 there were noexecutive or legislative councils in the protectorate; the governor exclusively exercised administrative authority. Both the Indian rupee and the East African shilling were used; there were no banks in the protectorate. In 1960, the British protectorate was terminated and independence declared. The country then quickly merged with neighbouring, formerly Italian Somalia.






EXTERNAL
FILES 		Articles from Infoplease : Somalia
Links on Somali history, from mogadiscio.com (click : historical notes), from Somalinet
Library of Congress, Country Studies : Somalia
The Invasion of Somaliland, from Togdheer
DOCUMENTS Historical travelogues to Somaliland, from Somaliland Archive A General Survey of the Somaliland Protectorate 1944-1950 (by John A. Hunt), posted by Togdheer
REFERENCE South and East African Year Book and Guide, 49th edition 1949, pp.769, 894-895
Chapter 16 : More about Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Somalis, pp.274-284, in : John Gunther, Inside Africa, NY : Harper & Bros. (1953) 1955 [G]
Article : British East Africa, in : Britannica Book of the Year 1944 p.127, 1945 pp.124-125, 1946 pp.146-147, 1947 pp.149-150, 1948 pp.139-140, 1949 pp.118-120, 1950 pp.127-128, 1951 pp.124-125, 1952 pp.122-123, 1953 pp.123-124, 1954 pp.121-124, 1955 pp.181-183, 1956 pp.120-122, 1957 pp.180-182 [G]
Article : Somaliland, British, in : Britannica Book of the Year 1958 p.644, 1959 p.636 [G]
Article : Somaliland Protectorate, in : Britannica Book of the Year 1960 pp.638-639 [G]
Article : Somaliland Protectorate, in : Statesman's Year Book 1943 pp.228-229 [G]
Article : Somaliland, British, in : Americana Annual 1943 p.668 [G]
Article : British Somaliland, in : Americana Annual 1944 p.111, 1945 p.117 [G]
Article : Somaliland Protectorate, in : Americana Annual 1946 pp.679-680, 1947 pp.656-657, 1957 p.718 [G]



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on August 25th 2007

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