Vincenzo Filonardi (23 June 1853 – 17 May 1916) was an Italian politician and soldier of the Regio Esercito, who was the first governor of Italian Somalia. In 1890, he was also consul of the Kingdom of Italy to

Zanzibar Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islan ...

Life

In 1870 Vincenzo Filonardi was graduated as "navy captain" in

Genova Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of G ...

. Later, as

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Vincenzo Filonardi, he had under his command several ships between

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

and the coasts of

Eastern Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historica ...

. In the 1880s he was able to create a successful shipping company between Italy and the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...

. In 1890 Filonardi had been nominated by the Italian Prime Minister

Giovanni Giolitti Giovanni Giolitti (; 27 October 1842 – 17 July 1928) was an Italian statesman. He was the Prime Minister of Italy five times between 1892 and 1921. After Benito Mussolini, he is the second-longest serving Prime Minister in Italian history. A p ...

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...

and ambassador of Italy at

. From 3 August 1889 to 15 May 1893 Filonardi was the first

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Italian Somaliland Italian Somalia ( it, Somalia Italiana; ar, الصومال الإيطالي, Al-Sumal Al-Italiy; so, Dhulka Talyaaniga ee Soomaalida), was a protectorate and later colony of the Kingdom of Italy in present-day Somalia. Ruled in the 19th centu ...

and was in charge of an Italian company responsible for the administration of the Benadir territory, called ''Societa' Filonardi''. After 3 years of "interim" in 1896, he was named again governor of the ''Somalia italiana'' for two years more. He returned to Italy after his "Societa' Filonardi" was closed and was created the ''Societa' Benadir'', from which was later politically created the Somalia Italiana in 1905. Filonardi moved to live in Rome in 1913, meanwhile he wrote books (like "Considerazioni sulla Somalia Italiana" and "Poche osservazioni sul mercato di Zanzibar e sull'opportunità di crearvi un consolato italiano") until his death in 1916.Biography of Vincenzo Filonardi (in Italian)
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References

Bibliography

*L. De Courten. ''L'amministrazione coloniale italiana del Benadir. Dalle compagnie commerciali alla gestione statale (1889-1914)'', in "Storia contemporanea, IX". Roma, 1978

Life

References

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See also