Amhara Governorate was one of the six

governorates of Italian East Africa The Italian colony of Italian East Africa ( it, Africa Orientale Italiana) was composed of six governorates which made up the first level of country subdivisions for the colony. The governorates of Amhara, Galla-Sidamo, Harar and Scioa consti ...

. Its capital was

Gondar Gondar, also spelled Gonder (Amharic: ጎንደር, ''Gonder'' or ''Gondär''; formerly , ''Gʷandar'' or ''Gʷender''), is a city and woreda in Ethiopia. Located in the North Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, Gondar is north of Lake Tana on t ...

. It was formed in 1936 from parts of the conquered

Ethiopian Empire The Ethiopian Empire (), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: ''Itiyoophiyaa''), was an empire that historical ...

following the

Second Italo-Ethiopian War The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a war of aggression which was fought between Italy and Ethiopia from October 1935 to February 1937. In Ethiopia it is often referred to simply as the Itali ...

. It had a population of more than 2 million inhabitants (In 1940 11,200 were Italians settlers, mostly in the capital Gondar). In November 1938 some territory of Amhara in the

Scioa Shewa ( am, ሸዋ; , om, Shawaa), formerly romanized as Shua, Shoa, Showa, Shuwa (''Scioà'' in Italian), is a historical region of Ethiopia which was formerly an autonomous kingdom within the Ethiopian Empire. The modern Ethiopian capital A ...

region was given to the neighboring

Addis Abeba Governorate The Scioa Governorate (), also known as the Shewa Governorate, was one of the six governorates of Italian East Africa. It was formed in 1936 from parts of the conquered Ethiopian Empire following the Second Italo-Ethiopian War with its administrat ...

, enlarging it to the

Scioa Governorate The Scioa Governorate (), also known as the Shewa Governorate, was one of the six governorates of Italian East Africa. It was formed in 1936 from parts of the conquered Ethiopian Empire following the Second Italo-Ethiopian War with its administrat ...

. The region was a stronghold of fierce Ethiopian resistance against the Italians. By 1940, the last areas of guerilla activity was around

Lake Tana Lake Tana ( am, ጣና ሐይቅ, T’ana ḥāyik’i; previously Tsana) is the largest lake in Ethiopia and the source of the Blue Nile. Located in Amhara Region in the north-western Ethiopian Highlands, the lake is approximately long and wid ...

and southern

Gojjam Gojjam ( ''gōjjām'', originally ጐዛም ''gʷazzam'', later ጐዣም ''gʷažžām'', ጎዣም ''gōžžām'') is a historical province in northwestern Ethiopia, with its capital city at Debre Marqos. Gojjam's earliest western boundary ex ...

, under the leadership of the degiac Mengesha Gembere and

Belay Zeleke Belay Zeleke ( Amharic: በላይ ዘለቀ, horse name Abba Koster; 1912 – 12 January 1945) was an Ethiopian military commander who led the Arbegnoch resistance movement in Gojjam against the Fascist Italians during the Italian occupation of ...

References

Bibliography

* Antonicelli, Franco (1961) ''Trent'anni di storia italiana 1915–1945'', Saggi series 295, Torino : Einaudi, 387 p. n Italian* * Del Boca, Angelo (1986) ''Italiani in Africa Orientale: La caduta dell'Impero'', Biblioteca universale Laterza 186, Roma : Laterza, n Italian* Mockler, Anthony (1984). ''Haile Selassie's War: The Italian-Ethiopian Campaign, 1935–1941'', New York : Random House,

References

Bibliography

See also