Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 April 2010
Italy's colonial history is better known for its failures (notably the battle of Adwa, the major defeat of a Western power by an African army in the 19th century) than for its achievements. Italy succeeded in conquering a substantial «empire» only in the 20th century, when the traditional colonial powers were already in retreat1. But this has not always been the case. The Venetian republic successfully ruled for many centuries the first «colonial» empire in Western Europe 2.