Late nineteenth-century Italy in Africa: the Livraghi affair and the waning of civilizing aspirations

The Livraghi affair re-shaped the Italian outlook on colonialism, opening the door to the later Italo-Abyssinian conflict and an event like Adua.

The affair was so important to contemporary Italians that it occupied public attention for ten months, and influenced attitudes and colonial policy for decades.

It prompted an enduring change without which there might have been no Adua.

This text examines changing European attitudes to the general notion of colonialism.