Fascists, British

Abstract Foreign occupation lasted the five years period under the Italian Fascists, 1936–1941, but in practice it lasted a little more. Though Haile Selassie returned to the throne in May 1941, it was globally still during World War II, and his liberators, the British army, remained controlling the whole of the Horn of Africa, including Eritrea. They supported the emperor and helped him rebuild his government in Ethiopia, but not, as yet, in Tigray. It remained pivotal throughout those years as a stage on which much of Ethiopian history was determined. The Italians during their occupation, annexed Tigray to Eritrea. The British officers, those who replaced the Italians in Asmara, wanted to continue this arrangement. They envisioned a “Tigrai State” under their auspices, not under Haile Selassie. The descendants of Yohannes, the traditional leaders of Tigrayan society, proved more than just pawns in this power struggle, which eventually resulted with the return of Tigray from Eritrea to Haile Selassie’s empire.