Italian Eritrea was a colony of the Kingdom of Italy in the territory of present-day Eritrea. Although it was formally created in 1890, the first Italian settlements in the area were established in 1882 around Assab. The colony officially lasted until 1947.
A young monk, Giuseppe Sapeto, preparing himself for missionary work in 1837, was dispatched into Abyssinia. There he became an active advocate of European penetration, into the area. After 1866, following the political unification of Italy, he sought to develop Italian influence instead of other Europeans interested in the area. As the Suez Canal neared completion, Sapeto visualized the establishment of a coaling station and with the use of the Suez Canal port of call to be used for the Italian steamships in the Red Sea. Sapeto won over his argument to the Italian minister for foreign affairs, and to King Victor Emmanuel II, to seriously consider the importance of the region for future development of Italian expansion.
In the autumn of 1869 Sapeto together with Admiral Acton, was sent by the Italian government to the Red Sea to choose a suitable port and arrange for its sale. The sale was negotiated by paying a small deposit to the Danakil chiefs at Assab Bay in return for their promise to sell their territory to him but in the meanwhile, Raffaele Rubattino’s company was planning to establish a steamship line through the newly opened Suez Canal and the Red Sea to India, all development done for the national interest. Sapeto returned to the Red Sea on behalf of the company, completed the purchase and bought more land to the south.
By March 1870, an Italian shipping company had thus become claimant to territory at the northern end of Assab Bay, a deserted but spacious bay about half-way between Annesley Bay to the north and Obock to the South. The Ottoman Empire and Egypt had previously occupied the area, but in 1880, the Italians had settled in the unoccupied territory. This was followed by 1882, when Italy formally took possession of the nascent colony from its commercial owners.
In the vacuum left by the Egyptian withdrawal after their defeat by the Ethiopians, the British diplomats were concerned about the rapid expansion of French Somaliland, France’s colony along the Gulf of Tadjoura. Given the British concerns surrounded by new claimants to lands and warring on too many fronts, they openly encouraged Italy to expand north into Massawa, which was taken without a shot from its older owners the Egyptians. Located on a coral island surrounded by lucrative pearl-fishing grounds, the superior port was fortified and made the capital of the Italian governor. Assab soon became the coaling station and the Italians strengthened their position in the region.